Endpoint, Router. Not sure why I assumed every Zigbee device was a router, but now that I know where to find this information, my troubleshooting abilities just went to the next level. Thank you so much!
Great to see more UK content on this sort of thing. I went with a Shelley relay at the light fitting when I first started, because it meant keeping the existing switches and 2 way functionality. It's been flawless, though it doesn't solve the dimming problem of course. The Candeo look to be a good solution, if costly. I know that Scolmore Click (A huge brand in the electricial industry) are getting into the market with zigbee options too, so there may be more good choices in the future finally.
I'm working on a kitchen remodel and trying to figure out if I can wire it accordingly for smart lighting, so this information was really helpful, even though I'm in the US, since some of these vendors also sell versions in US. I also use HA with ZHA but haven't used it so much with lights yet except I have replaced some switches with Leviton Zigbee switches and dimmers and they are solid. But, I am thinking I want to have custom zones and lights to switch between warm and daylight mode, and that requires smart light fixtures, so the comment on the detached relay switch is very interesting to me, assuming there's a US version. Although it sounds like to get the full benefit, Z2M is required which I think means I have to rebuild Zigbee network from scratch and repair everything?
I use Shelly whenever I can, local control, use regular wall switches and regular bulbs. I have over 100 different wifi/zigbee devices around the house from all manufacturers and the only one that always works is the Shelly stuff. The relays are absolutely rock solid.
Thanks so much for the analysis of these, your checklist is exactly what most of us will need. UK based person here, can’t wait to set switches up as the first thing in the new flat!
Also a big fan of the Candeo - it's the only smart switch I've found that doesn't look like a smart switch (at least for us in the UK), guests in our house don't even notice that it's any different!
There are relay modules you can get, like ones made by sonoff, that have this same attribute. Though you need to have a reasonable amount of room in the backbox. The other nice thing is if you don’t want to convert all the bulbs or switches to smart the ones that are smart don’t look out of place.
@@lawrencemanning I second this suggestion. I have added Sonoff zigbee relays which then allows dumb switches to become smart switches. The only downside is that I'm not convinced that the sonoff relays support dimming. Another caveat is that Sonoff makes the Zigbee Mini relay as well as the Mini-l which doesn't require a neutral wire. While the ZB mini acts as a router, the mini-l does not.
I'm building a new house and your videos have been great inspiration to me and I wanted to deeply thank you. Any chance you would make a video explaining how you built this testing board with your father?
Thanks for this video, went with smart bulbs and quickly realised what a pain they are with regular re-pairing required. Now onto smart light switches and with so many options this video has cleared my confusion and now onto the implementation
Fantastic video and perfectly timed as I’m hunting around for the perfect switch to couple with motion sensors. Good luck with the rest of your smart home
I'm so glad I didn't have to go through this process myself. Based on your review I can confidently say Aquara is the best for my home. Thanks for making this video! I'd love to see more comparisons of various smart home devices.
This is one of the best videos I've seen about smart home - well done, I really appreciate the detail! I'm waiting for a retrofit module with Thread Router capabilities to be released so that I can add it to my existing switches.
@@HomeAutomationGuy Yep, makes sense. I just now ordered the Sonoff MINIR4M (the one with matter) to play around. Though I’ll not stick with it since it relies on Wifi and most of my devices are no Thread.
Btw… the Aqara D1 is also available as three-gang. Thank you for the amazing review! I was also skeptic about the Moes three-gang touch and you expressed exactly my concerns
After making the same journey into buying several different switches I decided to pick up Aqara D1 (with neutral and wireless) series switches even if they do not fit into round European boxes. I purchased square boxes and mounted them in place of round ones. I have mixture of three, two, one, and wireless switches. They created stable zigbee network across three floors. I use z2m and only gripe I have is that depending on number of channels some options are available and some not (disconnecting or reversing LED indicators, mains voltage reporting, energy usage [Wh], and instant power [W]). It may be limitation of firmware or z2m but, unfortunately, I did not have time to investigate. I have over 30 of those switches and none of them experienced any issue. Aqara D1 is in my opinion best choice so far in 2023. They work great and they have look&feel of good quality wall switch. I don't know why H1 do not have triple button. H1 are also more expensive and unavailable on Aliexpress for some reason ...
I understand your rationale for choosing the 2 types of controls (switches & dimmers) and I generally agree with your criteria - but I'd add one: the selected controls should look consistent throughout the house (not necessarily exactly the same - but thematically matching). To me the very different look of the selected controls would be a no-no. Especially when mounted side by side - they just look far too different (the nature of the controls, the plate style, the visible fixing screws on one but not the other, rounded corners vs square). They look to be from two quite different eras.
Indeed that's my issue with these kind of switches, and why I am using only zigbee relays that accept inputs directly from my normal switches and that sit inside the wall boxes. I've been upgrading my home switches this way without having to change the look or replacing them, especially because I have different switches and plaques styles in different rooms. The main goal I'm going after is "enhancing, not replacing". The switches and relays work even without a zigbee coordinator, so I'm not locked out of my lights just because my server is down or updating. Right now I had extremely good experiences both with NodON and Vimar relays.
Thank you for your video. The Aqara were exactly the kind of switch I was looking for, with their ability to decouple from my hue lights, but also offer the ability to use the same kinds of switches for lights I don't want or need to be smart themselves. Thank you! 👍
Thanks for another awesome video. You have inspired a lot of my setup. I’m already set up with switches and yes I love the Candeo. I love that you can retrofit them to an existing plate. I replaced a 3 gang in the kitchen over a period of a few weeks and nobody noticed. For my non-dimmables I’m Shelly relays all the way leaving the standard light switches in place.
@@lawrencemanning they definitely click. I have put in deeper back boxes to accommodate the relay. Also the upstairs lights all have the relays in the ceiling space where the wiring is as for some reason my house has neutral wires at the switches downstairs but not upstairs.
Thank you so much for this. Your requirements are more or less the same as mine. I was considering the Moes but you've opened my eyes to the Candeo. I think I'll end up getting those for the dimmable rooms.
Nice one Alan. I’m going to move into a new house in the next few months. I got the Electrian to install the Aqara h1 in my house when they did a rewire. I might buy a candeo switch for our bedroom/front room. I got the dark grey Aqara light switch’s because I think they look better. Thank you for making such a helpful video. I’m from Merseyside and I’ll be joining the home assistant family. This video was so helpful. I appreciate you making it and sharing the test results with us
Thanks for the interesting video, which is not sponsored and therefore also guards against a "Fehlkauf", a misbuy. In an existing installation, Home automation is adding functionality while maintaining what everyone already knew, without causing surprises or problems they cannot solve themselves. I therefore use Shelly relays (decoupled) with Esphome - Home Assistant as a switch mounted behind the existing pushbuttons from the European suppliers so that the WAF remains guaranteed (Schneider, Legrand, Busch-Jaeger, Gira, Berker, BTicino, etc.). The switches all retain the appearance they always had and no one is surprised. What I have added is an NSPanel from Sonoff (integrated into HA) which I use more than my housemates who find that toy unnecessary despite the nice look.
You are most welcome! I like your setup, it is great to keep things how they are without surprises. I just really didn't want to keep my old light switches and I wanted a strong Zigbee mesh. The sensible person inside me agrees with your housemates that the NSPanel is a toy. But the smart home nerd inside me can't wait to set it up and play with it!
