| I'm not sure. I love my house, but the lights are insane with a switch under every overhead light, and using smart switches to control them has been so very useful. Generally I control all the lights in a room with 1 smart switch so I don't have to walk across the room to turn on all the lights in the room My bedroom came with 3 switches in 2 panels across the room from each other, the kids room 2 in 2 locations, bathroom 4 in 1, kitchen 4 in 3, living room 6 in 2, dinning room 2 in 2. Detailed example: It takes 4 light switches in 3 locations to turn on my kitchen lights: • 1 panel - 3 sides of the kitchen ceiling lights switch, kitchen recessed lights switch • separate panel 4 feet away on the other side of a counter - breakfast bar (4th side) ceiling light switch. • final panel 10 feet to the right, down the breakfast bar counter to turn on the recessed breakfast bar lights. Is it too much to ask that you circumnavigate the kitchen every morning to turn on the lights to make coffee? No, the previous owners did it every day for 20 some odd years. But do I want to do it? No. And I certainly think it's progress that I can choose not to. |
Also, some of us have roommates that don't obey the rules. My 3-year old DOES NOT turn on the lights when she walks downstairs on her own in the morning. Perfect opportunity for a simple Z-Wave motion senor + switch automation,.
Otherwise, I agree with the general sentiment to keep it simple. I use Z-Wave switches for lights, a Z-Wave lock for one of my doors, and run HA on a RPi4. Haven't spent an insane amount of time building custom scripts because I want to do other things. And those switches still work without HA too.
(totally see the benefits of Shelly, but hard to stuff in some electrical boxes like those in my house)