Which Smart electrical switches?
- Thread starter Crazy_Eddy
- Start date
There are broadly two types of smart switches available. Touch/mechanical smart switches with generally wifi as a communication protocol and small relays that goes behind existing switch boards. They usually use zigbee or z-wave or wifi as a communication protocol. While it is recommended to use z-wave/zigbee as they are more robust but wifi switches are cheaper than them. I recently got my home done from a guy ,my friend knows in gurgaon. I am pretty sure he does projects PAN india. I got 8 z-wave relays from fibaro and 1 zwave gateway. So far it works great. Great thing is it is not dependent on cloud for local control which means i can control all my appliances even if my internet goes down as long as i am in same wifi network. And all of this is wireless so there was no civil work.
The problem with zwave is that the frequency in India is different from US and UK. Hence the cost of zwave products is much higher in India due to much lower volume.
A better choice is to use Zigbee or wifi which have the same frequency everywhere. For wifi switches look into Sonoff.
A better choice is to use Zigbee or wifi which have the same frequency everywhere. For wifi switches look into Sonoff.
While Choosing Smart Switches and making your home a smart home you need to consider below given basic features in smart switches.
1. Smarteefi Smart Switch
2. Sonoff Smart Wifi Wireless Switches
3. TP-Link Smart Single Pole Wifi Light Switch
- Bluetooth and Wifi Connectivity
- Presence sensing automation
- Energy monitoring
- Integrated automation with other smart gadgets
1. Smarteefi Smart Switch
2. Sonoff Smart Wifi Wireless Switches
3. TP-Link Smart Single Pole Wifi Light Switch
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Different frequencies does not make much of a difference. Its the licensing fees manufacturers have to pay silicon labs(zwave parent company) plus when you import zwave products in India it is bound to get expensive. But all things considered zwave is still the best protocol we have as of now for Home automation systems.
My idea is to make some switches operable through wireless (say like, switch off the car park lights from second floor). Not expecting to do anything fancy, just some practical solution.
So far I have zeroed in on Sonoff Mini.
I presume you will have wifi coverage where the lights are wired
Sonoff mini will work fine for your needs - You could leave it with the stock firmware and use the default app which relies on a cloud connection
Alternatively ,you could load an alternative firware like sonoff-tasmota and change the control model to local lan based
Default app (ewelink) has the ability to work even if the if the internet is down. Its called LAN Control. As long as you're in the same wifi network as the mini, you can control the device. Additionally Sonoff Mini comes with the DIY mode that exposes the GPIO headers which allows users to easily flash the custom firmware of their choice. But IMHO the OP can easily use the default app and even use the traditional switches as the mini can be installed behind the switchboard.
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Sonoff Mini is good choice. You can also take a look at motion/ldr sensor enabled lights if you want a even simpler solution.