Hi, I’m from the U.S. and your Narration is FREAKIN’ & FRIGGIN AWESOME!!!… (You made me laugh multiple time’s, so i Subscribed AND Liked!!!)… When you used the “Word or Phrase” Friggin’ or Freakin’ THAT did it for me!!!… (Thought i was the ONLY one that ever used those (2) “Verbiage’s”) 😊
Only just found this. Many thanks for creating it. I have been looking for a decent zigbee switch to use in my HA setup. Been using shelly for a while but now have a Candeo and Aqara will be the next one to add.
I am very much enjoying the videos. I am construction my new retirement home and am facing all the same decisions. I did tell my electrician that there needs to be a neutral wire at every switch box so that will solve some of my possible issues. I am US based so my options are different. I too specifically want to avoid wifi switches. Perhaps those sonoff panels mighty be cool. thanks
I had the same question and found myself buying devices from the Plejd assortment. They are good looking, really smart and very easy to use and control in any scenario. You should try’em out.
Was asking the same thing a couple of months ago, I found out that Legrand/Bticino switches were the best option for me. They also meet all of your criteria except they don’t report the power consumption and don’t offer 3-4 gangs. I have mixed both wired (no neutral) and wireless switches. It offers look and feel consistency across my home. The dimming will probably never be as good as the candeo one! Good luck on your journey and thanks for sharing
Aweseome work ! I have a couple of Aqara H1 wireless 2-gang switches and they look and feel great. You can create automations in HA that will dim or bright the lights by double clicking or holding down the buttons but it's less intuitive that a dial for sure.
Hi Alan. I enjoyed that video. I have 7 candeo units, i have them paired with momentary/ retractive switches which makes it super easy for manual control. A couple of the candeo units are the back box version sat in the ceiling rose and only taking input from the momentary switches. I also fitted the candeo units into chrome casing like the momentary so it all looks more premium.
I found that it had 1 to 2 second delay when I try to turn it on. Works almost instantly if I try to turn it on through Philips hue but the physical toggle has a delay. Have you found this to be the case as well?
This video could have saved me a lot of time. All Saturday, my wife and I were looking at light switches and comparing everything you had shown (excluding Candeo). Literally, after hours of searching online and ordering stuff, we saw this the next day >_< The one thing I will say that annoyed us was that they all talk about Lutron and inovelli which we actually like but they don't make "Rest of World" models. Great and detailed reviews. P.S. at the time of writing this comment your comparison spreadsheet is down.
I agree with the Lutron and Inovelli comments - they're great looking devices but they just don't seem to be very UK/EU friendly! Thanks for the heads up about the link! I've updated it in the description now. Really appreciate it!
@@HomeAutomationGuy Lutron do have their Ra2 Select system available in the UK. It uses a different approach to smart lighting; the switching or dimming is performed by a smart module wired inline with the lights (so uses Neutral), not in the wall, and controlled by battery powered wall mounted Pico wireless switches. Integrates with Lutron smartblinds for single button control of scenes with natural and electric lighting. Lutron use their own proprietary RF system "Clear Connect" which works well. Oddly, I think the Ra2 system integrates with SmartThings in the USA but not the UK. I don't know about HA integration.
Love the video and respect your choices of "must haves". But, I think the Shelly deserved a bit more love! Did you address the "must operate as a dumb switch" fully? My apologies if I missed it. That's just one of the (many) beauties of the Shelly. You don't have to use their fronts, you can use whatever faceplate you want. Having invested hugely in expensive brushed steel faceplates, it was a must for me. It ticks all the other boxes apart from the obvious inability to be a ZigBee router. You didn't mention voice integration potential? The Shelly will integrate to Alexa through HA and gives full dimming and switching capability by voice. In short, my missus didn't even know anything had changed. My old mum can come and use the switches, just as she has for the last 80+ years. Ironically, we now use the full functionality of the devices by voice. Never really having to touch the expensive, beautifully built faceplates! But they look good! And of course, if they décor ever changes, so can the faceplates. Finally, I'm no Shelly fanboy, just horses for courses. Their battery operated stuff has been desperately disappointing. Aqara and ZigBee rocks for that! With that in mind, I'd highly encourage people to watch the previous videos you've linked at the top BEFORE they watch this video. ATB.
This is the info I needed to hear - thank you so much for posting. My 'home automation eletrician' came over today who told me the shelly relays fitted in the ceiling don't allow for using the dumb switches as is, as when someone turns off the dumb switch it'll kill the power to the relay so you won't be able to turn it on remotely (and vice versa!) that definitely doesn't seem to be true from your reply. Which shelly units are you using?
@@twentytwo278 I'm afraid your spark is talking bollocks.... Mainly... The Shelly devices can work without a neutral, which is nearly always missing in UK light switches. But, they work far more reliably, especially the dimmers, if you can bring a neutral to the switch.
@@BerkeleyTowers I thought that must be the case...doesn't exactly fill me with confidence about them. I haven't actually opened up a switch yet but he seemed 100% sure I had neutrals at the switches given it's a 4yo new build. Any recommendation ? I was looking at the Plus 1M or mini depending on space in backbox
Very thorough review! Still wrapping my head around a rack server for a smarthome, but ok. In the US, GE, Leveton, and Lutron are market leaders and readily available at big box stores.
I lucked in on the Candeo as my first selection. It is exactly as described . Completely familiar to any member of the family or to guests. Really good tactile feel. No dropouts.
Awesome video! My wife told me I could make ours a smart home but her older parents must be able to come in and operate things without any extra effort. I finally found the leviton z wave dimmer switches, R51-DZ6HD-1RZ. Only drawback is it requires a neutral line in the switch box and some older houses use a switch loop in the US.
Great comparison! I have spent an extermely large time looking into smart dimmer switches to achieve 1 simple goal - to be able to have smart dimmer switch in a two way configuration. While Candeo can techinally do two way, one of those switches has to be a retractive switch which breaks the consitency across the house. The only switch that came close were the Aurora Aone smart dimmer (think the company has gone into adminstration) however even that will not work if you use it without their propriotory hub. While each dimmer can support native Z2M, theres no way to do 2 way without their hub (I bought it and tried!) Varilight also had 2 way dimmers with a master and slave dimmer however they did not work natively with HA and required the use of SUPLA. Ended up returning all the dimmers and currently just using dumb dimmers.
That's the problem with being on the forefront of a technology wave - we're limited for choices for smart home products right now and often have to make compromises. Hopefully the market and industry continues to innovate, and by the time I upgrade my tech we have a lot more things to choose from!
I am a huge Candeo fan, and their support is the best I have come across. But I am pretty sure that to use them in a two way set up, a bit of re wiring is required.
I haven't tried them in Two Way mode personally, but the website says it works. Not sure if it's any different from "Normal Two-Way switching" as I'm not an electrician!
@@HomeAutomationGuy the Candeo smartdimmer (and its many clones) have a wired input for one or more momentary push buttons to use in the auxiliary locations. The wired push buttons then work much like you have seen elsewhere; a momentary press toggles on/off and a long press alternately raise or lowers brightness.
Great video. A few folks have mentioned but there is the option of using Localtuya or the newer Tuya Local integrations to control your Tuya wifi devices locally. They are still connected and sending updates to the cloud, so this is by no means a security measure, rather a way to improve the responsiveness of devices. I have several Treadlife wifi switches and several lights bulbs that I connect using Localtuya and it works great.
Great video! I have been using lightwave smart switches and sockets for years now and they have been faultless, I know they aren’t Zigbee and they are a little expensive but when I compare them to all the others available these come out on top every time. Pick some up and give them your honest opinion, the other good thing is they’re a uk based firm from good old Birmingham!
