Newbie here, planning to dive in with Hubitat C8 and Inovelli Red switches on a home renovation project. I've tried to research what is probably a dumb question, but can't find the answer, so please be gentle!
One of my objectives is to have, say, 8 LED cans in the ceiling of a room, with 2 sets of 4 cans. I want to be able to control temperature and dimming of each set independently. Can I do this using 1 Red switch with some combination of C8 Group/Scene/Room Lighting App? Or do I need 2 switches, one per set?
Note that I don't want to use Hue-type smart bulbs, just bulbs that can be dimmed and temp adjusted.
Assuming you don't want to use any protocol-specific features like Zigbee binding or Z-Wave Association that would allow direct control of the lights from the switch without hub involvement (other than setting that feature up in the first place), then it doesn't really matter -- you could use a single tap to do something to all the lights, a double tap to do something to one set, a triple tap to do something to another set, or whatever combination you want. The hub lets you create any automation you want, which could include setting the lights to a specific level or CT, "triggered" by any event you want, which could include taps/multitaps (Z-Wave Central Scenes or the custom Zigbee cluster they use to create something similar on the Blue Series).
Hue has bulbs that can do just this, in addition to bulbs that can also adjust color temperature. These are all some kind of smart bulb, just with varying features. Were you thinking of something else entirely? With only one circuit and one switch/dimmer physically attached to all bulbs, you'd definitely need some kind of smart bulb to make what you want happen (otherwise, how are you going to separate the different desired outputs?). You'd need some combination of "local protection enabled" (or "local control disabled") or "smart bulb mode enabled" on the Inovelli switches to make this work best, which all of their newer switches/dimmers support.
If this isn't quite what you mean, a more detailed explanation of what that is may be helpful.
Thanks for your response! It's given me more to think about and research. To clarify my goal, I'm going to have a room with 3 sets of recessed lights. I want to be able to independently control each set for dimming (and ideally temp; I don't care about RGB). I want to be able to manage this remotely, but still have manual "granny" control.
Obviously I can do this by putting each set on its own smart dimmer switch, and even "dumb" recessed lights would work. But now I see if I want to just have a single switch, then I'll need (expensive) smart lights. (FWIW, Zigbee or X-Wave is okay, wifi is not.)
Either way, I can use the hub for scenes and whatnot, but with much better granularity and flexibility if using smart lights. So it boils down to whether I'm willing to pay for flexibility that I currently don't think I need, but may really regret not having later on.
My suggestion would be to take a step back and think about how would you want this room to work if there was no automation or smarts involved. Would you want all lights on a single, manual switch or would you prefer to have three switches with one controlling each set? How do you envision your family or guests to utilize the space? Home automation should compliment the space.
This is generally correct. The same is true if you wanted color temperature control unless you bought Dim to Warm bulbs and attached them to a smart dimmer.
Z-Wave bulbs can be very difficult to find. Zigbee bulbs (like Hue) are significantly easier and can be less expensive than you think. Further, if you are willing to look at LIFX or Matter via WiFi bulbs, they can become even cheaper. It really comes down to how much you want to pay.
This goes back to my first point. If there was no smarts or home automation involved, it sounds like you would be putting in three dimmers to give the maximum flexibility to control lighting in the space.
I would just add one more consideration... If you use zigbee bulbs and switches, it's possible to bind the devices such that they'll work together even if your hub is down.
Although the Matter spec claims this sort of direct-binding is (eventually) coming to Matter too, I would never buy/install things based on a future promise.
Without this kind of direct binding, then if there ever was an issue with your hub being down, the lighting would not work (since the switch and bulbs depend on hub-based automations).
That's a risk some folks are fine taking. Folks who don't like that risk either use direct zigbee binding or simply don't use any switched smart lighting.
I'm in the latter camp -- I love smart switches, but I use them with dumb loads and/or as scene controllers. Smart bulbs go in plug-in fixtures. This ensures that if I do have a hub issue, then I'll still always have at least some lighting readily available with no hoop-jumping.
Thanks to you and everyone for your incredibly helpful responses. I've taken your collective feedback (plus entertaining online arguments for various approaches) and come to the following conclusions (subject, of course, to change as I learn more!):
Hubitat C8 Pro (overkill for my current needs, but why not future-proof, and a much better fit for me than HA)
Team Zigbee for lighting
Inovelli switches (Blue, of course)
Team smart switch with dumb loads (dimmable LED wafers)
One switch per lighting group (same as if I had one dumb dimmer switch per lighting group)
Two remaining quick questions
I think this is right, but I haven't been able to find it explicitly stated: if a guest innocently turns the lights off at the smart switch, switch power isn't really turned off, and I can still use Hubitat to turns the lights back on, correct?
I plan to use sensor-controlled lighting where appropriate (for example, turn on a hall light if someone enters the hallway when it's dark). If all I want is basic functionality, is there any benefit to using a smart (Zigbee) sensor as opposed to totally dumb sensor?
One last wrinkle with smart dimmers is that you could always look at the Lutron Diva line with a Lutron Smart Bridge Pro. They are very guest and family friendly when it comes to dimming; otherwise, your ideas work too.
Correct. The switch is still powered even if the light is off. This allows Hubitat to automate and control it as desired.
Control. A smart motion sensor will give you more options that a regular one. There is nothing wrong with a basic sensor built into a switch if it fits your needs.
