Zigbee/Zwave button to replace wall switches completely

Hi folks.
I'm building a home office extension ( separate building ) and wondering about getting rid of in wall switches at all.
Only wall sockets , what should be implemented.
Because everything is from scratch - contactors will be used for on/off for sockets.
Same contactors for the lights in ceiling.
Question - how reliable are the buttons now?
Are there any maintenance issues I should be aware of?
Any experience somebody already facing with?

Thank you in advancejpg_220x220q90

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If you're wanting to get rid of wall switches, I have questions about building codes. I wonder if you're required by laws/ordinances to have X amount of switches per room.

That aside I'd go for the battery less options. I think Philips Hue has one that is battery-less.

No requirement at all.
Full freedom

First, are you sure there are no requirements? Check the building codes/laws in your region.

Back to your question: the devices you linked to are Xiaomi devices. They can be paired to Hubitat, and if you install a custom driver, they are usable, but they are not standard Zigbee HA 1.2 devices (Hubitat is a ZHA 1.2 controller), and as such have some oddities. Most notably, many (most?) Zigbee repeaters/routers do not work well with them, and they will eventually fall off your network. A few have been found to work well (Ikea Tradfri outlet, a carefully configured Xbee, possibly the ST 2018 outlet, and a couple other products that are no longer readily available on the market--compared to many more that are known to cause problems). You can make them work (or at least many people can), but you have to be careful with how you build your Zigbee mesh. If you want something similar that is standard ZHA (technically Zigbee 3.0), the SmartThings 2018 Button is a good option and usually doesn't cost much more.

But you don't have to limit yourself to single buttons. There are many button devices that work with Hubitat, some of which have multiple buttons like you'd expect from a switch. This post explains all that are natively supported, along with their capabilities: Hubitat Elevation supported button controller capabilities matrix. In my opinion, options that look vaguely like a switch and are likely to be intuitive for other users include the Hue Dimmer, the Eria Dimmer, the Osram 2-button dimmer (a bit bulky, though), and the Pico remotes (but these require the Lutron Smart Bridge Pro at considerable more expense--but the remotes are cheap and may be worth it if you get a lot).

Even if code doesn't require switches, I'd strongly encourage you to include them, anyway. If you sell the house, the new buyer will probably want them, and it would be less work to do that now. You can also reduce your dependence on battery-powered remote/button devices by using smart switches, even if you want smart bulbs. Some smart switches support disabling the internal relay, which means that when you press the switch to turn something "on" or "off," it doesn't actually cut (or return) power to the load--it just sends a command to the hub, which you can then interpret however you want. All generations of Inovelli switches and dimmers support this, and Zooz either does or will soon with many of theirs (ask their support before buying if not sure). You can also really do this with any switch by wiring line and load together, but the ones that allow this as a configurable parameter are nice so you don't have to re-wire if you change your mind.

If you go with a smart switch, both of the manufacturers I mentioned also have "scene switches" where your options aren't limited to just single tap up or down: you can also multi-tap, which you can assign to whatever functions you want (different colors, dimming, other rooms, other devices besides lights, etc.). While a bit more expensive than some button devices, I'd consider this a pretty good option: you'll get the house wired for switches, have "button"-type devices that look and work like switches to people who aren't familiar with your house, and you can swap them and out and replace with "regular" switches if/when you move without having to hire an electrician to run new cabling.

The only one Philips makes without a battery is the Hue Tap, which does not currently work with Hubitat. (If you have a Hue Bridge and integrate the network that way, the Tap can be used to control Hue devices, and eventually Hubitat will get the devices' updated status, but there's no way to get the button press directly into Hubitat. Not really a problem for the way I use them, but just worth noting.)

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What region are you in?

Ukraine

Thank you for the response. Great information.
Good points about non standard zigbee implementation in xiomi devices.
Good news that in case of any instability they will be replaced(thanks for the list of supported buttons) or/and moved to zigbee2mqtt bridge where is a room for tuning.

