Lutron Caseta

[...] Why would I want to replace a perfectly good light switch with flaky buttons and smart bulbs that need to be repaired every month? [...] I went with Lutron Caseta wall switches and plug-in dimmers. (Expensive at $60/switch.) Lutron has been doing commercial automation for a very long time and it shows. [...] (Using the correct blueprints.) I’ve had this set up for over a year and I’ve yet to replace a battery on the many dozens of remotes I have. [...]

I've been using the same Hue lightbulbs for at least 8 years now and never had any of the issues you describe. When you have a home with children and a fair number of rooms, you'll find that turning off the lights at night is not just a simple matter of "getting off the couch and flicking a switch." Also, I've rarely encountered smart lighting that didn't have a physical switch as a fallback option (for example, my Lutron Caseta switches have buttons on them that will work just fine if the network goes down, and my Hue bulbs are all connected to dumb switches), so the idea it doesn't work "100% of the time" is a strawman argument.

Automation: Home Assistant Smart switches: Lutron Caseta. (With the dimmer for ELV lighting so I can use the middle button for specific brightness/warmth levels.) Outdoor bulbs: Philips warm glow bulbs. [...]

I don't know if they're available in other markets, but in the US I've been very happy with Lutron Caseta switches for that sort of "smart enough" use case. It generally all works like normal dumb switches if the hub is offline or doesn't exist, and you only need the hub to manage configuration or enable the remote control (outside home) features. The fact that the switches look like, act like, and install like traditional dimmers and control traditional light fixtures is really what sold me: I've never liked the idea of the smart parts being in something like a light bulb thats basically a replaceable wear item.

[...] Mostly not for lighting or other high-touch purposes, but I do use a few Lutron Caseta plug-in dimmers for lamps that aren't on switched outlets as the remotes can go in a standard Decora-style wall plate and they work regardless of the hub being online. I've got Zigbee and Wi-Fi/Tasmota outlets running the heating and lighting for my chicken brooders[0], my partner's plant lights, fish tank lights, probably more that I'm forgetting. At our cabin the mountains, an outlet + temperature sensor combined with Home Assistant's Thermostat helper gives us temperature control over an extremely basic window A/C unit and we cast an HA dashboard to a nearby Google Home screen. [...]

[...] (I had already replaced all light switches with Lutron Caseta.) After a weekend of attaching and configuring sensors, the physical part was done, and it was all software after that. [...]

I went with Lutron Caseta switches (though they're not the only ones that do this) for that reason. [...] For the price of half of one Hue bulb, my whole fixture is smart now, and I can still use whatever bulb I want.

I bought Eve brand motion/occupancy/illuminance sensors for high traffic areas. [...] By using occupancy and time of day conditions I can have multiple rules to turn on lights to different brightnesses at different times of day. [...] I use Lutron Caseta wall dimmers and dimmable LEDs everywhere so they already have a nice fade-off effect. [...] For low traffic areas like closets I use Lutron Caseta motion sensors; they work great and have very little configuration. [...]

[...] The Lutron Caseta series of lighting products are basically the gold standard for being "fail normal" functional without network connectivity to the system control bridge, and the system also uses different RF frequencies than 2.4GHz Wifi based "smart" switches, so it doesn't rely on or potentially create congestion issues on your home Wifi network(s).

Zigbee has hardwired switch options so you aren’t replacing batteries, but I haven’t done a lot of them because they’re far from dirt cheap. Only in places where I find automations or smartphone control to be particularly useful, or where existing dimmers died and I figured I might as well upgrade. Inovelli Blue are the ones I’m using, but at $50 each they’re competing against products like Lutron Caseta. In some other places where it’s not just wanting the zigbee control, but also that the hardwired switch is in a stupid location, I’m using IKEA’s RODRET remote combined with their relatively cheap Zigbee bulbs, instead of Zigbee wall switches. [...] I sleep a little better knowing all my line voltage devices are from real brands with UL or equivalent testing, and the only cheap parts from mystery vendors with unknown certifications are 3V coin cell door sensors.

I had a bunch of Philips Hue LED light bulbs until they started dying within a couple of years or less and the replacement costs were ridiculous. That's when I switched to Lutron Casetas.

[...] I think I've had to hard reset and repair one of them in 3 years, so not too bad. But some days I'm tempted to swap them all for Lutron Caseta. That just gets a bit pricey (both to swap, and then to expand).

If you're going down the home automation rabbit hole, I really like the Lutron Caseta lighting controls I got a few years back. I have a couple lamp dimmers to control some lamps together and they look nice, work well, and integrated with my logitech remote pretty well.

Lutron Caseta switches don’t use an open protocol and don’t seem to get much love in the fancy consumer-level smarthome space, but have been bomb-proof for reliability for me and work to turn lights on/off as long as they have power.

I think one solid way of handling the instability is to use high quality light automation (Lutron Caseta, for example) for the things you'll really notice, but for stuff you care less about (for me that's cameras, temperature sensors) you can use cheaper ZWave stuff w/ home assistant. The lights turn on and off when I expect, but temperature might update a little less frequently if HA is flaky.

I love my Lutron Caseta. Falls back to regular light switches if wifi is out, plus I didn’t have to change any light bulbs! [...]

The Inovelli Red series is a popular choice for Z-Wave switches. They also make a Zigbee version with similar features. Personally, I have been using Lutron Caseta switches which use a proprietary protocol, but you can get local control and they've been incredibly solid.

I started with Lutron Caseta switches specifically for the fail normal feature. They even had wireless remotes for their switches that require no software or cloud at all.

Lutron Caseta for lights. [...] HomeKit for cameras. [...]

My most reliable home automation devices are the Lutron Caseta. [...]

I can control my lamps both ways. I have Lutron Caseta controls, so I have the a control on the wall at the door and a remote on my night stand. I can also use my phone to control the lights or just ask Siri to turn them off.

I like lutron caseta, but I believe those do not fit the bill here. The light on the side may reflect the current light level, but the slider doesn't move. I had some levitron smart lights previously and while I wouldn't recommend them, they had two buttons instead of a physical slider to adjust brightness and avoid the problem altogether.

I went with Lutron Caseta. It is way more reliable than z-wave when you have a large number of devices, but they limit each hub to 75 devices which kinda sux. As a side note Lutron did a pretty good job with led brightness which is a big deal at night with lots of devices.

Good to know. I got a Lutron Caseta starter kit on Woot but haven’t figured out where I want to start yet