I apologize if this is long but I don't know how else to do this...
TL;DR I'm looking at having the Hubitat hub at a minimum and at a maximum Hubitat, Bond, Lutron, Hue... And do I go with Lutron, Inovelli, or Z-Wave switches?
I'm moving over from SmartThings. My setup consisted of SmartThings hub and a BUNCH of Sengled bulbs controlled by Alexa/Google. Basically, seven ceiling fans with three bulbs each, two light fixtures with two bulbs each, and four lamps with single bulbs (this is where the Hue might come in). The fans are wired with a single switch that controls the fan and lights. That's why we had individual smart bulbs in the fan fixture instead of dumb bulbs with a smart switch.
Ideally I'd love to separate the fan/light controls, either with the Inovelli Red, or with the universal ceiling fan remote available at Home Depot. My understanding if I go that route is I can get the cheaper remotes and get a Bond bridge, or the slightly more expensive one that doesn't require the Bond bridge.
The Inovelli seems like it would be better, but are near impossible to find it seems, while I can get all of the universal remotes on Home Depot brand new or used on eBay and have all seven of them within the next week.
Obviously if I went the Inovelli route those would include the switches. But if it's looking like I can't go that route, then I can't figure out what I would do for other switches. I've seen these Zooz Z-Wave switches that look pretty cool. Or... I bought the Lutron Bridge Pro and a few Pico remotes. I did try to set the Lutron Bridge up and activate a basic scene in Hubitat but I couldn't figure that out. I'm not sure if I'm an idiot with Hubitat or Lutron (more likely the answer is 'both'). Everyone says the Lutron is bulletproof but I wonder if it's overkill for my situation (or just way above what I can figure out).
I feel like there is so much more on my mind but I don't even know where else to go with this now. I would love some input or advice!
Not directly answering your question, but when I moved from SmartThings to Hubitat I felt overwhelmed with the practicalities of how to move stuff without having everything not working for days. So the two things I did were first set up the hub link between the ST hub and the HE one, and then used a flowcharter app in Google Drive to draw up all the existing connections, and group them into sets of interdependent devices so I could plan small batches to change along with their rules.
You can get an innovelli fan switch which will allow you to do light and fan so you don't need the individual smart bulbs... Ask them via email to notify you when they're in stock again.
Best way to set this up (this is assuming you have the integration set up properly).. Set your lights to what you want them at (and any other device) then using the Groups and Scenes app, capture the scene, then create a virtual switch to activate that scene...
My advice (and personal preference) is to use smart bulbs for the occasional table lamp with a pico on a pedestal, and switches (lutron of course) for main lighting.
Start small with what you have before expanding. Figure out each thing you would like to do and get the hardware to do it. Do not hesitate to call upon the community for help. That's what we're all here for. To help and be helped. Keep a beer nearby...
Welcome! ST refugee here as well. It was a bit of a learning curve but oh what a GREAT change!
You are 100% on the right track anmd your setup matches my configuration almost exactly. I use the Bond Pro bridge because it has greater range and PoE, and I have three Hubitat hubs.
Lutron is, in my opinion, absolutely the way to go as long as you're OK with the cost and the style. I messed around with zwave switches and ripped them all out, replaced them all with Lutron. The Picos are great button controllers when paired to HE, and great additional switches if paired directly to Lutron switches. If you need some help figuring out the Lutron integration just post some details here and there are folks that would be glad to help.
Hue is the right plan for bulbs. Many bulbs (ironically not the Sengleds) make crappy repeaters and really need to be on their own hub. Hue's a great choice and both the community and built-in integrations work well. I tend to use the Hue hub only for bulbs, though, and pair my other Hue devices directly to HE.
I would also strongly suggest the two following articles. I read them six months into my HE journey and still kick myself (RTFM).
I totally would love to go this route but find it hard to seriously consider without a hard date in mind. Because until I get this figured out I'm still stuck with dumb switches and smart bulbs for my lighting. I bought a Hue set for lighting but that wasn't going to be for all the ceiling fans, just my lamps and TV bias lighting.
Do you use the Hue Play strip for bias lighting? I installed a couple before the holidays... love 'em. One has a hue sync box attached, waiting to find one for the 2nd tv.
I use bond and have been very happy with it very stable always works I have 4 ceiling fans and control the built in lights and fans using it in automation and via Alexa.
I dont have anything in the fans only the the lights that came with the fans. The remotes pair with Bond bridge and i can then control the built in led light and fan.
I did something similar one inconsequential room at a time to start. Being able to validate one room's functionality before moving onto others was smart (minimized chasing of bugs).
Once I knocked out a few lesser used rooms, I was confident enough to break the other rooms into chunks/days.
Well if you want them to match then it's your call, but they don't need to. You just need to make sure Hubitat has drivers for the ones you want, or at least drivers written by other users.
@NurseWizzle There is something to be said for getting matching sensors, especially since you can standardize on batteries rather than having a batttery drawer larger than the state of Rhode Island (which is admittedly not that large). But I find I use 2 or 3 brands of each kind of sensor. So I just have a big ol' inventory of spare sensors and when I have a new "project" I use something from inventory and just replace it.
While this is technically true in my experience it is much better to standardize on only a few brands if possible. You will get much more consistent/predictable behavior that way.
The trick of course is finding the right companies suited to your use-case. In the US, I prefer Zooz & Inovelli for lighting & GE for bathroom fans as my brands of choice. You'll have to search these forums..
