I would like to add some dimmable rgb lights to an area of my house. I'm not sure, yet, if I'll go with z-wave or zigbee, but I think that point is mute to my bigger question. The existing switch is non-dimmable and I'm sure the socket (an original can light) is non-dimmable, too. Should I change out the switch and/or socket to dimmable before installing the dimmable rgb smartbulb?
No, smart bulbs need full power (not on a dimmer)
As mentioned nope, I have a few can lights and just stuck the bulbs in them and did my settings. Fully dimmable as well when needed at night time.
Do you NEED RGB bulbs there? Often it is better to use RGB as an accent and not your main light. In all but a few cases, physical (smart) switches win over bulbs.
- You are going to have people flipping the switch, and messing up the Zigbee/Zwave network.
- How are you going to turn these on if they are a bulb? (Motion? Times of day? Button?)
- If you are using a motion sensor or some other "automatic" method of turning on a bulb, how are you going to do overrides for things like vacuuming, or just some time when you want the bulbs on different than they are?
- Are your parents, friends, or whoever going to want to use some app or something like that to turn on a bulb? If not an app, are they going to understand how a smart button works?
- If you have multiple bulbs on one circuit, that can get to be MUCH more expensive than a $25-30 dimmer.
- The selection of can light style smart bulbs is very slim. You may not have any choice of what bulb you use depending upon exactly what the can light is capable of using (PAR, BR, MR, etc). And normal A-19 bulbs aren't appropriate for can lights for a multitude of reasons, if that is what you were thinking of using.
- Many Zigbee smart bulbs are just bad for the mesh network, they will cause havoc. Sengled is one exception off the top of my head.
Bulbs win if you are a renter, if you are trying to "split" a bunch of bulbs on one circuit, and a few other situations. But overall, lots of stuff you will have to account for VS a smart dimmer/switch.
If you have unlimited budget, some people use BOTH a smart dimmer AND a smart bulb. You would use something like a Zooz or Inovelli Zwave dimmer where you can disable the electrical circuit through software (sometimes wrongly called disabling the relay), where the switch will then act like a 120V powered button. I still don't think this is ideal, you are relying on a hub and if anything goes wrong, you lose control over the bulb.
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I use these magnetic covers over the light switch and just leave them on. Been like this for years and no issues and no one touches them
I have two recessed lights over my living room fireplace. These two recessed lights are on a switch of their own. These are only accent lights for the fireplace; the rest of the living room lights are on another switch which is what we, alone, use 90% of the time. My desire is to add rgb control to only the two lights over my fireplace. These two lights will be typically used in only two situations. Situation 1: I set the color to my favorite sports team on gameday and leave them on for atmosphere. I don't really want anyone else to have control over changing the color, but I want everyone to be able to turn them on/off using the wall switch. Situation 2: In the mornings, we prefer to turn these two fireplace lights on instead of the larger set of living room lights, since these fireplace lights provide less light and are less offensive to our senses while we are moving around the house to get ready for work. Ideally, the lights should be ~4000k color for this situation. The wall switch is conveniently located, so we will be happy to just continue using the wall switch to turn the lights on in the morning (as opposed to automating them via motion sensors or buttons).
Writing this all out has made me think of an optimal functionality. I would like to have the lights always turn on at ~4000K, regardless of the color they were when they were turned off. Is that possible?
If you want to use RGBW Smart Light Bulbs, that can safely be turned on and off via the existing 'dumb' light switch, just buy Sengled Zigbee Bulbs. Sengled bulbs are NOT Zigbee repeaters, and can therefore be turned on and off via a normal wall switch without causing any issues on your Zigbee Home Automation Mesh Network.
Of course, when the wall-switch power is off, the bulbs cannot be controlled via the Hubitat Hub whatsoever.
Using the Hubitat Hub's built-in Sengled Drivers (not the Generic Zigbee RGBW Light driver), Sengled bulbs also have a pretty unique capability... When powered on via a wall switch, they will send a Zigbee message to the Hubitat hub letting it know they are "ON". And...when powered off by the wall switch, they will send a 'last gasp' Zigbee message to the Hubitat hub letting it know they have been turned "OFF"! This allows Hubitat to at least know the state of bulb when they are manually powered on and off. Of course, when the bulbs have no power, Hubitat cannot control them.
The Sengleds are exactly what I've been looking at. And I don't foresee needing these to automatically turn on, so thats all fine. Would I be able to set them so that they always turn on at 4000k, regardless of the color at which they were turned off?
I am not sure if they will remember the previous CT or not, after a power off/on cycle. However, you could write a rule to set the Color Temperature to 4000 whenever they are turned ON. Of course, this will rely on the 'last gasp' message being processed successfully when they are powered off.
Sengled bulbs are reliable and inexpensive, so you don't have much to lose trying them.
Great! Thanks, everyone, for the help. I've gathered that I do not need to change my sockets or switch, and I'll just buy two Sengled bulbs to experiment with.
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