Looking for something similar to this in Zwave or zigbee. If not I can probably just use an outlet.. just trynig to minimize connections.
Get an outlet or two - Seems like a much cheaper and flexible solution than dealing with something built-in like that. I have an older GE ZWave+ outlet that I use for my up-lighting has been working well for a year or so. Not sure if the newer ones are good or not but there are cheaper solutions that work like this one:
Of course you would not be able to dim the lights - just turn on/off. If you wanted to go crazy you could get a smart dimming outlet and put it in some sort of a weatherproof box.
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I have 1, I hadn't seen any in a while, I didn't realize anyone still made them like that! Yeah If I cant find something that has a controller included, ill get a plug like that. I'm just trying to minimize connections and having the outlet hanging over the patio,,
I hear you! I am looking at doing the same - I really like the edison style string lights.
I guess you would still have to plug in the lights anyway so just adding this unit wouldn't really add anything too bulky to your setup.
I've used these weatherproof boxes for housing some old Iris plugs connected to solenoid valves for a simple patio watering setup I have:
If you wanted dimming capability you could use that (or smaller) with something like this:
Assuming the string lights can dim - which I think most of them can...
edit: with some simple wiring fun you might also be able to use a smart relay as well but my vote is for the outdoor plug.
I use this to control my patio lights - the best thing about it is that both outlets are separately controllable.
hahahah I was Just looking at that!
Also looking at these lights
It's not clear how large those bulbs are.. they look kind of small relative to other Edison lights.
Also, the bulbs aren't replaceable. They look really nice, though.
Yeah, I do think they may be a little smaller than the Edison..
That might not be a bad thing though as @EdMcW said they look nice - I just want to avoid the "Holiday Lighting" look. Also I can't tell whether they are dimmable or not.
These are the classic cheapo ones:
These are a lot less bright though...
I was looking at the cheapos.. I stumbled across those enbrighten lights, thought they may have been Zwave because, well they are enbrighten. But I also figure if they are enbrighten they may be better quality/more durable than the Chinese no (real) name..
Well they are all Chinese products for the most part right? but yeah they look better built. Of course if the cheap ones go you could still replace and it would still less expensive minus the pain of reinstalling. My worry there is how "dim" the cheap ones are at 2 watts vs 12 watts.
Yeah, All Chinese, but some are more durable than others. I usually am skeptical of anything with weird names, or not so weird names I've never heard of trying not to sound Chineese hahaha.
The Enbrighten say lifetime guarantee, I'm trying to figure out what that means. Do they just replace the whole string? Going back to one of your earlier comments. yes, I also don't want that "holiday" look , but I don't think the Anbrighten would have that appearance.
Yep, 2w is rather dim. I'm not so much concerned with being dimmable, just not too dim.
So the bulb is about 1.7" - 2" long itself... which might be a little small but it's hard to tell.
I can offer a little insight here. I bought these recently on Amazon. What I did, was replace the old outdoor light fixture with a standard wall outlet in a covered box. Then I put a smart light switch in place which gives me full control of them. These are dimmable, but they are very efficient bulbs and stay slightly on with my Inovelli switches. I just deal with it. The bulbs are also plastic so unbreakable. And to me these do not look holidayish at all. And the bulbs are easily replaceable.
Those look nice and the lighting looks good thanks for sharing!!!