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Need help converting dumb switches; one w/o any lights, one w/ Hue bulbs (lemmy.world)

submitted 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) by Backfire@lemmy.world to c/homeassistant@lemmy.world

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I'm looking for a smart home solution use two switches in my living room (EU), in order to make them just smart enough so I can control some devices. The setup isn't very complex in itself, and I'm pretty sure it's doable - I'm just unsure what I'd need in order to use these switches in a 'smart' capacity...

This is what I had in mind:

On-off switch, connected to a single light with three Hue filament bulbs. I'd like this one to always be powered, as to make them always controllable
On-off switch, which should be connected to a light which isn't in use at all. Once this one is 'smart', I could control all other smart devices in the living room like a 'turn off everything'-button.

I have a Hue bridge and a Home Assistant instance running in my home.

With regards to wife-approval-factor, I'd rather leave the original switches in place, but I'm open to suggestions. I hope one of you can steer me in the right direction.

Edit: if this isn't the right community for the question, I'd understand, but I wasn't sure where to put it otherwise... I'd be open to suggestions to that too.

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[–] rambos@lemm.ee 2 points 9 months ago (2 children)

May I ask why grounding is concerning? Im not expert, but afaik normal wall switches dont use ground wire and ceiling lights may use one. I thought if wall switch is made of plastic there is no need for grounding. Please correct me if Im wrong, I want to learn. I was looking at sonoff zbmini-l2, but didnt buy any yet

[–] semperverus@lemmy.world 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Every normal electrical box in every house ive lived in has a white wire, a black wire, and an exposed copper wire. Every switch has always had a green screw that the copper wire goes around. The zigbee adapters all seem to lack a spot for the copper wire, which is meant to help protect electrical equipment and prevent fires during events like power surges and whatnot.

[–] claude_flammang@dju.social 1 points 9 months ago

@semperverus
In European countries you only have live wire, never the ground, neutral in newer installations.
The switches don’t need ground as there is no exposed metallic component. Ground is needed where a human could be exposed to live (due to a fault) as it would trigger the breaker.

[–] AA5B@lemmy.world 1 points 9 months ago

Every wall switch I’ve seen (in US) has an attachment for a ground wire, except really ancient ones, and every “Romex” style wiring includes a ground wire

My house is an older one with steel junction boxes, so those need to be grounded, but plastic boxes obviously do not.

So, my experience may be limited but I’ve always seen switches grounded and always seen everything support grounding.

As someone further up said, it’s the neutral that is the problem. I don’t know if it’s code or convention, but older wiring tends to use “switch loops” without a neutral, while more modern wiring is “pass through” and does. Even before smart switches, this was needed for things like lighted or programmable switches