Bulbs or Switches

[Buddyl33 (Brian Engel)]

So I have a question about preference here. I am in a newly built home and just beginning my SmartThings journey. Do you guys utilize intelligent switches, intelligent light bulbs, or both in your designs? What are the benefits of each and using both?

[sidjohn1]

This is already covered pretty throughly

Smart Bulbs or Smart Switch With Dumb Bulbs

Which option do you all prefer? I have a light fixture above my kitchen table with 6 bulbs. Should I get 6 smart bulbs or a smart switch such as the Wemo switch and just put regular LED bulbs in there? Thoughts? Thanks.

Should I get Smart Bulbs or Smart (in wall) Switches?

It depends on what (where) you want them for. The biggest advantage of smart in-wall switches over smart bulbs is the way that the switch works with both the light and the ST hub. If you turn on or off the physical smart switch, you can turn it back on or off with ST. (And if you turn it on/off from ST, you can still turn it on/off from the physical switch.) As well, the smart switch still functions like a normal switch even when ST isn’t working. With smart bulbs, if you turn off the bulb from a fixture or switch, the bulb is disconnected from the ST “network.” That means that ST can’t turn it back on. In fact, ST can’t even find the state of the bulb, so it’s almost as if you just completely unscrewed the bulb. In other words, for things to “work” properly, you can ONLY use ST to…

Smart bulb interaction with dumb light switches?

I’m planning to pick up a couple of the new Cree Connected bulbs soon, but I’m wondering how these types of smart bulbs will interact with my dumb wall switches. I’d like my physical wall switch to be able to override the hub setting to turn them on. e.g. “bedtime” arrives and the bulbs turn off. I come out for a drink of water and grope for the switch. Will turning the power off and back on override the bulb to turn it back on, or will I have to go find my phone in the dark to do it? Thanks!

Out of Sync Bulbs: Manual Switches; How to combat that?

After working this weekend on it, it seems like the switches are the way to go and stay on dumb bulbs. Wish I had got more feedback before starting since bulbs are so much easier . I went to Lowes this weekend and their Iris line of switches works with ZWave and in turn ST but about 20% less expensive than Amazon. Once I opened it up, it was the exact same kit as on Amazon, just a less pretty box and was missing the neutral wire extender. For a 3 way switch with aux: http://www.lowes.com/pd_339584-1353-45638_0__?productId=3707744&Ntt=ge+switch+iris&pl=1&currentURL=%3FNtt%3Dge%2Bswitch%2Biris&facetInfo= Single 3 way switch: http://www.lowes.com/pd_339577-1353-45637_0__?productId=3707736&Ntt=ge+switch+iris&pl=1&currentURL=%3FNtt%3Dge%2Bswitch%2Biris&facetInfo=

More reading:
https://community.smartthings.com/search?q=Smart%20bulb%20smart%20

[viguera]

It’s entirely dependent on your situation and your skill level, IMO.

I went with switches whenever possible because I had no problems dealing with the electrical in my house and because I wanted to avoid the sync issue or having a “smart” bulb on a dumb switch that I couldn’t control because the switch was physically off.

I have lamps that have smart bulbs though, and lamps that have strange funky sized bulbs that need to be plugged into a smart outlet of some sort.

Of course the bad thing is that now when I move I have to pull everything out and replace switches, whereas bulbs are significantly easier to swap out.

Like I said, it’s all specific to your situation.

[schettj (John S)]

@viguera

It’s entirely dependent on your situation and your skill level, IMO.

Agreed. I can change out a switch, and my home has decent wiring with neutral and ground to every switch - so my rule here is if it’s on a switch, change the switch to a smart one. If it’s not, then it might be a bulb or an outlet controller.

If touching electrical wiring isn’t your thing, then the decision is equally easy

[daven]

I’m all for switches for one good reason. When we get a power outage, which isn’t very often but it happened twice this year, my 3 Wink bulbs have to be re-associated. I have never had a switch go missing with a power blip.
For me, smart bulbs are really only when there is no reasonable switch access.

[Benji]

Another good point I need to add to the notch of ‘pros’ against the switch.

[viguera]

That’s interesting… I have about a dozen or so TCP bulbs and they’ve managed to survive through power outages with no issues.

Granted, I still have the occasional issue with some of them that just start blinking out of the blue, but not because of power outages.

[Benji]

The Cree Connected bulbs survive power outages a LOT better for some reason, never had an issue with them, it’s just the GE Links, I wonder what firmware version they are supposed to be on these days some of mine report their version as 0.1b03 / 0.4b00 and some don’t report the version at all…