So I’ve searched and I haven’t found anything I would match.
I have a situation where I have 1 light switch inside the house that controls a light in breezeway to my garage. Inside the garage is a single gang dual switch that controls the same breezeway light and a switch that controls a light in the garage.
I want to get the breezeway light set up with SmartThings. This requires two smart switches set up but in the garage I also have the switch for the garage light. I’m ok with keeping that dumb as I don’t need any automated control over it.
Not sure what my solutions are. I’m fairly new to this so I appreciate any help/advice/directions.
If your switch in the house and the switch in the garage control the same light, then you can use a 3 way setup with a GE/Jasco smart switch and add on switch . You could also use an inovelli switch on one end and leave the other one alone. Zooz also has an option to just use one smart switch. I have all three products and they work great for me. I have a light in my garage that uses a separate switch, so I set up an automation in the smart lighting app in smartthings to mirror what another switch does. That way when I turn one smart switch on , the other smart switch turns the other garage light for me. The folks at inovelli and zooz are more than helpful at answering questions in these matters.
What country are you in? The device selection does vary.
Also, can you post a picture of the “single gang dual switch“, I’m not quite sure what you mean by this. The options may depend on the specific form factor and whether there is room for even a single radio in the switchbox.
If in the US, then you just need to make the inside switch smart using one the the Smart Switches that doesn’t need an add on switch for 3-Way operation. Zooz is an example.
Sounds like in the garage you have a single gang box with a double switch with one of those being 3-Way to control the inside light. If so then yep, just one Smart Switch is all you need.
If you wanted to make the garage light smart as well, then there’s a couple of options but I would just physically increase the box size to double gang.
I agree with @rontalley here however before you purchase anything, please post pictures of your switch boxes so we can see the wiring behind the switch. Smart switches require a neutral wire and that might not be available in your house and only in garage. This would mean that the smart switch must go in the garage which will complicate things and your options with that double switch. Before going into detail there please loosen your house switch, pull it out and take pictures so we can see wires in the back of the box.
That’s definitely the most likely option if the OP is in the US. But it’s not the only option, which is why I asked. And if it happens at the OP is in the UK, it’s going to look very different.
So here are the photos. I can only put 1 photo per post
First one is the inside switch and circled.
The second photo is the switch in the garage. Top half controls the light I want. Bottom half controls garage light (don’t care about).
If I put a smart switch inside the house someone can still turn off the switch in the garage and cause me problems, right?
Also, I’d like to be able to turn the light on from inside the garage. If it is dark it would be nice to have that when going from garage to house (garage is detached from the house)
Ok, The simplest option would be to put dimmable bulbs in the breezeway and then use the zooz single gang dual switch:
The top half of that switch is a dimmer and the bottom button is an on/off relay, so you can use the on/off for the garage.
Or you could put a dimmable bulb in the garage and then use the on/off button for the breezeway. Either way would work.
It is going to depend on the exact wiring that you have, though, because you will need a neutral wire for the dual switch.
Then you would set up the switch in the house to be part of a “virtual three-way“ with the switch in the garage. The two switches do not have to be directly wired to each other, each can communicate with the hub which then passes the message on.
Zooz is the house brand for TheSmartestHouse . Com . They have very good customer service and can help you with figuring out the wiring for your set up and whether it will be possible. So just contact them through their site.
The other alternative for the garage if you can’t put a dimmable bulbs in either location is the Coolcam 2 button switch. It’s not as well engineered and customer support can be challenging because it’s a Chinese company. It used to work quite well with smart things, but I honestly don’t know if anybody has it working with the current V3 app or not. But it does exist. In this case, each button controls a different light.
And again, you would set up the switch inside the house as a virtual three-way.
Other than that, there aren’t a lot of options but there may be some if you want to keep looking.
In all cases, it’s going to depend on the exact wiring, so you will need to map the circuits to know exactly what will work where.
What you’re missing is that when you have a smartthings account, any switch which can communicate with that account can be used in a “virtual three-way“.
Switch A sends a message to the hub and the breezeway light goes on. Switch B sends message to the hub and the breezeway light goes on. You can even have the hub send a message to the other switch to keep them in sync so both will look like they are on at the same time when you check the app. So honestly that’s the easiest part of what you’re asking about. The two switches don’t have to be on the same circuit branch. They just both have to be able to talk to the hub. So the individual switches can be single pole switches, but it’s the “virtual“ part of the virtual three-way that gives you control of the same fixture from two different switches.