I briefly lived in a fancy apartment a few years ago that had Lightwave switches and they were pretty good. But I read that they don't play that nicely with Home Assistant in a locally connected way, so I didn't look at them further for my new house. I may be wrong about that though, as I've not tested them personally with HA
You missed one important thing. Most cheap smart switches do not remember the last power state after a power cut. The default state is usually ON. Imagine in the middle of the night, all your lights are flashing after a power cut recovery. 😅 I have a couple of Mose switches. They don't remember the last state. I had to create manual power state reminders for each switch gang to prevent this issue. It was a pain. Now I always buy Aqara switches. They remember the last power state and are reliable.
I recently installed some ikuu inline switches and their default power on state is 'on' (surely violates some safety standards somewhere). The default state of these switches can be changed but apparently I would need the ikuu hub to do it. If I try to write to the relevant attribute in ZHA it asks for a vendor code. So I set up a simple power outage and return trigger in Home Assistant (monitors the discharging battery state of my iPad wall display on the same power circuit) to reset them to off.
Excellent work! Mad face........... .......... .......... What a piece of #### Amazing quote! I find myself saying that exact line about electronics daily. Next time I need to say it with an awesome British accent.
Very useful video. I have used aqara switches at my house. They have 3 gangs and can be bought on many online platforms. I am struggling with a 3 gang switch which needs to be two way. I have a workaround with aqara relay switch
Same situation as you. I bought a two way dimmable moes module and experienced the same inconsistency as you showed. Shame as they even have 4gang version, no dimming though, which could have been a an awesome thing. The aqara ones look great as long as you don't need to put two next to each other. They are slightly bigger than standard EU switches so you can't fit two together. As others have pouted out, sometimes a behind the plate module is better, as style of switches is important. Our house will have gray walls so dark switches with sharp corners would be prefered.
I've conducted tests on numerous smart switches and finally found the perfect fit for my home from a company called Bseed. Their Zigbee devices boast exceptional reliability and stability. While they may not be the most economical option, I prioritize quality above all else. In the Netherlands, it's been customary for quite some time to have sockets and switches with neutral wiring. Luckily, my house even had separate wiring for this purpose, with double boxes facilitating an easy setup. I believe the optimal approach is to utilize neutral wiring whenever possible; this ensures consistent performance from these devices. Bseed also offers models that don't require a neutral wire, but while they work fine, they lack routing capabilities. In such cases, using a bulb can serve as an alternative and even extend the signal range.😁😁😁
Great Video! I also have a candeo in my house and I had an issue with it at first not reporting its manually changed state via zigbee. Few emails with Candeo and I had a replacement on the way that has worked great for almost a year. I have just checked their website following this video and they have a 2 gang kit available now for £78. I've ordered it and will give it a shot!
Aqara H1 is also my switch of choice. Tried couple of them and this one has definitely the best build quality and feel. The click is super satisfying and reassuring. It also supports single, double or triple click as well as separate hold and release. I'm using the battery versions because of the shallow switch boxes but so far I can't really complain. Other really solid switch is the one from IKEA (small dimmer switch). Very nice click, good response and build quality. And for the scenes I'm using Aqara OPPLE switches. They cost 15EUR each for 6 gang version which has 30 possible actions configurable! Build quality is not that great as IKEA, but still very nice.
Looking forward to seeing this, I installed several Zemismart ZigBee and their hub. They work quite well, but not sure I should have chosen the touch versions.
I have a couple of the Candeo switches. I like that they look and act like a traditional dimmer. But I do find them a bit "sticky" when turning them on and off. They're also not great at reporting their on/off state. Don't know why, but they're the only ZigBee devices I have with that issue. (Another issue with smart GU10 bulbs, is they're usually taller than standard GU10 bulbs - which can be a problem with many fixtures. I learnt this the hard way.)
Great video and echos my tactile findings with the Moes and Aqara switches. However the Candeo switches were a revelation. Never heard of them before but will be giving them a check out now. I have no neutral at any of my light switches so my choices are limited anyway but they seem like a really good option along with the Aqara switches. Loving this video series. Keep up the great work!
I have a Samotech, marked as HK_DIM_A in Home Assistant, which is, I think, functionally identical to the Candeo one shown here. The only quirk of it is you can't toggle the light from HA, only turn it on and off. I didn't measure it's idle power draw. Unsure if the Candeo has this functionality but with the Samotech you can even attach a second hardwired switch to control it. You must used a push button, but it can also dim the light up and down, and operates in the same funky way as a switch shown here: dimming up and down reverses on each press. It's still a useful feature. These dimmable switches that act as a replcement for old school dimmers are definitely underrated.
I have the same issue as you, no neutral at the light I want to replace the switch on. I tried a Shelly 1L but my light would permanently stay on. I could try the bypass but read those things burn out sometimes (fire hazard). So I’m not eyeballing the Aqara without neutral. Hope the load doesn’t have to be high in order to use them properly.
Good video thank you. I got the Moes 3 gang.. and I totally agree with you about the cheapness of the build. I hate pressing them and have most scenes triggered elsewhere.. by a remote button pad, motion and presence sensors and voice controls. I'm still searching for a better switch
Very thorough video. Just went through a similar process myself and found Aqara to be very versatile, even reporting room temperature to within 1°C. My only criticism would be the decoupled switches can't bind directly to lights.
Thanks for another great comparison video! Please, do an NS panel video, it seems that the NS panel hardware and software have recently gone through some changes that make it simpler to get into HA.....?
This was precisely what I was looking for. It's a great detail - thanks. It's a shame we don't have the Aqara triple rocker in the EU; I need a 3-gang solution.
Interesting video. Thanks. Quite different to my experience. I started with some sonoff WiFi switches. They are glass touch panels. They do up to 3 gang. However, I've never installed their app. I flashed them with tasmota, so fully local., they now work very well with home assistant. They all continue to work if the WiFi is down. There are some very similar ones from athom that go up to 4 gang in a single box. I've now replaced almost all of the switches in my house. In older parts of my house I had to add neutral wires, but this was easy where I have loft access. One thing that would be useful to know is the depth of the box required. I've had to use box extenders in a couple of rooms as the back box was too shallow. Not sure what the power draw on these switches is. I should measure that. Thanks again.
This is beyond useful. I'm so happy you are doing these kind of videos. I'm planning to try out building a smart home using home assistant, and I just don't know where to start. Your videos are helping me understand many things as I'm completely new to this thing. If you would do a similar video to light bulbs and bands, sensors, power sockets would be awesome! Ty! Also does the 2 gang candeo consume 0.8 W of power?
What you dont mention is that you need to check your amps on your switches..not every smart switch is compatible with every house.Most homes do have neutral wire bundles in the wall! Dont confuse people on here!
@@AngeloR674 i just assumed that if the 1 gang switch consumes 0.4 W, than the 2 gang consumes 0.8. I have no electrical background. I see no harm in asking. I thought this was a friendly environment. If people get easily confused by what I said they are also probably not familiar with electrical stuff, and my question will do more good than harm, if it gets a reasonal answer.
Would definitely like to see a more indepth video on the sonoff smart touch screen/switch. I'm using some sonoff mini r2s in my home now for my christmas lights and looking at adding more throughout the house
I love this review and it also highlights the issue with the UK based smart home options. Because I didn't want a mix match of different switches around my house, I ended up getting Lightwaverf switches and sockets. I know its not an option for you since it uses a hub, but if you already usea Broadlink RM4 Pro, you can integrate them there in HA.
I went with Sonoff, a combination of the NSPanel and the M5 (which is just a regular switch). I went 3 Gang everywhere on the M5s even though I don't need more than one gang anywhere (except I need two in the living room, but there's an NSPanel there, so two gangs was a given there). They're wifi and they do not dim. I plan to do my dimming through smart bulbs anyway (yeah, I'm doing both smart switches and bulbs). I'm also expecting that one to three presets and maybe some automations will be more useful than a dimmer switch that sets the light level manually. However, the main benefit is that I'm running ESPHome on the switches. That's a lot of effort to set up, but competely guaranteed to be local and giving me insane levels of control. I set up things like long presses and double clicks, and I set it to blink the blue "status led" to give feedback when doing those things. And the level of control that ESPHome combined with nspanel-lovelace-ui gives met over the (matching!) NSPanels is absolutely insane.
I agree that ESPHome is awesome and I love that you can flash those devices with it. But I agree that it's an effort! I've done it with a few things though that I think are worth the time investment. Stay tuned for future videos showing you what!
Nice! I agree with all of comments for all the products. I wish I see this video before I bought Lonsonho and Moes. Aqara is super cool for most of the cases, but I wanted them to be a routers. Thanks for sharing your experience
besides aqara, the rest of the switches you tested are simply tuya oem products, UK only has basically these 2 choices? what about brands like tapo, lutron, broadlink, sonoff and etc?
So.....lets say I use an Aqara H1 no neutral switch in decoupled mode so I have the switch powered on and then decouple .....if I then link the action of pressing the switch to turning on/off a smart bulb (where the smart bulb is getting permanent power because of the decouple).........is there any other kind of long or multiple short press I could program from the switch that would enable dimming the smart bulb? According to you video a long press on the Aqara switch will put it in to pairing mode so would there be a way to change what would trigger the pairing mode.........or alternatively......would using a double gang Aqara H1 with both relays decoupled give me one switch that I could program to turn the smart bulb on and off and the other switch could be long pressed to cycle through the smart bulbs dimmer setting till you get to the desired dimmer level and then let go of the switch?
You could use a double switch, and have the left switch turn it on with a single tap, and double tap increases the brightness by 10%. Then do the opposite on the right switch to turn it down and off.
Shelly has 4-gang ”switches”. It’s called i4. It’s just a controller though so you need to complement them with actual switches too. The switches can be mounted at the light instead of behind the buttons. If you don’t like Shelly’s own buttons you can use any other of your liking. Shelly does not require the cloud to speak to Home Assistant or to each other. Loved the video, though.
I was just about to say the same. One of the biggest advantages is that you can use any non smart lightswitch, so you have thousands of options available. Using them in my new smart home.
I've been using Candeo - definitely the best I've tried (albeit from a limited pool!) You can also fit the Candeo modules into a fancier faceplate - I've got some fancy looking smart light switches now!
I'm using the Home Assistant Sky Connect zigbee coordinator. I tested the Sonoff relays in a previous video and didn't like the clicking noise that they made, and they don't fit too well in a standard UK back box.
You will love the NSPanel, according to Mark go for the white one. I have 7 throughout the house and the functionality is unbeatable. There are two major versions, joBr99 which is so so versatile and Blackymas blueprint which I loaded up last night to test . Blackymas version apparently supports switch functionality if WiFi drops out
The buttons work as switches with joBr99's nspanel-lovelace-ui as well. At least, I'm using it with ESPHome, which means that while the screen runs 95% on my HA server, the physical buttons run completely in ESPHome, which means that I basically have full control over what they do locally. I suspect it's similar with tasmota, but I don't actually know for sure
@@clairerovic basically just follow the documentation and then use the HA service to upload the screen (which wasn't entirely clear from the documentation in my opinion). I was going to offer to help further if that didn't work, but RUclips comments aren't a great place for that and every comment I post with how else to reach me just gets deleted...
I really hope big companies like Jung and such are gonna start producing these kind of switches. You are right that most of them either don't work well enough or don't look good enough.
Great info, thank you! I use smart switches everywhere, *_except_* my home theater room. Any smart switch I've installed adds noticeable noise through my speakers, so I had to go with individual smart bulbs. Everytime someone turns off and on the dumb switch real fast, all my pairings get erased 😢.
I was just researching yesterday and found "Friends of Hue" switched quite appealing. They are available in many designs and can even work on kinetic energy like EnOcean. They are expensive though. If there is enough space and wiring, I think I'll go with old-style switches and flush-mounted relais/dimmers.
Endpoint, Router. Not sure why I assumed every Zigbee device was a router, but now that I know where to find this information, my troubleshooting abilities just went to the next level. Thank you so much!
You are most welcome! Glad to hear you learned something, that's why I make these videos!
FINALLY! someone reviewing EU style switches
Great to see more UK content on this sort of thing. I went with a Shelley relay at the light fitting when I first started, because it meant keeping the existing switches and 2 way functionality. It's been flawless, though it doesn't solve the dimming problem of course. The Candeo look to be a good solution, if costly. I know that Scolmore Click (A huge brand in the electricial industry) are getting into the market with zigbee options too, so there may be more good choices in the future finally.
iolloi make a good quality dimmable module but you will need a retractive switch to control it.
I'm working on a kitchen remodel and trying to figure out if I can wire it accordingly for smart lighting, so this information was really helpful, even though I'm in the US, since some of these vendors also sell versions in US. I also use HA with ZHA but haven't used it so much with lights yet except I have replaced some switches with Leviton Zigbee switches and dimmers and they are solid. But, I am thinking I want to have custom zones and lights to switch between warm and daylight mode, and that requires smart light fixtures, so the comment on the detached relay switch is very interesting to me, assuming there's a US version. Although it sounds like to get the full benefit, Z2M is required which I think means I have to rebuild Zigbee network from scratch and repair everything?
I use Shelly whenever I can, local control, use regular wall switches and regular bulbs. I have over 100 different wifi/zigbee devices around the house from all manufacturers and the only one that always works is the Shelly stuff. The relays are absolutely rock solid.
Do they do ZigBee & if so are they endpoints or mesh routers?
Can use shelly relay with any switch?
Been getting a lot of good info from your channel, I wanted to send a thanks!
That is amazing! Thank you so much for your support! ❤️
Thanks so much for the analysis of these, your checklist is exactly what most of us will need. UK based person here, can’t wait to set switches up as the first thing in the new flat!
Over 1 year on and I still am happy with my choices!
6min in and subscribed. Great no BS delivery 😊
Glad you like it!
Also a big fan of the Candeo - it's the only smart switch I've found that doesn't look like a smart switch (at least for us in the UK), guests in our house don't even notice that it's any different!
There are relay modules you can get, like ones made by sonoff, that have this same attribute. Though you need to have a reasonable amount of room in the backbox. The other nice thing is if you don’t want to convert all the bulbs or switches to smart the ones that are smart don’t look out of place.
@@lawrencemanning I second this suggestion. I have added Sonoff zigbee relays which then allows dumb switches to become smart switches. The only downside is that I'm not convinced that the sonoff relays support dimming. Another caveat is that Sonoff makes the Zigbee Mini relay as well as the Mini-l which doesn't require a neutral wire. While the ZB mini acts as a router, the mini-l does not.
I'm building a new house and your videos have been great inspiration to me and I wanted to deeply thank you.
Any chance you would make a video explaining how you built this testing board with your father?
