Lutron Caseta + Hue Bulbs on the same circuit

Devices & Integrations
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Hello, I’m new here and don’t yet have a ST hub (though I’m almost definitely going to get one). Forgive me if this has been asked before–I couldn’t find anything in the forums.

I’ve read about not physically dimming hue bulbs and [FAQ: Philips Hue and Other Smart Bulbs - What sort of light switches to use with them? (Long FAQ)](http://various switching options), but I’m not sure what kind of control of the lutron switches I can have.

I just had an electrician install (without really consulting me) a couple Lutron Caseta switches. I really like them, but I want to put Hue bulbs inside the fixtures that they control.

Obviously I don’t want to let the Lutrons dim the Hues via the hard line, BUT I would like to be able to switch my lights on and off if my wifi or internet is down. I’d prefer to not hard-wire the lights for this reason.

I would like this:

  1. make the on/off (top/bottom) buttons on the caseta to PHYSICALLY switch my hue on and off (or even better, only do so if the bridge/wifi isn’t responding – but that might be too much to ask)
  2. have the dimming functionality of the caseta switches do NOTHING physically, but connect to the the hue hub (via smarthings) to dim them (or maybe change color temp, etc).

Is this possible? I can I make the caseta not physically do anything when i use its dimmer buttons? Also the “on”/“off” part currently dims the light up slowly, so I’d need to make sure that doesn’t happen either.

Thank you!

2

Not possible, unfortunately. :disappointed_relieved:

The Caseta, just like other load-bearing dimming switches, controls the amount of current being sent to the fixture, and in that set up, you want only dumb bulbs in the fixture. Otherwise the smart bulbs and the dimmer switch end up confusing each other and you can burn out one or the other.

So the same rule applies – – don’t use a smart bulb with any switch, smart or dumb, which dims the current to the bulb.

If you want to only use the smarts in the Bulb to dim the bulb and just use The Lutron as a dummy switch which never Controls the load ever but is wired just to give power to the switch and then make changes because it sends a message to the Lutron smart bridge which sends a message to the smartthings hub which sends a message to the smart bulb, you could probably do that, but it would only work when all the individual pieces were working, and there would probably be some noticeable lag. You could try it, but I don’t think you would be happy with the results.

If you want to use Lutron switches, use dumb bulbs with them.

If you want to use smart bulbs, see the following FAQ for your options: