If all your lights are hue you should cover or remove all of your wall switches to prevent them being switched off. Smart bulbs are designed to be always on and not switched off at the mains.
1 Like
Smart bulbs and switches, as others have mentioned, is an entirely different conversation and one that has been discussed many times in the forums. 
It used to be that there was no good answer, but fortunately in the last six months or so there are now a number of different choices. So start with the FAQ:
And then take a step back and consider the whole switches versus bulbs discussion:
Just remember that the older arguments about not having a light switch to use with a smart bulb no longer apply, which is why you should read the switch FAQ first. 
2 Likes
Yes, I am trying to find a solution for that. Any suggestions?
Iâve had very good experiences with the GE 12xxx series. Stay away from the 4xxxx series. Leviton also makes a very good switch/dimmer.
As others have mentioned, smart bulbs and dumb switches are not good combinations unless you somehow prevent the switch from being turned off.
Multiple options are discussed in the following thread (this is a clickable link)
2 Likes
You canât blame ST entirely for recent Hue issues if you installed the 4/5/17 Hue software update. Theyâve admitted that there is an issue in the update. It bricked one of my V2 Bridges. Hue replaced the bridge, as soon as the new bridge updated âto the latest software everything is screwed up again. I can control rooms, but individual lights are extremely hit or miss.
And, when we have a ST outage or internet outage, this means no control of smart bulbs at all, unless you have the bridge.
Funny thing I never imagined Iâd say, âIâm sorry, but the lights are down.â I had to tell my guests that last night. Iâm going to have to take a second pass at redundancies in a few areas to have more graceful failovers.
1 Like
This is why I invested in a bunch of Hue dimmers & Tap switches. Came home to a dark house at 3 am because of an internet outage once too many times. You can still control Hue lights locally with the Hue app as long as your on the same LAN
3 Likes
True, hence i only use smart bulbs for ambient and secondary lighting. All my primary and main lights are on smart switches for this reason. Also, most of my smart bulbs are connected to hue which are still accessible through a few hue switches via local connection.
2 Likes
I am now convinced, due to this thread, to really understand how the switches work. I think thats the key to making this smooth. Thanks everyone.
2 Likes
Unless you have a one off lamp or two in the room I see no reason not to use the switches. I bought the Leviton Z wave plus ones and they work well, and it works just as a regular Decora switch, so guests do not even need to use the automation. On top of that I can always turn it on no matter if ST is up or down.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01N4F487U/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
1% at the most
1 Like
same issue here my resolutionâŠ
converted every toggle in my home into a ge zwave switches for areas I desired automation and 2 dollar ace hardware paddle switches in places or areas where I donât need automation. so basically in my house every switch is ge but you have options.
with this I was able to set up all my routines smart lighting and core pistons with mode restrictions being very important.
so when I or we get home my automations kick in and sets to home. at this point my wife can go back to the stone age and flip whatever lights she wants without an automation being stopped. do not trigger when in home mode.
then at some point we go to bed and the night mode takes over so I know that whatever switch my wife messed with gets triggered back to its original state ready to fire our goodmorning lights.
it was a work in progress but Iâve got it to where she can do what she wants and I can rest knowing my pistons are firing.
HHHAAAA HHAAAAA
As you noticed, this is a never ending conversation, with people who are passionate on both sides. There are multiple reasons why someone might want to use a smart bulb for a particular use case, in particular if they want either color temperature adjustment (from cool white to warm white), if they want to create zones in a room which has multiple lights controlled by one switch, or of course if they want red/green/blue/color options. Or if they just donât want to fuss with the wiring. Smart bulbs can also dim lower than most smart switches.
Switches with dumb bulbs have a lot of pluses as well, in particular cost if you have multiple bulbs in a room and you donât care about zone configurations. And they donât turn themselves back on after a power outage.
At my house we use bulbs in some places and switches in others. Both are good when matched to the right need.
Again, there are already literally dozens of threads discussing this in the forums so just search and youâll find plenty. 
1 Like
Back to the original question of this thread⊠Since there may be people who find this in the future just because of the thread title, I thought I would include a link to a post where we were discussing exactly that question a few days ago:
1 Like
I would say that the downtime is far less than 1%. Think about it, if it was any higher than that, it would amount to more than 14 minutes per day.
You just really notice the times it is down because of the inconvenience and the rest of the time you ignore it.
Last nightâs outage really only lasted 6 hours from report to fix, not everybody was affected for all of that period, but the repercussions (lack of refresh) lasted until your hub received new information (in my case about 10 hours) and the other items worked fine.
1 Like
âDowntimeâ is a transactional measurement. Itâs how programmers will tend to look at it. But itâs not how consumer products are typically measured. If your thermostat fails to set once every day, it doesnât matter if it works fine 12 other times. Or if your security camera fails for five minutes every day, from a consumer product standpoint it doesnât matter that it works fine the other 23 hours and 55 minutes. A daily failure resets the MFOP clock, so that product has zero reliability. It never makes it through a day without a failure.
Currently in the US and Europe market standards are that consumer products should be âset and forgetâ for their MFOP. The microwave, the television, the motion sensor, should work until they break. And that break should be at least six months out from time of purchase, and preferably longer.
Itâs not about percentage of completed transactions. Itâs about the amount of time between failures.
3 Likes
Exactly! Well said!
At to this point ST has yet to make it through a single month without some sort of failure or outage! Thatâs pretty ridiculous for a so called Smart Home Platform.