I recommend a z-wave controller (Vera or Homeseer) and z-wave outlets and switches. It's important to consider that the system needs to work with the typical manual action of pressing switches without the controller. Also if you move, take all the switches and outlets with you. Aeon Labs also have a micro switch that install behind standard switches which is a nice way to provide flexibility on switch options. With z-wave, all powered devices work as repeaters to extend the mesh network. Many, many options, just be ready to spend some money. It's will worth it as you can just keep building over time. Then because of the controller, the automation and integration is really interesting. Good luck with your project.

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Hubitat is also a Z-Wave controller. :joy: But I'd recommend a similar setup--no switches at all doesn't seem like a good way to go. With smart bulbs, you can use features or workarounds I described above.

I agree. Smart bulbs are great too. I have four z wave bulbs. I use them in lamps and in areas where the wiring doesn't have the required wiring to replace the switch.

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Do you mean using z-wave smart bulbs as repeaters everywhere?
I'm wondering if there are available managed zigbee or/and z-wave routers ( like wifi/lan )
Probably I'm overthinking, but I like to have great control for the LAN with routers like cisco/mikrotik but for ZigBee/z-wave.

How about powered wall switches with no hard wired load, all links are wireless. Thus each switch is 100% programmable from individual lights to full scenes.

I think this would open up far more options with greater reliability at minimal cost.

That's not technically true. You can try to link an in-wall dimmer to control other lights however if the switch is on and you press the top button, the switch is still on. I fail to see how that will control anything.
If you are going to replay switches with something, you should replace them with a true button controller. Like Lutron Pico's. Replacing switches with other switches does not get you to a button controller. If you want a button controller, you should use a button controller.

No, I'm not sure what part of my reply suggested that, but I'd be happy to clarify. I meant that if you want smart bulbs, you can still use smart switches, even though some people would consider that overkill. What you'd do instead of using the smart switches like "dumb" switches to physically cut power to the bulb is use a brand like Inovelli or (some) Zooz that allow disabling the relay so it won't cut power but rather allow you to use the hub to respond to those events and control the bulbs as you see fit.

Z-Wave should automatically find the best routes. There aren't any "managed routers," though I think some software can let you view and modify routes. In normal cases, self-healing or a manual repair should be all you need, so I'd do anything else with extreme caution. That being said, most smart bulbs are Zigbee, which doesn't let you assign routes but has at least a couple options for viewing them. This isn't something most people would need to worry about, though.

I'm pretty sure it will still send an "on" event you could respond to, though not in a rule that looks for a condition/truth change since it wouldn't be one.

Exactly. You would have to write a customer driver. Which most do not have the time nor the skills to do.

Thank you.
My plan is to use smart switches to control dumb and smart bulbs.
I don't want to use dumb switches, no sense to wire up 110/220 lines through the walls to send on/off/dim triggers. That is overkill, definitely.
Therefore with :

  • smart devices at the end of every electrical cyrcle ( bulbs, home appliances, wall sockets etc)
  • dumb contactors, high current (AC-1(10A+), AC-7b(7A+)) for security activation/deactivation of those circles (like floor heating, which could take up to 16KWatts sometimes, electrical oven etc)
  • smart switches everywhere (this will eliminate having AC lines in walls completely)
  • dumb switches in central electricity box for weird cases when no wireless connection at all(redundancy, maintenance)

all should be fine. Unless I missed something

Unless you ever plan to sell the house to someone who doesn't have this setup.

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Well. If this is the only point, then all is awesome.
I'm already starting from multiple hubs. I assume one hub should just do dumb job for triggering switches without any smart logic behind.
All automation should provide another hub, which could be removed once I decide to sell a house.

That would mean that the new owners would have to have a hubitat to control everything? I don't know what the housing market is like in the Ukraine but i don't know a real estate agent that would even touch a house that had those kinds of restrictions around it. If you were trying to sell it in the US, it would have to be totally rewired.