I've gone the route of making everything more complicated.
I use both switches and smart bulbs. The switches are setup to disable local control of the load is that it is always even when somebody presses the buttons. Given the number of bathroom examples above here's what I do.
The light comes on with a motion sensor. The color and level of the light depends on the current mode. It then turns off when motion stops. The turn off event is overridden if the door is closed (contact switch). This all works great and doesn't a need smart switch to work.
Having the smart switch lets me add a user interface component. Normal day to day everything works great. Then a guest comes over and most of the time they will want to turn off the light when they exit the room. That's fine, they turn off the switch and HE turns off the light. After the motion resets the light will still come on as normal the next time somebody enters the room. If the motion hasn't reset then the person can press the on button as they would in a typical dumb house.
Finally, if the lights are already on pressing the on button again will override the level that is automatically set based on mode. This will case the lights to go to 100% until the next motion trigger.
So no dimmers in this configuration as I'm typically leaving power on all the time. If I need to shut off power to the light for some reason I still have remote control from the device page.
Some have dimmer like power control but are limited to fully ON or fully OFF. These output are semiconductor based and have some limitations regarding the load. For instance they may not work will with very low loads.
Others have relays. These will handle anything a physical switch would. However they are not noiseless. Most you can hear the "click" in a quiet setting.
Not to be discounted is the benefit (in my mind at least) of having many of the same devices vs a combination. Unfortunately since I've been at this for quite a while my dimmer / switch collection looks more like the residences of Noak's Ark
Me too🤣. Except I use dimmers with the relay disabled, exhaust fans and some outside lighting being the exception. The dimmers were only a few dollars more and are more flexible if I ever decide to put regular bulbs in somewhere.
Personally I use dimmers almost everywhere. Why wouldn't you!? At least after working through the hit and miss of which LED bulbs dim well vs not! A few smart switches are used for places like garage, attic, workshop, storeroom/closets, bathroom fan. "Smart bulbs" only where I wanted color. I can see some attraction of smart bulbs as they probably always have better dimming control than regular ones, but I still like the fact that in-wall dimmers will always work for manual control if the hub is offline (paranoid, me?).
For reliability... My start with z-wave was back in 2012, and all the dimmers I bought back then (Leviton VRI06, and later VRMX1) are still good - no failures. I had 3 or so early z-wave color bulbs, which all failed after about a year. I hope my handful of later ones (couple of inovelli z-wave and a few innr hue-style) hold up better.
And since my Google overlords are always listening, this article popped up in my news feed so I thought I would share.
I don't disagree with the article but I still maintain in practice the super low amp / watt bathroom vent fans are fine on dimmers, as long as the dimmer is operated like an on-off switch (0% or 100% only).
My experience is the opposite. Relays being mechanical devices are more prone to failure than a Triac or MosFet given both are designed properly.
However I believe there are applications for both.
Although the writing quality of that article is tragically poor, the author repeats himself endlessly, and some of his assertions are patently false, he does manage to get the essential point across: A dedicated fan speed controller is nearly always superior to using a dimmer.
I agree. The author's statement that the fan control controls the current is bunk. Oh I'm sorry its on the internet so it must be true.
Seriously, such a device cannot control current, it can only control voltage which in turn has an effect on the current.
I have at least one burned up one to prove otherwise. Same for switches not listed for fans, I have one of those too. Both have visible damage (I.E. burn marks). I strongly suspect it is back EMF causing it, but I didn't put the scope on it.
I put in a fan rated switch on the one bath fan, and no issues since. On the other fan I made a filter using a cap and resistor, and that seems to have protected that replacement switch for well over a year now.
I remember when I was a kid a friend's house had dimmers (dumb dimmers, it was the 90s) and they had them hooked up to ceiling fans to vary the speed. Years later I tried this at my own place and it didn't work at all. I guess Fan design changed somewhere along the line? It seemed so genius to me and I wonder why that's no longer a thing. Nowadays you can't hardly find one without a remote and that makes it tough with an automated house.
In recent years when buying a new fan, First thing I do is look at the instillation manual of potential fans to see if the remote is controlling a canopy module that I can swap out (replaced with old Hampton bay Zigbee module) or remove completely and replace with a smart fan control. But you are right lots of DC based fans coming out that make this harder.
But I think we can all agree that it is basically always better to use the right device for the job, which would be a switch or purpose made fan controller.
