Wow, this is one of the most amazingly informative threads I’ve stumbled onto recently. Thank you for all the great advice!
I personally have Hue bulbs installed throughout my house but my girlfriend continues to use our old paddle switches which interfere with my ability to control the bulbs and reliably set scenes. A number of these switches are setup in 3-way or 4-way configurations which further complicates matters.
Based on all the information I’ve seen on this thread I am now deciding between two options:
- Bypass all the switches permanently wiring the bulbs on and then use an in-wall Z-Wave switch like the Linear WT00Z-1 to control the bulbs via my SmartThings hub + Hue bridge.
- Install Z-Wave switches like the Leviton DZ15S-1BZ that actually turn power to the bulbs and then set up smart rules that first toggle the switch, wait a couple of seconds, and then adjust the Hue bulb brightness/color (like @SBDOBRESCU suggested).
My main concerns with option #1 are compliance with codes here in Washington state (not sure if it’s legal or not) and the fact that if my Wi-Fi or SmartThings hub are offline then the switches stop working. I am therefore leaning towards option #2. What do you guys think? Has anyone tried this particular setup with the Leviton DZ15S-1BZ switches and if so how is that working out for you? Also, if I later on decided to switch to option #1 and permanently wire the bulbs would I be able to re-use my Leviton switches to control the bulbs via the SmartThings hub?