Wiring for smart home (France)

Hello I à building a new home and will be starting the wiring stage shortly, I will go with Philips hue lighting kit throughout the home and use Alexa, can somebody give me advise on how to wire the light switches(if needed) and light fittings I believe the lights need to be on all the time(so no switch is needed I take it) so there is a permanent live at the light fitting?
Thank you

I wish I had sought this kind of advice before we built.

You’re correct that smart bulbs need to always have power so technically no switch is needed.

However, you’re going to want switches for:

  • Times when your internet is down (voice assistants and phone apps won’t work without internet)
  • For guests who you don’t want to give access to your smart home network just so they can turn lights on and off
  • For general convenience so you can turn lights on and off when you don’t want to use voice and don’t have a phone in your hand

There maybe safety legislation that requires proper wired light switches to be present, you would want to consult an electrician.

In general if you are doing a new electrical installation you want to make sure all your lighting circuits have 3+Earth wiring. Older more common wiring - at least in the UK often has 2+Earth with the wires being Live, Neutral and Earth. Even if your lighting and switches initially only need 2+Earth having the extra wire will future proof you for the possibility of using smart wired dimmers which might need 3+Earth.

Currently if you are going to use Hue or any other brand of smart bulbs your best bet is to fit normal wired light switches and cover them with an adapter plate to hold a Philips Hue dimmer switch like one of the following.

Note: The link below seems to have options for 1 gang, 2 gang and US Decorator style.

I personally like a lot of people have decided to move away from smart bulbs i.e. Philips Hue and instead I plan to get smart wired light switches. (Unfortunately at the moment the choices available in the UK all have flaws in my opinion.)

Hi
Thank you so much for the replies guys​:+1::+1: i will take both of your advise on board,another question to the two of you… would you recommend philosophy hue and Alexa or is there better kits out there?

Damm phone was meant to be Philips hue or…

I have not done any smart bulbs yet so can’t comment much.

@JDRoberts is generally a fount of knowledge.

We should have asked what country you’re in, that can limit your choices.

Also, read this thread, it’s someone just starting out with SmartThings. Not exactly your situation, but all advice there will be applicable

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First we need to know what country you are in, as both the device selection and building code requirement do vary quite a bit. :sunglasses:

As far as the switches issue, if you are using bulbs with a Phillips hue bridge you will have quite a few options that will work well. But again it does depend on what country you are in.

We should also mention that this particular form is for people using the Samsung smartthings home automation system, and therefore all questions and answers are assumed to be in that context.

It’s a very active forum, but it is not a general home automation for him even though it will come up near the top on a Google search for mini home automation questions.

So that’s going to affect the answers that you will get quite significantly. For example, people might start suggesting Z wave switches, but they will be assuming that you have a smartthings hub to access them.

If you want to stick with just Echo and the Phillips hue bridge, you certainly can. But in that case you should probably go over to either the Amazon forums or a Phillips hue forum or The Reddit home automation sub forum, which is platform agnostic.

https://www.reddit.com/r/homeautomation/

But again, first let’s just get the answers to the most basic questions: what country are you in. There are some general tips for smart home wiring regardless of the home automation system you choose, but it will be different depending on your country. Since you said “fittings“ rather than “fixtures“, I’m guessing you might be in the UK or Europe, but of course you could also be someone who grew up there and then moved to the US. :sunglasses:

Hi thank you for the reply

I live in France, I know the building regulations and Electrical regulations over here as this is my 2nd build,but I think I will just stick with the safest and best option and wire the switches then cover them later on,and I will look to buy my stuff online from Amazon france or the Uk

Thanks for the help

Grant

For France, the only main tips I know are to get deep back boxes (60 mm minimum) if possible and make sure there is a neutral at each light switch box. That will give you the most options for the future.

For example, the Fibaro dimmer module is very popular, but requires 60mm depth.

https://manuals.fibaro.com/content/manuals/en/FGD-212/FGD-212-EN-T-v1.3.pdf

Dimmer 2 should be installed in a wall switch box compliant with a relevant national safety standards and with depth no less than 60mm,

The way around that if you have a more shallow Pattress is to use an “elevated” switch plate, also sometimes called a “collar“, which adds space by lifting the switch up above the wall. If you use the right kit, that’s safe electrically, but not everyone likes the aesthetics.

Thank you so much!!! Very helpfull and kind of you!!!

Grant

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And here’s a good article on a three wire system, which is what brings a neutral to the switchbox: