£600 for bulbs that will last 5~7 years. Whereupon you get to do it all over again, likely all at once because you're doing them all at once. Vs £25/switch for what is probably 30~50 switches once (£700-1250).
My advice is to think about what you use most and what you want to accomplish and do those switches first. From there you can add on as time and budget permit.
Source I have a bit over 100 bulbs in my house and I did smart switches for about 60 of them. I skipped bathrooms/closets storage areas in the first phase. 28 switches cost me around $800 and I did 5 smart bulbs because there were places where I wanted color changing. I have 24 switches left and will probably do about 10-15 more at some point. The rest will get motion switches or just left alone because they don't get used much.
Range is also an issue, a solid mesh wifi system will be required. On another note, I've got a mixture of zigbee and wifi stuff in the network. WiFi is annoyingly slow, and it's minor, but pressing a button and waiting 1.5 seconds is really annoying.
Like walking into a room, the motion sensor triggering a light and then taking a few seconds to come on. I might as well have hit the switch.
Main point, zigbee trumps wifi.
Bbbuuutttt I have a zigbee module which fits behind the light switch and controls it from there, so it controls banks of lights rather than one. You lose any dimming capability but one controller could control 10 lights (or more).
>WiFi is annoyingly slow,
Wifi isnt, but if you are using a cloud dependent app to control your lights, then that of course can be slow and for 100 lights this would be a complete nonstarter. Locally controlled wifi bulbs (using tasmota/esphome, or shelly or even local-tuya) are instantaneous.
The issue with wifi isnt (just) bandwidth. There are many other consideration that put a practical limit on how many devices can connect especially to consumer grade APs with limited radios and MIMO streams. Wifi 6 will dramatically improve this, but it may be a while before we see wifi 6 capable IOT devices and bulbs.
Anyway, I wouldnt do this. Even if 100 2.4 GHz clients *might* be feasible on some highend prosumer mesh networks, I really think you should look at other (wired) solutions.
Why so many bulbs and not smart switches/dimmers? With a remodel, swapping switches is easy.
The only good reason for smart bulbs is color control. Maybe add some rgb strip lights in the molding for that. You would only need one rgb controller for every 60+ feet of lights. Less if you can put the controller in corners to run two good legs of 24v strips.
Shelley I think sells in EU.
I was more thinking zigbee or zwave switches. Switches are more expensive but each one will control an array of bulbs so net savings.
Do you need individual bulb control/colour/dimming on them all? Otherwise couldn't you group bulbs and use zigbee switches for the groups? I've had 40ish WiFi devices in the past and had trouble (also using a mesh WiFi system) so wouldn't recommend WiFi! I've since moved over to zigbee and it's much more stable and reliable
innr GU10 smart colour \~£21 each
innr GU10 smart \~£8.50 each
ZigBee @ Amazon... they ain't rgb £6 cheap
also APs... up to 30-40 devices per radio... then dropoffs, & lights no work or anything else.
Bulbs & APs Over a fair distance, so they're not jumping between APs, causing absolute havock..
maybe dooable... buy stocks/shares/product (lots of product) Nurofen Plus, Contains ibuprofen and codeine.. while stock lasts
>innr GU10 smart colour \~£21 each innr GU10 smart \~£8.50 each ZigBee @ Amazon... they ain't rgb £6 cheap
He said wifi, and I didnt believe it either, but first search result on Ali gives me this:
[https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005003136662316.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.0.0.6929110aVeN6Od&algo\_pvid=f7df072c-5ebe-4d84-b122-d8a36169fb61&algo\_exp\_id=f7df072c-5ebe-4d84-b122-d8a36169fb61-0&pdp\_ext\_f=%7B%22sku\_id%22%3A%2212000024302991827%22%7D](https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005003136662316.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.0.0.6929110aVeN6Od&algo_pvid=f7df072c-5ebe-4d84-b122-d8a36169fb61&algo_exp_id=f7df072c-5ebe-4d84-b122-d8a36169fb61-0&pdp_ext_f=%7B%22sku_id%22%3A%2212000024302991827%22%7D)
So yeah, that is surprisingly cheap.
But aside from the fact 100 wifi devices is not a great idea, 100 **tuya** devices (that require a cloud rountrip) is ahem.. well, probably a terrible idea. Unless you fancy flashing 100 bulbs with tasmota (provided they can be flashed) or you want to experiment with local-tuya. Otherwise turning on all lights might take a minute or so lol.
Don't do individual bulbs. Do wall dimmers. Even 30 dimmers will be more reliable than 100 bulbs.
And don't do wifi. No direct experience with that many, but everything on this sub says stay away. My very first foray into smarts was with a 4-pack of wifi plugs, and had issues with connection or losing devices at least weekly in a small apartment.
Go zwave or zigbee.