Thank you so much for the support of the channel! You can see a bit more detail about the test board here: ruclips.net/user/shortsjm6SsGA8AVc
Thanks for the reply and for all your videos 🙏🏻 I have already built my testing rig 👍🏻 I will be ordering several switches now to test them out
That's some good work, you covered all the bases
Thanks blakadder! My smart home wouldn't be anywhere near as smart without all the amazing foundational work you do for us and the community!
Thanks for this video, went with smart bulbs and quickly realised what a pain they are with regular re-pairing required. Now onto smart light switches and with so many options this video has cleared my confusion and now onto the implementation
Fantastic video and perfectly timed as I’m hunting around for the perfect switch to couple with motion sensors. Good luck with the rest of your smart home
I'm so glad I didn't have to go through this process myself. Based on your review I can confidently say Aquara is the best for my home. Thanks for making this video! I'd love to see more comparisons of various smart home devices.
This is one of the best videos I've seen about smart home - well done, I really appreciate the detail! I'm waiting for a retrofit module with Thread Router capabilities to be released so that I can add it to my existing switches.
Thank you! I really appreciate the kind words. I would love a Thread retrofit model too, but I didn't want to wait!
@@HomeAutomationGuy Yep, makes sense. I just now ordered the Sonoff MINIR4M (the one with matter) to play around. Though I’ll not stick with it since it relies on Wifi and most of my devices are no Thread.
Very useful video. Anyone considering using automated lighting should see this first.
Great job.
Btw… the Aqara D1 is also available as three-gang. Thank you for the amazing review! I was also skeptic about the Moes three-gang touch and you expressed exactly my concerns
After making the same journey into buying several different switches I decided to pick up Aqara D1 (with neutral and wireless) series switches even if they do not fit into round European boxes. I purchased square boxes and mounted them in place of round ones. I have mixture of three, two, one, and wireless switches. They created stable zigbee network across three floors. I use z2m and only gripe I have is that depending on number of channels some options are available and some not (disconnecting or reversing LED indicators, mains voltage reporting, energy usage [Wh], and instant power [W]). It may be limitation of firmware or z2m but, unfortunately, I did not have time to investigate. I have over 30 of those switches and none of them experienced any issue.
Aqara D1 is in my opinion best choice so far in 2023. They work great and they have look&feel of good quality wall switch. I don't know why H1 do not have triple button. H1 are also more expensive and unavailable on Aliexpress for some reason ...
@@pllevi thank you for all this info. Yes, the H1 doesn’t have three buttons, but you can look for Aqara Opple with 6 buttons
Thank you for making this video. It’ll be an incredible resource for someone starting out.
Glad it was helpful!
I understand your rationale for choosing the 2 types of controls (switches & dimmers) and I generally agree with your criteria - but I'd add one: the selected controls should look consistent throughout the house (not necessarily exactly the same - but thematically matching). To me the very different look of the selected controls would be a no-no. Especially when mounted side by side - they just look far too different (the nature of the controls, the plate style, the visible fixing screws on one but not the other, rounded corners vs square). They look to be from two quite different eras.
Indeed that's my issue with these kind of switches, and why I am using only zigbee relays that accept inputs directly from my normal switches and that sit inside the wall boxes. I've been upgrading my home switches this way without having to change the look or replacing them, especially because I have different switches and plaques styles in different rooms.
The main goal I'm going after is "enhancing, not replacing". The switches and relays work even without a zigbee coordinator, so I'm not locked out of my lights just because my server is down or updating. Right now I had extremely good experiences both with NodON and Vimar relays.
Yeh, that's a fair criticism.
@@stefa168 For switching yes - but unfortunately that doesn't get you dimming functionality.
@Alan Moore yeah you're absolutely right
@@stefa168 , yeah, diy smart switch can make your normal switches into smart switches as well😀
I'm so glad I found this channel. We're currently building and I want easy smooth automation. I may be binging these videos
Man!!!! I wish my office / cave / own room looked organized like this. It's all over the place.
Thank you for your video. The Aqara were exactly the kind of switch I was looking for, with their ability to decouple from my hue lights, but also offer the ability to use the same kinds of switches for lights I don't want or need to be smart themselves. Thank you! 👍
You are welcome!
that's a pretty decent review, thanks for making this, given me quite a head start on some of the decisions I need to make for myself
Thanks for another awesome video. You have inspired a lot of my setup. I’m already set up with switches and yes I love the Candeo. I love that you can retrofit them to an existing plate. I replaced a 3 gang in the kitchen over a period of a few weeks and nobody noticed.
For my non-dimmables I’m Shelly relays all the way leaving the standard light switches in place.
Do the Shelley’s click? I have a sonoff that has a pretty audible click; it’s surprisingly annoying. Also it just barely fits in the backbox.
@@lawrencemanning they definitely click. I have put in deeper back boxes to accommodate the relay. Also the upstairs lights all have the relays in the ceiling space where the wiring is as for some reason my house has neutral wires at the switches downstairs but not upstairs.
Thank you so much for this. I've been struggling to find smart switches with my requirements. The aqara looks like what I need.
Thanks for the grate info we are redoing the kitchen and living room and I now have a good understanding what switches to use
Awesome video! Been watching a load of your other videos too, great content please keep it up 🙂
Thank you so much 🙏
Thank you so much for this. Your requirements are more or less the same as mine. I was considering the Moes but you've opened my eyes to the Candeo. I think I'll end up getting those for the dimmable rooms.
Köszönjük!
Thank you so much for supporting the channel! I really appreciate it!
Nice one Alan. I’m going to move into a new house in the next few months. I got the Electrian to install the Aqara h1 in my house when they did a rewire. I might buy a candeo switch for our bedroom/front room. I got the dark grey Aqara light switch’s because I think they look better. Thank you for making such a helpful video. I’m from Merseyside and I’ll be joining the home assistant family. This video was so helpful. I appreciate you making it and sharing the test results with us
I'm glad it's working out!
Excellent video - look forward to the next one!
Really a great video. Also what a mesh network!! Chapeau!
Really liked the video an the detail you put into it. Thumbs up, good work!
Great video, very informative, as always! Thanks!
Thanks for the interesting video, which is not sponsored and therefore also guards against a "Fehlkauf", a misbuy.
In an existing installation, Home automation is adding functionality while maintaining what everyone already knew, without causing surprises or problems they cannot solve themselves.
I therefore use Shelly relays (decoupled) with Esphome - Home Assistant as a switch mounted behind the existing pushbuttons from the European suppliers so that the WAF remains guaranteed (Schneider, Legrand, Busch-Jaeger, Gira, Berker, BTicino, etc.).
The switches all retain the appearance they always had and no one is surprised.
What I have added is an NSPanel from Sonoff (integrated into HA) which I use more than my housemates who find that toy unnecessary despite the nice look.
You are most welcome! I like your setup, it is great to keep things how they are without surprises. I just really didn't want to keep my old light switches and I wanted a strong Zigbee mesh.
The sensible person inside me agrees with your housemates that the NSPanel is a toy. But the smart home nerd inside me can't wait to set it up and play with it!
Hi,
I’m from the U.S. and your Narration is FREAKIN’ & FRIGGIN AWESOME!!!…
(You made me laugh multiple time’s, so i Subscribed AND Liked!!!)…
When you used the “Word or Phrase” Friggin’ or Freakin’ THAT did it for me!!!…
(Thought i was the ONLY one that ever used those (2)
“Verbiage’s”) 😊
Only just found this. Many thanks for creating it. I have been looking for a decent zigbee switch to use in my HA setup. Been using shelly for a while but now have a Candeo and Aqara will be the next one to add.
