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getting philips hue lights - any way to replace the permanent wall light switches to something smart

M

madeirabhoy

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Oct 26, 2012
1,687
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keep hovering over the buy button, have been for months but keep thinking of little reasons not to get philips hue bulbs for apartment.

one thing im pondering is, the flat will still have physical light switches, but ideally everything will stay switched on so these will be at best useless, at worst going to get in the way. is there any way to swap them for some sort of smart switch that does something?
 
You should either get a smart bulb or a smart switch for a given fixture, but not both. This is obviously because a smart bulb needs to be powered all the time.

Then there’s the issue where hardwiring the power to the light fixture may violate the building code.

So, if you’re going to get Hue bulbs, then leave the existing switch (maybe put a cover over them?) and place a Hue Dimmer Switch next to it. If you don’t mind code violation, you could hardwire the power inside the existing switch, remove the switch outright, then put the Dimmer Switch over it.
 
Yeah I just leave the switches on and they can be useful say you want to turn on a light and don't have your phone, or watch. Example sometimes I want to turn on the hall light so I just flip the switch off and on.
 
zone23 said:
Yeah I just leave the switches on and they can be useful say you want to turn on a light and don't have your phone, or watch. Example sometimes I want to turn on the hall light so I just flip the switch off and on.
Click to expand...

ah so if you cut the power and turn it back on, the light automatically comes on, so you can use that for turning lights on ? cool.
 
madeirabhoy said:
ah so if you cut the power and turn it back on, the light automatically comes on, so you can use that for turning lights on ? cool.
Click to expand...
It’s a failsafe feature, but the one I don’t particularly like in the current implementation. You see, any colour or brightness setting you set before will be completely reset when the power is cut off. When the power is restored, it’ll be at “warm white” colour in full brightness.
 
Leviton makes wall switches for existing lights/fixtures and they are HomeKit compatible. The only thing you’d lose would be multicolored lighting.
 
ideally id like one that instead of cutting the power, sends a lights off/on command so like one of the philips dimmer switch buttons but in permanent wall mounted form.
 
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madeirabhoy said:
ideally id like one that instead of cutting the power, sends a lights off/on command so like one of the philips dimmer switch buttons but in permanent wall mounted form.
Click to expand...
Note that most of these smart switches - including ones from Leviton, iDevices, Koogeek, and Elgato - require a neutral wire. The exception is Lutron Caseta, but it requires an expensive hub and there are rare cases that it doesn’t work fully. Check that you have a neutral wire in the switch box first if you intend to go this way.

If you don’t want to fiddle with wires so much, Hue light bulb + Dimmer Switch is actually quite nice.
 
wesley96 said:
It’s a failsafe feature, but the one I don’t particularly like in the current implementation. You see, any colour or brightness setting you set before will be completely reset when the power is cut off. When the power is restored, it’ll be at “warm white” colour in full brightness.
Click to expand...

But at least it’s a backup. My main concern is when people come to visit especially older parents. They won’t want to use an app or say something out loud so ideally a light switch made by philips would be ideal and you would think an obvious addition to the hue lineup. I know they do the dimmer and the other 5 button one but unless I stick them to the wall and it’d have to be beside the switches which won’t look as clean and neat as just having a replacement switch.
 
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