This is a back to basics question, but what are your thoughts on when to use a smart switch vs a dimmer?
I was thinking about this, while planning my first time ever home automation switch/dimmer changes. My bathroom has few scenes in Hubitat based on modes..e.g. in the night lights are dim, day is bright. But, I think even if I put just a smart switch in the bathroom, it should be just fine allowing my family to use the switch like always - press the switch on, to turn on lights at 100%. So what are the real/compelling scenarios which have real value of using a dimmer?
Right, and that is my use case too...but for night time visits, my Hubitat Lights/Motion app uses Mode to trigger the light at the right level.....OHHH... Just realized my major miss here.. right now I have smart bulbs in my bath, and hence could not see value of a dimmer there Please ignore original post
Ahhh! Then the value of the dimmer is it lets you get rid of evil smart bulbs! I dislike smart bulbs and use them only where necessary and where I can prevent someone from physically turning off the fixture.
I adopted a hybrid approach... my smart bulbs only go into always-on lamps (or bulb holders placed in bathrooms, behind TV, under armoire, etc.), where they allow for automations where I want dimmable color or light. That lets me include the bedside and bathroom areas in Scenes like "Nightlight Mode" or "Time for Bed".
All of my main room lights use old school flip switches, with only one exception: The central-most room (Dining) got a pair of Z-Wave 3-way dimmer switches so it can do some automations as needed, but mainly to afford us nice dimmable light there for parties and nighttime use. So we have to operate most room lights and all ceiling fans by hand. That's no problem, since this maximizes WAF in my household.
Lastly, the remaining lamps, exterior porch lights, shower stall and kitchen bar/cabinet are all on Z-Wave dimmers since they all benefit from daily turn-on and nightly turn-off.
I realize every home is different, but thought it might be helpful to lay out the logic behind my decisions, since I've gleaned so much from others doing the same here.
I only buy dimmers any more, I prefer Jasco/GE and use @JasonJoel's excellent drivers to set them to be switches/dimmers depending on the light they are connected to. Over time this has been very useful, as I've changed out two switch light fixtures to dimmer-compatible fixtures and w/a simple change in his driver my "switches" became dimmers again, and could control the new fixtures. Sweet. You can do the same I believe with Inovelli.
Same here. I only buy dimmers. If I want to use it as a switch it's easy enough to do so in the GE or the zooz devices. Probably others too like inovelli, but right now I'm only using GE in zooz.
On zwave dimmers almost all of them support adjusting the step speed, so the dimmers can be used with non-dimming bulbs if so desired. The better ones also let you disable dimming locally at the device (but not all).
Actually, what would be an interesting add to this discussion is a bit of reliability, longevity, diversity, and cost data.
Switch
Dimmer
Smart Bulb LED
Non-smart LED
There would likely be an optimal combination of these that would give the longest life for the least amount of $.
At a high level I can't help but think that minimizing the network topology of Smart Bulbs would be a good thing for a number of reasons. Heck there are some localities where your off-the-shelf energy efficient LEDs are heavily subsidized by the local Utility.
As for the switch/dimmer in the wall... that's one single device to manage and worry about. A single point of failure yes, but still offering the significant benefit of "just being one device".
Now that said, if someone comes in and says...switches & dimmers fail far more often than smart bulbs....then that would change my view.
What I'd assume (but don't know) is that bulbs are generally made to a lower quality than switches/dimmers and that the "smart components" in the bulb are more likely to fail before the LED circuitry in the bulb.
I'd also like to assume that there is a price point where power spike resiliency and outage recovery is better in the switches/dimmers...but that might not be the case ether.
Finally, standard in wall dimmers use to be fraught with issues. If there is any hold over of that iffy legacy that would be a reason not to opt for dimmers over the less complicated switch... but I think we are light years beyond those old dimmer problems.
One question....if one simplified things and went with the same dimmer module everywhere...could you disable that dimming capability where necessary so that you never ended up sending less than 100% to anything downstream that was NOT dimmer compatible. Certainly at a HE control level, but what about at the wall itself? (whoops sorry, just saw @JasonJoel addressed this already)
Depends on the device. On many - yes, as you can set a minimum % setting, and just make it 98 or 99%. Zooz and the newest GE support that, for instance.
On some of the older GE models you could not always prevent people from dimming at the switch, but on the new ones you can.
Never use a dimmer on an inductive motor load. Also, there are some 'switch' devices that are also NOT rated for motor loads. Always read the specifications of a device and adhere to them.
Please ignore original post 
Acts like a switch, automates like a dimmer (using the bulbs).
Sweet. You can do the same I believe with Inovelli.
This! Exactly right!
