What dimmer switch to use?

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Hi Team:

I'm just getting into the smart home stuff, and wondering what dimmer switch you recommend? Does your recommendation require a hub? (I'll probably end up with 8 dimmer switches in the house, so I'm no opposed to buying 1 hub)

Example, My living room has three conventional light switches/dimmer, each controlling 6 conventional bulbs. From my reading a lot of people say to invest in 1 smart dimmer switch, instead of 6 smart bulbs plus a smart switch to control.

Thanks
Carl

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Generally, yes. If you're just talking white light it's must easier to manage and more friendly to people who don't want to play with an app.

If you're going for RGB bulbs and colorful scenes you'd generally want the opposite: hardwire the bulbs to always on (or make the switch inaccessible) so that the app is used.

Well let's make your choices clear:

  1. Buy into someone's cloud services... which might get turned off someday when their priorities change. Might become slow, will have outages, etc.

  2. Get a Hubitat and everything stays within your house :wink: Even if Hubitat goes out of business it will work. Or if you change your mind about which hub you like, the lights will still work because they're built to standards.

Lots of people like the Lutron, although you'll need their pro hub. I and @JasonJoel like the GE/Jasco switches -- especially the new ones with shallower depth. But they are really just on/off/dimm. If you want scene controls and compatibility with dumb switches, go with Innovelli.

FYI: lots of opinions about Z-Wave versus Zigbee, YMMV -- read up on it.

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Thanks for the response.

I'm looking to start small (get a smart dimmer, connect to my white-only lights) and this will be what I use 95% of the time. Not concerned with RGB.

Definitely looking to keep everything off the cloud, local, and on HE, hense the purchase of HE.

Sounds like votes for Lutron, GE/Jasco, and Innovelli....
Thanks!

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I’m just getting started as well, but I really like my HomeSeer dimmers, switches, and fan controllers. The status lights have proven invaluable for monitoring, both HSM and other rules.

As an example, on the two switches near my external doors (actually one dimmer and one switch,) there is a green status light if both locks are locked, a blinking red light if both locks are not locked.

And I think this goes for any dimmer, but don’t forget that a dimmer with a 0 ramp rate is effectively a switch. I only put switches on lights that I know will never need dimming, like outside lights. (And there’s one particular location that I may swap to a dimmer, just to get the extra status lights.)

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Just installed 3 Inovellis over the weekend. Love them. Highly customizable. I bought the refurbished ones. Working great.

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Lutron Caseta is my choice for switches, dimmers, fan controllers, a Pico remotes. It does require a Caseta SmartBridge Pro to integrate with Hubitat via a local LAN connection (no cloud required.)

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So far all my switches are the Red Series Inovelli Dimmer switch. I really this switch.

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I second Lutron for the ease of adding remote "switches" without wires (Picos), and all the other cool Pico options.

If I did not go Lutron I would go Innovelli for the LED control.

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I'm with @endorphin_junkie and @JasonJoel, I installed a combination of the GE/Jasco switches and dimmers about 1 month ago. Install was no problem and adding them to HE went like a breeze.

When I started the install the hub was not at the new house yet, so I just installed the switched and dimmers in the wiring boxes and made sure the manual operation worked. When I brought the HE in I added each switch one at a time.

Hope this helps.

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Ive bought a small number of ZOOZ dimmers recently and was very happy with the setup.
I had a couple of bulbs that were flickering at low levels. The ZOOZ switch has a lower limit you can set, so i put the lower limit to 20% and it fixed the problem.

I keep an eye on The Smartest House and look for the sales....god a really good deal last sale. cant recall exactly but i think it was like 24 a dimmer.

Mac

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11

Funny you mention that, currently on sale for $26

https://www.thesmartesthouse.com/products/zooz-z-wave-plus-dimmer-light-switch-zen22

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I’m a Zooz fan as well. They work great and are cheaper than others. And as you see go on sale for even cheaper.

Although the customizable led in the inovelli looks pretty cool.

I have had issues with GE and Leviton. Please don’t spam me. Just my experience.

Zen22 will require re-wiring of other switches on the 3way cct.

Zen27 should be used if you want to avoid rewiring the other switches.

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Thanks for your help everyone!!

Cheers!

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