I am very much enjoying the videos. I am construction my new retirement home and am facing all the same decisions. I did tell my electrician that there needs to be a neutral wire at every switch box so that will solve some of my possible issues. I am US based so my options are different. I too specifically want to avoid wifi switches. Perhaps those sonoff panels mighty be cool. thanks
I had the same question and found myself buying devices from the Plejd assortment. They are good looking, really smart and very easy to use and control in any scenario. You should try’em out.
This review is awesome. Analyses all that really matters.
Excellent video. And it made me feel great about last week’s Candeo purchase! Reckon they’ll be getting a bit more of my money for other rooms now 😁
Thanks for recommendation of the candeo - such easy install
Thanks a lot! It helped very much. All of your videos about the new house!
I am glad to hear it, thank you!
Was asking the same thing a couple of months ago, I found out that Legrand/Bticino switches were the best option for me.
They also meet all of your criteria except they don’t report the power consumption and don’t offer 3-4 gangs.
I have mixed both wired (no neutral) and wireless switches. It offers look and feel consistency across my home. The dimming will probably never be as good as the candeo one!
Good luck on your journey and thanks for sharing
Aweseome work !
I have a couple of Aqara H1 wireless 2-gang switches and they look and feel great.
You can create automations in HA that will dim or bright the lights by double clicking or holding down the buttons but it's less intuitive that a dial for sure.
Hi Alan. I enjoyed that video. I have 7 candeo units, i have them paired with momentary/ retractive switches which makes it super easy for manual control. A couple of the candeo units are the back box version sat in the ceiling rose and only taking input from the momentary switches. I also fitted the candeo units into chrome casing like the momentary so it all looks more premium.
I found that it had 1 to 2 second delay when I try to turn it on. Works almost instantly if I try to turn it on through Philips hue but the physical toggle has a delay. Have you found this to be the case as well?
I went with a H1 for a front outside light - great bit of kit, only ballache was replacing the back box
Yeh, that is definitely a ballache. But now they're big for ever - FUTURE PROOFING!
Thanks for this great video - really enjoyed your testing process and clear evaluation criteria (which happily mostly aligned with mine). Keep it up!
Thank you!
Your videos are helping me to improve my new home. 🎉🎉🎉
I'm glad it's helpful!
This video could have saved me a lot of time. All Saturday, my wife and I were looking at light switches and comparing everything you had shown (excluding Candeo). Literally, after hours of searching online and ordering stuff, we saw this the next day >_<
The one thing I will say that annoyed us was that they all talk about Lutron and inovelli which we actually like but they don't make "Rest of World" models.
Great and detailed reviews. P.S. at the time of writing this comment your comparison spreadsheet is down.
I agree with the Lutron and Inovelli comments - they're great looking devices but they just don't seem to be very UK/EU friendly!
Thanks for the heads up about the link! I've updated it in the description now. Really appreciate it!
@@HomeAutomationGuy Lutron do have their Ra2 Select system available in the UK. It uses a different approach to smart lighting; the switching or dimming is performed by a smart module wired inline with the lights (so uses Neutral), not in the wall, and controlled by battery powered wall mounted Pico wireless switches. Integrates with Lutron smartblinds for single button control of scenes with natural and electric lighting.
Lutron use their own proprietary RF system "Clear Connect" which works well.
Oddly, I think the Ra2 system integrates with SmartThings in the USA but not the UK. I don't know about HA integration.
Love the video and respect your choices of "must haves". But, I think the Shelly deserved a bit more love! Did you address the "must operate as a dumb switch" fully? My apologies if I missed it.
That's just one of the (many) beauties of the Shelly. You don't have to use their fronts, you can use whatever faceplate you want. Having invested hugely in expensive brushed steel faceplates, it was a must for me. It ticks all the other boxes apart from the obvious inability to be a ZigBee router.
You didn't mention voice integration potential? The Shelly will integrate to Alexa through HA and gives full dimming and switching capability by voice.
In short, my missus didn't even know anything had changed. My old mum can come and use the switches, just as she has for the last 80+ years. Ironically, we now use the full functionality of the devices by voice. Never really having to touch the expensive, beautifully built faceplates! But they look good!
And of course, if they décor ever changes, so can the faceplates.
Finally, I'm no Shelly fanboy, just horses for courses. Their battery operated stuff has been desperately disappointing. Aqara and ZigBee rocks for that!
With that in mind, I'd highly encourage people to watch the previous videos you've linked at the top BEFORE they watch this video. ATB.
bump
This is the info I needed to hear - thank you so much for posting. My 'home automation eletrician' came over today who told me the shelly relays fitted in the ceiling don't allow for using the dumb switches as is, as when someone turns off the dumb switch it'll kill the power to the relay so you won't be able to turn it on remotely (and vice versa!) that definitely doesn't seem to be true from your reply. Which shelly units are you using?
@@twentytwo278 I'm afraid your spark is talking bollocks.... Mainly... The Shelly devices can work without a neutral, which is nearly always missing in UK light switches. But, they work far more reliably, especially the dimmers, if you can bring a neutral to the switch.
@@twentytwo278 I'm using most of them. Relays.. dimmers.... RGBW..... PM's... Light bulbs. I don't bother with their battery stuff anymore...
@@BerkeleyTowers I thought that must be the case...doesn't exactly fill me with confidence about them. I haven't actually opened up a switch yet but he seemed 100% sure I had neutrals at the switches given it's a 4yo new build. Any recommendation ? I was looking at the Plus 1M or mini depending on space in backbox
Very thorough review! Still wrapping my head around a rack server for a smarthome, but ok.
In the US, GE, Leveton, and Lutron are market leaders and readily available at big box stores.
I lucked in on the Candeo as my first selection. It is exactly as described . Completely familiar to any member of the family or to guests. Really good tactile feel. No dropouts.
Awesome video!
My wife told me I could make ours a smart home but her older parents must be able to come in and operate things without any extra effort. I finally found the leviton z wave dimmer switches, R51-DZ6HD-1RZ. Only drawback is it requires a neutral line in the switch box and some older houses use a switch loop in the US.
Great to hear! A lot of houses in the UK also don't have a Neutral wire - we feel your pain!
Great comparison!
I have spent an extermely large time looking into smart dimmer switches to achieve 1 simple goal - to be able to have smart dimmer switch in a two way configuration. While Candeo can techinally do two way, one of those switches has to be a retractive switch which breaks the consitency across the house.
The only switch that came close were the Aurora Aone smart dimmer (think the company has gone into adminstration) however even that will not work if you use it without their propriotory hub. While each dimmer can support native Z2M, theres no way to do 2 way without their hub (I bought it and tried!)
Varilight also had 2 way dimmers with a master and slave dimmer however they did not work natively with HA and required the use of SUPLA.
Ended up returning all the dimmers and currently just using dumb dimmers.
That's the problem with being on the forefront of a technology wave - we're limited for choices for smart home products right now and often have to make compromises. Hopefully the market and industry continues to innovate, and by the time I upgrade my tech we have a lot more things to choose from!
I am a huge Candeo fan, and their support is the best I have come across. But I am pretty sure that to use them in a two way set up, a bit of re wiring is required.
I haven't tried them in Two Way mode personally, but the website says it works. Not sure if it's any different from "Normal Two-Way switching" as I'm not an electrician!
