Lutron Caseta? Other System?

🛎️ Get Help
1

I'm DONE with the Osram/Lightify system!!! It has been nothing but a pain in the a** since I set it up, and although going over to two Hubitat hubs (one for the bulbs, one for the sensors), I still have troubles with bulbs dropping out of the network and needing to be re-paired back in.

Part of the problem is that every lighting branch is switched by a remote latching relay, with a low-voltage switch controlling that relay. There are no conventional wall switches that would allow the installation of a smart dimmer to control a group of conventional bulbs. When I set up the Lightify system, I understood that I would then be able to dim groups of bulbs that previously had only an on-off capability, and without having to rewire my house.

Alas! There are just too many bulbs (25, give or take), and even Hubitat cannot keep up with them and always get the dimming done right. And then there are the Lightify remotes that seem to eat batteries every month or two.

Anyway, I'm ready to try something different, and although it's fairly expensive, the Lutron Caseta system appears to be promising. Because of my bizarre lighting configuration, my plan is to use smart dimmers that also use wireless remotes. I can do limited rewiring in my attic, and install the smart dimmers in code-legal boxes up there. Then, I hope, I can use the wireless remotes to control those dimmers. I would hope to be able to also control those dimmers with the Hubitat hubs.

So, I have to ask... Is this feasable and if so, would it reduce the dropout problems I currently experience with Lightify? I presume I would need to get the Caseta dimmers, the Pico remotes, and the Caseta hub, then link that all to the Hubitat hub.

In addition, having read a little on the Caseta dimmers, and since all the lighting to be controlled would be LEDs, I have some concerns with flickering and ghosting. The Caseta literature seems to say that this can be avoided without using the ELV or Pro dimmers, but I'm not sure how well this works.

At this point, I'm looking at 9 or 10 smart dimmers, with something like a dozen remote controls. And since I am expanding the smart lighting to another area of the house, will I need an repeater for the Caseta system, and possibly yet another Hubitat hub?

Or are there other ways to tackle this beast that are less daunting?

2

Personally, I dabbled into Caseta for a VERY short while when I got some in a lot of smart home tech. I sold them soon because the hub was too expensive, but I could still test out the dimming & feel of the buttons.

The caseta did a good job of dimming some LEDs with no problem, but your luck may vary. Ive actually only seen two bad dimmers - one was some cheap regular dimmer switches, where the part you toggled literally fell off after 2 months (so clearly dimming was the least of the issues). The other was a cheap tuya smart switch, and the issue there was probably a cheap transistor.

One thing you must keep in mind is that this will not work for a single light bulb. The minimum light wattage is 10W. This allows for the caseta switch to work without a neutral, but in my experience, even the most inefficient 800 lm leds (12W) managed to stay on when the switch was off, and with an 8w bulb, the light was at full brightness the entire time. So make sure you keep the load over 16 watts.

Regarding the pico remote, the batteries the previous owner used were factory-installed, and he had used them for years, and I tested them with my battery meter. They still had a long way to go before they died. So i think you can believe the 10yr battery.

This was the non-pro version.

1 Like
3

Thanks for that! In my case, the lowest wattage LED branch is two 12W bulbs, so it sounds like this may work without stepping up to the rather more expensive ELV or Pro dimmers.

Since the Caseta switch seems to rely on "vampire current" when turned off, do you have any idea how many mA it draws when in the "off" state and the LEDs are not visibly emitting?

4

My experience with the Caseta dimmers and Pico remotes has been essentially flawless. I have them installed in five separate three way configurations (dimmer in one box and Pico remote in the other). After about a year and a half, I can't think of ever having had any problems with any of them. The Pico remotes have never lost connection to the switch. I have never had any flicker or lack of turning off all the way. I haven't had to mess round with changing bulbs or buying anything special. I have never had any connectivity issues with Hubitat. I just installed the switches and they have worked ever since. As a bonus, the Pico remote is by far the best smart button/remote I've ever used. And since I already own the Caseta hub anyway, they are one of the cheapest as well. Downsides are the high price, and for some people the non-traditional look of the switches.
I don't mean to sound like a commercial, just my honest experience so far.

3 Likes
5

You can use this to account for load.

image
image1000Ă—1000 52.2 KB

6

See pic above. That will load the switch

1 Like
7

Like kyroha, I have never had a single issue with my Lutron switches. I had never heard of a minimum load being needed before either. I just tested one switch with a single 40W (4w) bulb and it worked with no issues. The bulb turned off and on like it should and the dimmer worked just fine too.

1 Like
8

I also just checked the documentation that comes with the switch, I have 6 new ones sitting next to me, and there is no mention of a minimum wattage needed that I can find. It only list wattages up to, no minimums. So YMMV but as I said, works just fine for me with as small as a 4w load.

9

From a few things I've read online, it may relate to the type of LED light that it is, and how it responds to a dimmer. The discussion was rather technical, and I didn't fully understand it, other than the comment that some bulbs work better than others.

10

Yes, I've seen those... it's one EXPENSIVE capacitor.

2 Likes
11

You wouldn’t be disappointed with a Lutron Smart Bridge Pro and Picos, but you might be disappointed in Caséta dimmers.

I picked up some OSRAM Lightify bulbs at a bargain price and hated them. I’ve been told the Sylvania versions are better. I also picked up some OSRAM Garden Spots (v1) at a huge discount and they were always trouble on the OSRAM bridge, and only semi-stable on Hubitat, but only when I used my XBee as their repeater. However, since moving them to Zigbee2MQTT on Home Assistant via a ConBee 2 Zigbee controller, they are rock solid. I used Home Assistant Device bridge to bring them back into HE for automation and manual control via Homebridge/HomeKit.

To me, protecting my initial investment would be the preferred course, especially if there wasn’t anything other than what is a potentially solvable stability issue that bothered me about them. I realize you already made the investment in a second Hubitat hub to try to solve the issue, but having two hubs still has quite a lot of benefits thanks to Hub Mesh. Adding Home Assistant with HADB will probably solve the issues. I’m not guaranteeing it will of course, but even if it didn’t (which has not been my experience), you would gain so much benefit from Z2M, and all the available Home Assistant compatible cloud integrations that could be brought back into HE. Wouldn’t be a waste, and it has a very strong potential to solve the problems, add significant value, protect your investment, reduce e-waste, and do it all for a significantly lower cost than replacing what you already have in place.

ConBee 2 sticks also happen to be offered at a rare price reduction right now too.

12

As others have said, Lutron Caseta has been flawless in three buildings for me, and two of those buildings are operating off the same (single) Pro hub! No way z-wave can do that for me (I've tried). Biggest problems I have with Caseta (not really problems at all) are 1) powering a circuit of fluorescents with a 3-way switch and no neutral (Grrr) looks like it will require a special switch with nosebleed pricing and 2) I have to touch the Caseta system so infrequently I forget how to do stuff, such as add a switch to Hubitat. Search solves that, eventually. I think my days of buying z-wave switches are largely done.

1 Like
13

can i get an amen church GIF

2 Likes