If you’ve read this blog before, it will come as no surprise that I love building my smart home. It’s not just about the convenience it offers; it’s also a lot of fun.
However, as anyone who shares a living space with others can attest—be it a partner, family, or roommates—not everyone will necessarily share that enthusiasm. While I might not fully understand the lack of excitement, I can at least accept it. In any case, it’s a reality I’ve had to navigate.
And I’ve discovered one elementary rule that almost always holds true: It needs a button.
Buttons Are Key
More specifically, it requires a physical button. While I’m perfectly fine controlling my lights with my phone, most people are not. So, I’ve installed physical switches and buttons for nearly every smart device I own. When it comes to lights, this can sometimes be a bit challenging.
For example, I’ve used switches that essentially just cut the power. I used to have some from Ikea that worked well on my Zigbee network, but they lacked the critical feature of having a button directly on the device. It’s such a simple addition, but having a button on the device almost justifies the exorbitant price of the Eve Energy.
Of course, it’s easy enough to install an additional button—after all, Ikea switches cost only about ten bucks apiece—but there’s something about the convenience of a built-in button that makes everything smoother. Naturally, I can still control it via my phone or add remote buttons to enhance the experience.
This focus on buttons has really improved the acceptance of my smart home setup, and I plan to stick with it. Why mess with a system that works?
Making It Even More Friendly
I do have one more plan to make things perfect: ensuring the wall switches work seamlessly. The issue is that I sometimes want to use the advanced features of my smart bulbs, like dimming. But that only works if the light hasn’t been turned off at the wall switch, which cuts the power entirely. To address this, I’m considering installing some Shelly devices, as they might solve the problem. I see two possible approaches:
Monitor the switch state: Use the Shelly device to detect when a light is turned off at the switch. While this would turn off the Zigbee smart bulb, I could configure it to automatically turn the light back on when the switch is flipped. However, this approach has a downside: Zigbee devices are not designed to be powered off completely, as it disrupts their role in the network’s mesh functionality. A more stable setup would keep the bulb powered and use its smart functionality to manage the lighting.
Never fully power off the lights: Configure the Shelly to prevent the lights from losing power entirely, using Zigbee to turn them off instead. While this would preserve the Zigbee network’s stability, it would violate one of my core rules: devices should continue to function normally even if my Home Assistant setup fails. This makes it a less desirable option.
If anyone has better ideas for resolving this conundrum, I’m all ears!