Smart home - light switches etc

[LeevMarie]

Hi everyone,
Just looking for some advice and would be grateful for any help.

I'm going to be doing a lot of work on my house in the coming months and would like to install some 'smart' features. Has anyone else done this? Any recommendations on products etc? I'm thinking lighting, heating and alarm system to start with, but I'd love to hear some more ideas.

Also, I'd like to install smart light switches and I've seen some relatively cheap in Screwfix. Does anyone know if you have smart light switches, do they allow you to disable the light in the room? 3 year old DS is currently driving me crazy by turning his bedroom light on and off during the night and I'd like to cut it off completely but don't know if there's the capacity to do this.

I am interested in this too! We changed the use of a few rooms and now we need to retrofit a two way light switch.

We have motion detected lights in the hallways, utility room and low level in the bathrooms for night time loo trips. I love them all and couldn't imagine not having them now. They are sensitive to light so don't come on in the day and we can also programme them to turn on or off at certain times.

We also have voice activated lights in the main bedroom, kitchen and living room, but also switches.

Look at the Shelly website, they might have what you're after. We use them for all the components for our smart lights

I installed Lightwave smart switches and a couple of sockets as part of my re-wire. The switches are great - they are dimmable (can have one gang or two gang) and I can control everything on the app. You can have pre-sets of when lights go on and off, also what level of brightness. And yes you can also “lock” a switch on the app so it can’t be turned off/on manually at the switch. I do like it but it was expensive (I was lucky to get it at cost though via a friend) I don’t think I would pay the full price though. I also tried the Lightwave heating controller but that was rubbish so now have the Honeywell home smart control, it’s great (I guess it’s similar to nest etc).

@ecology1989
I have seen lightwave switches before, a bit pricey but they look good! Do you know if they easy to install (I have 4 led spots in each room) and have you used their remote control?

Also wondering if anyone has experience of the philips hue bulbs and switches?

I've got loads of Hue lights, switches and plugs. It is easily controllable by voice (Alexa) and/or Hive motion sensors.

When you get to 50 Hue items you have to add another bridge, the bridge is slower to respond when you hit 40 items The Hive app is more responsive than Hue so I tend to use that or Alexa to control Hue.

Brilliant thanks everyone! I'll take a look at the recommendations.

I also really like the idea of motion activated lights.

We have Philips hue lights wherever we can, you can control on Google home and set schedules, like my lights go off in my study when I know I need to stop working! We have motion activated lights in all areas you don't sit in, and it makes a big difference to lights being left on.

I've got a lot of hue, I prefer the hive motion sensors and door openers, they're smaller and unobtrusive. They work together really well.

I love the functionality, I've got a dark landing and as your head appears through the spindles as you walk up the stairs or come out of a bedroom the light landing lights switch on for 5 mins.

I have a daily alarm on my phone at 8:30 so that I can check that DC haven't left a million lights on when I know they've left for school, and switch them off remotely.

@House2022 - mine were installed as part of new lighting (LED spots and centre light) so I am not sure how easy or difficult it is to retrofit onto an existing system... I'm not sure why it would be difficult though. I don't have the remote - I just use the app on my phone (there is a hub that links to your wifi).

I also have motion sensor lights - great in the hallway, nightmare in the kitchen (not sure why I did the kitchen... am getting them changed back to switches).