@@HomeAutomationGuy the Candeo smartdimmer (and its many clones) have a wired input for one or more momentary push buttons to use in the auxiliary locations. The wired push buttons then work much like you have seen elsewhere; a momentary press toggles on/off and a long press alternately raise or lowers brightness.
Great video. A few folks have mentioned but there is the option of using Localtuya or the newer Tuya Local integrations to control your Tuya wifi devices locally. They are still connected and sending updates to the cloud, so this is by no means a security measure, rather a way to improve the responsiveness of devices. I have several Treadlife wifi switches and several lights bulbs that I connect using Localtuya and it works great.
Thanks for sharing!
I'd personally avoid wifi switches since Zigbee exists and is better suited for this use case.
Great video! I have been using lightwave smart switches and sockets for years now and they have been faultless, I know they aren’t Zigbee and they are a little expensive but when I compare them to all the others available these come out on top every time. Pick some up and give them your honest opinion, the other good thing is they’re a uk based firm from good old Birmingham!
I briefly lived in a fancy apartment a few years ago that had Lightwave switches and they were pretty good. But I read that they don't play that nicely with Home Assistant in a locally connected way, so I didn't look at them further for my new house. I may be wrong about that though, as I've not tested them personally with HA
You missed one important thing. Most cheap smart switches do not remember the last power state after a power cut. The default state is usually ON. Imagine in the middle of the night, all your lights are flashing after a power cut recovery. 😅 I have a couple of Mose switches. They don't remember the last state. I had to create manual power state reminders for each switch gang to prevent this issue. It was a pain. Now I always buy Aqara switches. They remember the last power state and are reliable.
Does anyone know if the Candeo C202 remembers power state?
Did you get an answer to this ?
Been using Zigbee Moes switches for years through Z2M - they literally have a setting in HA what to do after a drop out and never blink lights. 🤔
I recently installed some ikuu inline switches and their default power on state is 'on' (surely violates some safety standards somewhere). The default state of these switches can be changed but apparently I would need the ikuu hub to do it. If I try to write to the relevant attribute in ZHA it asks for a vendor code. So I set up a simple power outage and return trigger in Home Assistant (monitors the discharging battery state of my iPad wall display on the same power circuit) to reset them to off.
In uk we never have power cuts. So brilliant job Alan
Excellent work!
Mad face...........
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What a piece of ####
Amazing quote! I find myself saying that exact line about electronics daily. Next time I need to say it with an awesome British accent.
🤣
Great video, would love more like this!
Very useful video. I have used aqara switches at my house. They have 3 gangs and can be bought on many online platforms. I am struggling with a 3 gang switch which needs to be two way. I have a workaround with aqara relay switch
Same situation as you.
I bought a two way dimmable moes module and experienced the same inconsistency as you showed. Shame as they even have 4gang version, no dimming though, which could have been a an awesome thing.
The aqara ones look great as long as you don't need to put two next to each other. They are slightly bigger than standard EU switches so you can't fit two together.
As others have pouted out, sometimes a behind the plate module is better, as style of switches is important. Our house will have gray walls so dark switches with sharp corners would be prefered.
Great video again - looking forward to the next one
Thank you!
I've conducted tests on numerous smart switches and finally found the perfect fit for my home from a company called Bseed. Their Zigbee devices boast exceptional reliability and stability. While they may not be the most economical option, I prioritize quality above all else.
In the Netherlands, it's been customary for quite some time to have sockets and switches with neutral wiring. Luckily, my house even had separate wiring for this purpose, with double boxes facilitating an easy setup. I believe the optimal approach is to utilize neutral wiring whenever possible; this ensures consistent performance from these devices. Bseed also offers models that don't require a neutral wire, but while they work fine, they lack routing capabilities. In such cases, using a bulb can serve as an alternative and even extend the signal range.😁😁😁
Thanks a lot! this'll help me make my choices. Subbed due to this! keep it going mate!
Awesome, thank you!
Great Video! I also have a candeo in my house and I had an issue with it at first not reporting its manually changed state via zigbee. Few emails with Candeo and I had a replacement on the way that has worked great for almost a year. I have just checked their website following this video and they have a 2 gang kit available now for £78. I've ordered it and will give it a shot!
Aqara H1 is also my switch of choice. Tried couple of them and this one has definitely the best build quality and feel. The click is super satisfying and reassuring. It also supports single, double or triple click as well as separate hold and release. I'm using the battery versions because of the shallow switch boxes but so far I can't really complain. Other really solid switch is the one from IKEA (small dimmer switch). Very nice click, good response and build quality. And for the scenes I'm using Aqara OPPLE switches. They cost 15EUR each for 6 gang version which has 30 possible actions configurable! Build quality is not that great as IKEA, but still very nice.
F c
I'd love to see your take on the NS Panel!! I want to use them in my house for lighting, heating and blind control
Looking forward to seeing this, I installed several Zemismart ZigBee and their hub. They work quite well, but not sure I should have chosen the touch versions.
Really useful video, thank you. Keep on Keepin' on!
I have a couple of the Candeo switches. I like that they look and act like a traditional dimmer. But I do find them a bit "sticky" when turning them on and off. They're also not great at reporting their on/off state. Don't know why, but they're the only ZigBee devices I have with that issue.
(Another issue with smart GU10 bulbs, is they're usually taller than standard GU10 bulbs - which can be a problem with many fixtures. I learnt this the hard way.)
Great video and echos my tactile findings with the Moes and Aqara switches. However the Candeo switches were a revelation. Never heard of them before but will be giving them a check out now. I have no neutral at any of my light switches so my choices are limited anyway but they seem like a really good option along with the Aqara switches. Loving this video series. Keep up the great work!
I have a Samotech, marked as HK_DIM_A in Home Assistant, which is, I think, functionally identical to the Candeo one shown here. The only quirk of it is you can't toggle the light from HA, only turn it on and off. I didn't measure it's idle power draw. Unsure if the Candeo has this functionality but with the Samotech you can even attach a second hardwired switch to control it. You must used a push button, but it can also dim the light up and down, and operates in the same funky way as a switch shown here: dimming up and down reverses on each press. It's still a useful feature. These dimmable switches that act as a replcement for old school dimmers are definitely underrated.
I have the same issue as you, no neutral at the light I want to replace the switch on. I tried a Shelly 1L but my light would permanently stay on. I could try the bypass but read those things burn out sometimes (fire hazard).
So I’m not eyeballing the Aqara without neutral. Hope the load doesn’t have to be high in order to use them properly.
Good video thank you.
I got the Moes 3 gang.. and I totally agree with you about the cheapness of the build. I hate pressing them and have most scenes triggered elsewhere.. by a remote button pad, motion and presence sensors and voice controls.
I'm still searching for a better switch
Very thorough video. Just went through a similar process myself and found Aqara to be very versatile, even reporting room temperature to within 1°C. My only criticism would be the decoupled switches can't bind directly to lights.
Actually, it shows the device/switch temperature.
Thanks for another great comparison video! Please, do an NS panel video, it seems that the NS panel hardware and software have recently gone through some changes that make it simpler to get into HA.....?
Very comprehensive, nice video!
This was precisely what I was looking for. It's a great detail - thanks. It's a shame we don't have the Aqara triple rocker in the EU; I need a 3-gang solution.
Honestly, smart switches has been my worst nightmare trying to set things up at home due to incompatibility issues, thanks for this.
Interesting video. Thanks.
Quite different to my experience. I started with some sonoff WiFi switches. They are glass touch panels. They do up to 3 gang. However, I've never installed their app. I flashed them with tasmota, so fully local., they now work very well with home assistant. They all continue to work if the WiFi is down.
