Hi,
I’m hoping someone here with a little more knowledge than me could offer some advice.
I’m looking at a home renovation soon including a total rewire and hoping to fit these Aeotec dimmer relays for use with LED lighting behind each of my light switches:
http://aeotec.com/support/1218-micro-dimmer-wiring-schematics.html
My understanding is that a simple two-way switch will just effectively turn my relay on and off which isn’t ideal but perhaps workable if on resume from power failure you can set them to default on. Or perhaps I’m misunderstanding what this means, will both the relay and the switch act independently to switch the bulb like a standard “upstairs downstairs hall lights” configuration?
Ideally it looks like I want momentary switches and we like standard looking MK white switches so I’m wondering if these are actually momentary switches or not because they say they are two-way but from their description appear to work in a similar way to a momentary switch.
Does anyone know if these will work with the above?
http://www.qvsdirect.com/mk-logic-plus-1-gang-2-way-10a-press-switch-white
Are the terms “momentary” and “push” interchangeable? There seems to be a lack of UK products when it comes to light switches and I can’t really find any concrete answers.
Thanks in advance!
Matt
My understanding was that the switch and relay operate independently but I’m by no means certain of that.
I’m not sure about push / momentary being interchangeable but it sounds like it would be. I also found switches that were ‘retractive’ which I’m fairly sure is the same thing.
Sorry I couldn’t be more help. I’m still trying to figure out lighting myself so hoping someone will come along with the answers you need!
Hi, I came here looking for something else, but I’m quite up on the home automation thing.
You might want to look at Z-Wave if your budget permits, particularly the Fibaro Dimmer 2, which will do the same job but with more bells and whistles (such as the ability to remotely control lighting, monitor energy consumption etc). However these tend to be £40 each at best.
As for momentary/retractive switches (same thing), I personally use these as I have a chrome switch ‘theme’: http://www.rbstarelectrical.co.uk/products/gu1412rbpc
However if you wanted white, they have an alternative:
They’re very good quality switches, I recall them being cheaper when I bought them so you may want to look around.
Also consider Lightwave RF to keep the budget down (although there are fewer long term automation prospects)
Hi,
Thanks for your responses, so it looks like if I don’t actually care about the switch position correctly reflecting whether or not the light is on (much like a common 2-way setup with 2 switches controlling a single light) then I can just use a “standard” on/off light switch and both relay and switch will work independently because the power runs through the relay (allowing the relay to switch it on and off) and the switch simply turns the relay on and off.
I was worried that if smartthings tells the relay to turn off then the switch on the wall will not be able to turn it back on.
Thanks for the links I will take a look at the products and compare them, I’d looked at Aeotec because they seem compact and use z-wave.
Cheers,
Matt
Sorry, I had no idea what forum I’d landed on!
Looks like Z-Wave should be fine then, and as long as you have the retractive switch attached to the module, you’ll be able to fully control the module regardless of SmartThings being connected to it or not.
For instance, I’m currently moving my home from X10 to Z-Wave. At the moment I only have a single Z-Wave micro module behind a retractive switch (no hub for Z-Wave whatsoever) and it works fine as a stand alone dimmer.
As for your original post, that looks like a retractive switch to me, it should work.
1 Like