My house is from the early 80s, before a neutral was required to be brought in with a lightswitch, and therefore I can't use "any" switches/dimmers that I find.
However, I don't know if I even actually want those anyway.. I don't want the smart switch to directly control or do anything at all - I just want it to send a signal to my HE and then to take action in response.
I could stick a Samsung ST Button to the wall, but that's pretty junky for a lot of reasons... I basically just want a trigger to be able to force override the lights on/off.
Is there such a product, battery powered I guess, out there? I feel like I've spent hours looking and all I seem to find are the smart switches that require a neutral, and lots of people complaining that they don't have neutral available!
Yep, Picos would work well. You'd need to buy the Lutron Smart Bridge Pro 2 for about $100, then the picos are only $10-15 each after that. Add the wall plate mounting kit for a couple more dollars, you should be able to stay under $20 each.
Here's what they look like mounted in a wall plate:
And, if you like the look of that Jasco Z-Wave 2-Button Portable Hub Remote but would prefer Lutron, they have both a switch and a remote that look just like that. Their switches do require a neutral. Obviously the remotes do not as they are wireless.
Which switches require a neutral? The Caseta? No they don't.
And the Jasco add-on switch are not wireless. They require a wire and cannot be installed flat against the wall. The two-button remote is not available currently.
The Lutron Caseta dimmers do not require a neutral. The Lutron Caseta two button on-off switches do require a neutral. At least the ones I have installed (the 6 amp Caseta models) require a neutral.