There are some very similar ones from athom that go up to 4 gang in a single box.
I've now replaced almost all of the switches in my house.
In older parts of my house I had to add neutral wires, but this was easy where I have loft access.
One thing that would be useful to know is the depth of the box required. I've had to use box extenders in a couple of rooms as the back box was too shallow.
Not sure what the power draw on these switches is. I should measure that.
Thanks again.
Nice one! I love Tasmota! But I wanted to avoid flashing anything in my house if I could though.
This is beyond useful. I'm so happy you are doing these kind of videos. I'm planning to try out building a smart home using home assistant, and I just don't know where to start. Your videos are helping me understand many things as I'm completely new to this thing. If you would do a similar video to light bulbs and bands, sensors, power sockets would be awesome! Ty! Also does the 2 gang candeo consume 0.8 W of power?
What you dont mention is that you need to check your amps on your switches..not every smart switch is compatible with every house.Most homes do have neutral wire bundles in the wall! Dont confuse people on here!
@@AngeloR674 i just assumed that if the 1 gang switch consumes 0.4 W, than the 2 gang consumes 0.8. I have no electrical background. I see no harm in asking. I thought this was a friendly environment. If people get easily confused by what I said they are also probably not familiar with electrical stuff, and my question will do more good than harm, if it gets a reasonal answer.
Did you look at the broadlink switches too? Also, doesn't tuya have a local integration for home assistant?
I can highly recommend the Aqara D1. WBKG26LM is the 3 gang version with all the features of the others you mention.
Great comparison. Does some video of this kind exist for ZigBee wall sockets with power monitoring?
Would definitely like to see a more indepth video on the sonoff smart touch screen/switch. I'm using some sonoff mini r2s in my home now for my christmas lights and looking at adding more throughout the house
I love this review and it also highlights the issue with the UK based smart home options. Because I didn't want a mix match of different switches around my house, I ended up getting Lightwaverf switches and sockets. I know its not an option for you since it uses a hub, but if you already usea Broadlink RM4 Pro, you can integrate them there in HA.
Thanks for sharing
I went with Sonoff, a combination of the NSPanel and the M5 (which is just a regular switch). I went 3 Gang everywhere on the M5s even though I don't need more than one gang anywhere (except I need two in the living room, but there's an NSPanel there, so two gangs was a given there).
They're wifi and they do not dim. I plan to do my dimming through smart bulbs anyway (yeah, I'm doing both smart switches and bulbs). I'm also expecting that one to three presets and maybe some automations will be more useful than a dimmer switch that sets the light level manually.
However, the main benefit is that I'm running ESPHome on the switches. That's a lot of effort to set up, but competely guaranteed to be local and giving me insane levels of control. I set up things like long presses and double clicks, and I set it to blink the blue "status led" to give feedback when doing those things. And the level of control that ESPHome combined with nspanel-lovelace-ui gives met over the (matching!) NSPanels is absolutely insane.
I agree that ESPHome is awesome and I love that you can flash those devices with it. But I agree that it's an effort!
I've done it with a few things though that I think are worth the time investment. Stay tuned for future videos showing you what!
Nice! I agree with all of comments for all the products. I wish I see this video before I bought Lonsonho and Moes. Aqara is super cool for most of the cases, but I wanted them to be a routers. Thanks for sharing your experience
Glad it was helpful!
besides aqara, the rest of the switches you tested are simply tuya oem products, UK only has basically these 2 choices? what about brands like tapo, lutron, broadlink, sonoff and etc?
A lot of those brands don't do local control that works well with Home Assistant, which is why I didn't look into them further.
So.....lets say I use an Aqara H1 no neutral switch in decoupled mode so I have the switch powered on and then decouple .....if I then link the action of pressing the switch to turning on/off a smart bulb (where the smart bulb is getting permanent power because of the decouple).........is there any other kind of long or multiple short press I could program from the switch that would enable dimming the smart bulb? According to you video a long press on the Aqara switch will put it in to pairing mode so would there be a way to change what would trigger the pairing mode.........or alternatively......would using a double gang Aqara H1 with both relays decoupled give me one switch that I could program to turn the smart bulb on and off and the other switch could be long pressed to cycle through the smart bulbs dimmer setting till you get to the desired dimmer level and then let go of the switch?
You could use a double switch, and have the left switch turn it on with a single tap, and double tap increases the brightness by 10%. Then do the opposite on the right switch to turn it down and off.
Shelly has 4-gang ”switches”. It’s called i4. It’s just a controller though so you need to complement them with actual switches too. The switches can be mounted at the light instead of behind the buttons. If you don’t like Shelly’s own buttons you can use any other of your liking.
Shelly does not require the cloud to speak to Home Assistant or to each other.
Loved the video, though.
I agree, and the main benefit is that you can just use regular switches which make your house more attractive once your want to sell it.
I was just about to say the same. One of the biggest advantages is that you can use any non smart lightswitch, so you have thousands of options available. Using them in my new smart home.
SInce when shelly have Zigbee stuff? wifi stuff is STUPID
I've been using Candeo - definitely the best I've tried (albeit from a limited pool!)
You can also fit the Candeo modules into a fancier faceplate - I've got some fancy looking smart light switches now!
I'm using the Home Assistant Sky Connect zigbee coordinator. I tested the Sonoff relays in a previous video and didn't like the clicking noise that they made, and they don't fit too well in a standard UK back box.
You will love the NSPanel, according to Mark go for the white one.
I have 7 throughout the house and the functionality is unbeatable. There are two major versions, joBr99 which is so so versatile and Blackymas blueprint which I loaded up last night to test . Blackymas version apparently supports switch functionality if WiFi drops out
The buttons work as switches with joBr99's nspanel-lovelace-ui as well. At least, I'm using it with ESPHome, which means that while the screen runs 95% on my HA server, the physical buttons run completely in ESPHome, which means that I basically have full control over what they do locally. I suspect it's similar with tasmota, but I don't actually know for sure
@@jasper265 how did you get it working with ESPhome. Curious to try myself ☺️
@@clairerovic basically just follow the documentation and then use the HA service to upload the screen (which wasn't entirely clear from the documentation in my opinion). I was going to offer to help further if that didn't work, but RUclips comments aren't a great place for that and every comment I post with how else to reach me just gets deleted...
Great video. What is your recommendation for the smart curtain motors? Ones which can move heavy curtains
Try aqara with dedicated rail systems. None of that switchbot rubbish
Recently found this channel, really liking it 👍 Was hoping to see a review of Sonoff switches/NS Panel 😏
I really hope big companies like Jung and such are gonna start producing these kind of switches. You are right that most of them either don't work well enough or don't look good enough.
can you make a video on how to use sonos amp with home assistant and with tv in a smart home
Great info, thank you! I use smart switches everywhere, *_except_* my home theater room. Any smart switch I've installed adds noticeable noise through my speakers, so I had to go with individual smart bulbs. Everytime someone turns off and on the dumb switch real fast, all my pairings get erased 😢.
I was just researching yesterday and found "Friends of Hue" switched quite appealing. They are available in many designs and can even work on kinetic energy like EnOcean. They are expensive though.
If there is enough space and wiring, I think I'll go with old-style switches and flush-mounted relais/dimmers.
I've not personally used them, will give them a go if I come across them! Thanks for sharing
Thanks for the nice review, very clear and to the point with explanations.
Glad it was helpful!