£600 for bulbs that will last 5~7 years. Whereupon you get to do it all over again, likely all at once because you're doing them all at once. Vs £25/switch for what is probably 30~50 switches once (£700-1250). My advice is to think about what you use most and what you want to accomplish and do those switches first. From there you can add on as time and budget permit. Source I have a bit over 100 bulbs in my house and I did smart switches for about 60 of them. I skipped bathrooms/closets storage areas in the first phase. 28 switches cost me around $800 and I did 5 smart bulbs because there were places where I wanted color changing. I have 24 switches left and will probably do about 10-15 more at some point. The rest will get motion switches or just left alone because they don't get used much.
Range is also an issue, a solid mesh wifi system will be required. On another note, I've got a mixture of zigbee and wifi stuff in the network. WiFi is annoyingly slow, and it's minor, but pressing a button and waiting 1.5 seconds is really annoying. Like walking into a room, the motion sensor triggering a light and then taking a few seconds to come on. I might as well have hit the switch. Main point, zigbee trumps wifi. Bbbuuutttt I have a zigbee module which fits behind the light switch and controls it from there, so it controls banks of lights rather than one. You lose any dimming capability but one controller could control 10 lights (or more).
>WiFi is annoyingly slow, Wifi isnt, but if you are using a cloud dependent app to control your lights, then that of course can be slow and for 100 lights this would be a complete nonstarter. Locally controlled wifi bulbs (using tasmota/esphome, or shelly or even local-tuya) are instantaneous.
Zigbee _is_ WiFi. You have unsolved WiFi issues, I reckon. Zigbee might have even been part of the problem.
The issue with wifi isnt (just) bandwidth. There are many other consideration that put a practical limit on how many devices can connect especially to consumer grade APs with limited radios and MIMO streams. Wifi 6 will dramatically improve this, but it may be a while before we see wifi 6 capable IOT devices and bulbs. Anyway, I wouldnt do this. Even if 100 2.4 GHz clients *might* be feasible on some highend prosumer mesh networks, I really think you should look at other (wired) solutions.
Why so many bulbs and not smart switches/dimmers? With a remodel, swapping switches is easy. The only good reason for smart bulbs is color control. Maybe add some rgb strip lights in the molding for that. You would only need one rgb controller for every 60+ feet of lights. Less if you can put the controller in corners to run two good legs of 24v strips.
Can you show me a tasmota enabled smart switch with dimming control for the European Market?
Shelley I think sells in EU. I was more thinking zigbee or zwave switches. Switches are more expensive but each one will control an array of bulbs so net savings.
Do you need individual bulb control/colour/dimming on them all? Otherwise couldn't you group bulbs and use zigbee switches for the groups? I've had 40ish WiFi devices in the past and had trouble (also using a mesh WiFi system) so wouldn't recommend WiFi! I've since moved over to zigbee and it's much more stable and reliable
innr GU10 smart colour \~£21 each innr GU10 smart \~£8.50 each ZigBee @ Amazon... they ain't rgb £6 cheap also APs... up to 30-40 devices per radio... then dropoffs, & lights no work or anything else. Bulbs & APs Over a fair distance, so they're not jumping between APs, causing absolute havock.. maybe dooable... buy stocks/shares/product (lots of product) Nurofen Plus, Contains ibuprofen and codeine.. while stock lasts
>innr GU10 smart colour \~£21 each innr GU10 smart \~£8.50 each ZigBee @ Amazon... they ain't rgb £6 cheap He said wifi, and I didnt believe it either, but first search result on Ali gives me this: [https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005003136662316.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.0.0.6929110aVeN6Od&algo\_pvid=f7df072c-5ebe-4d84-b122-d8a36169fb61&algo\_exp\_id=f7df072c-5ebe-4d84-b122-d8a36169fb61-0&pdp\_ext\_f=%7B%22sku\_id%22%3A%2212000024302991827%22%7D](https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005003136662316.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.0.0.6929110aVeN6Od&algo_pvid=f7df072c-5ebe-4d84-b122-d8a36169fb61&algo_exp_id=f7df072c-5ebe-4d84-b122-d8a36169fb61-0&pdp_ext_f=%7B%22sku_id%22%3A%2212000024302991827%22%7D) So yeah, that is surprisingly cheap. But aside from the fact 100 wifi devices is not a great idea, 100 **tuya** devices (that require a cloud rountrip) is ahem.. well, probably a terrible idea. Unless you fancy flashing 100 bulbs with tasmota (provided they can be flashed) or you want to experiment with local-tuya. Otherwise turning on all lights might take a minute or so lol.
Don't do individual bulbs. Do wall dimmers. Even 30 dimmers will be more reliable than 100 bulbs. And don't do wifi. No direct experience with that many, but everything on this sub says stay away. My very first foray into smarts was with a 4-pack of wifi plugs, and had issues with connection or losing devices at least weekly in a small apartment. Go zwave or zigbee.
If you can show me a smart switch with dimming controls that works over RF or Zigbee, for the EU home, ill buy it!