New here and new to home automation, been trying to do my homework to get an idea what would fit into my needs and it seems Hubitat would be something which would fit well. I understand it has quite the steep learning curve but as an overall geek and a programmer I'm not too worried about it at all, instead I find the possibilities to tinker, tune and expand interesting.
But, to get started.
I'm in Europe (EU area), would be adding lightning into it as a first step. However here is where I am unsure about the best way to proceed. And which switches, dimmers and lightning options to look into. as I understand I with z-wave I have to buy devices made for EU area due to 868 Mhz.
To get myself started I'm looking to control:
Multiple lights with 2 dimmer switches. One dimmer switch in the each side of a large room. Is this achievable? If so, as I am in EU, what kind of options as dimmer switches I should be looking into? Should I go for "dumb" bulbs or look into smart bulbs instead? RGB not needed here.
Other options such as bedroom / corridor lights, can they be controlled via multiple physical switches as well? Again, if so what are the brands / specific devices I should be looking into?
Finally, for kitchen lightning, indirect led strip under the cabinets as a work light which again would be dimmable via dimmer. I suppose there are tons and tons of options for this as well but is there any specifics I should take into account with it?
I understand I'm asking quite a lot but any recommendations where to start to do my research regarding these would be hugely appreciated. Have to admit I'm bit overwhelmed at the moment. So much info everywhere and it's a bit hard to put it all together to specifics, so here I am asking about it
Bulbs are discouraged because they need to have power all the time. No power, no remote control.
There's a Europe Category here that might help you with specifics of Manufacturer, distributor, etc.
All Smart Switches and Smart Dimmers can work with more than one switch or dimmer on a single circuit. Some vendors require you remove both existing and replace with their Smart Switch or Dimmer and then add on their auxiliary to control the Smart device from a second spot.
If RGB is not needed unless you want tunable white there is no advantage of a smart lamp. I have both RGBW lamps and smart dimmers there are pros and cons to both, so i like to mix both in a room to get best of both.
As your in Europe, like me our switch modules available are quite good but it all depends on what you want them to do. I use the z-wave fibaro dimmer 2 because i want the 2nd input to control the zigbee RGBW lamps, but if i didn't need that i would use the zigbee versions. That's the manufacture but they sell it to loads of OEM's and they are officially supported. Two way and intermediate is easy, just wire conventionally loop down to the switch and take the triple too your others. Then the other switches are just wired in parallel to the devices input using a push to make retractive switch.
Some people will say go with bulbs. Others will say go with smart switches. For me i find I need to use both. 7 people ages 11 5o 75. I just can't get everyone on board to not touch the real switches.
Nothing worse than my smart bulbs being worthless cuz someone flipped the switch. I just tell alexa to turn it back on lol..
I'm looking for something super simple to get started. I was thinking of just testing it out with few e27 bulbs and few dimmers and familiarizing myself a bit with the systems before going for it bigger time.
Is the following setup possible?
2 x Hue Dimmer switch (I saw these are compatible an they look seriously intriquing)
2 x Sengled classic elements (I understood these are good ones when looking for direct connection into Hubitat)
Both hue dimmer switches would control those those sengled lamps.
That would be just to test out and to start to get familiar with Hubitat, then take it from there. Lots of big plans for the future :).
Later on I think I will look into replacing my "dumb" dimmers with smart dimmers, though I'm wondering a bit how they will do with led spots etc so perhaps that is not a solution for everything? Perhaps here you have to be quite careful with the brand of those dumb leds to make sure they play ball when it comes to dimming?
yes you can't dim a non dimmable lamp they need to be capable of dimming. The smart dimmers are not normal dimmers they are smart so they work out what type of load it is and set itself up for it. This usually happens on power up but can be retriggered if the load changes.
So say I have 5 led spots, all dumb leds and I attach smart dimmer into the mix, that smart dimmer is more capable of dimming them than the typical normal dimmer?
provided that them dumb leds are dimmable yes, if there just completely dumb non dimmable lamps then no, nothing will fix that. They do what i call a "snapshot" of the load, then set the load type and range (high and low).
all the z-wave ones i have used do it automatically fibaro dimmer 2 and aeotec nano dimmer. so if you don't know if your lamps are trailing edge or leading edge you would be better off with the z-wave versions i prefered the fibaro. It's just zigbee is faster and you can use zigbee groups.
Is Lutron in EU? If so, and buttons are desired, the Lutron Pro2 hub and some Picos, and the ABC button app is an excellent combination. Can do almost anything you want with that, and having five buttons allows for extensive control if you want/need it. The lutron switches are more expensive, but seem to be LOVED by the folks who have them.
Seems to be quite slim pickings when it comes to that Pro2 hub, couldn't find anything now that I tried to google them up. Few switches they make here and there but that's about it.
No aeotec nano dimmer is another manufacturer of a similar product. They both have pros and cons I just found that the aeotec had more cons. The pro for aeotec is the minimum load is lower though.
Mmm don't think you have got it. OK, so you have wired live and neutral too the switch and you have cable from there too the lights. In the switch you would install this (looks like they also now have adapters so you could install them in a din enclosure remotely) connected to the live neutral and the outgoing cable too the outputs. It then has trigger inputs from your dumb (but attractive because you can choose the look) centre off or push to make switch you connect the switch too these inputs (would also connected 2way switch to same input), this will give you local control of dimming/switching. So you can now control the lights digitally (through hub) or physically (via the switch plate/s).
Sorry, explained it bit badly, But yes, It's not solution such as Walli from Fibaro for example which includes the dimmer wall switch plate as well, but instead I need to control it differently, controlling it via hub or via physical buttons instead.
