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Yeah the finish is a great point. Yale and Schlage both have an aged bronze finish, but they definitely look different in the pics. I’ve already ordered a bunch of regular ol Schlage privacy levers, so I’m probably leaning toward the Sense at this point.
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Dec 11, 2021 20:38
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Hed posted:Any suggestions from the thread for 6" retrofit downlights? The current ones I'm having trouble with are FEIT from Costco, but the Lithonia equivalent doesn't look much better. I've had good luck with Lithonia fixtures for all my other LED needs though. Happy to spend more on nice ones. To follow up on this I finally replaced my FEIT junk from Costco with some nicer 5/6" retrofits from 1000bulbs and they dim down to nothing without any ringing. It's great!
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Dec 12, 2021 02:23
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Hed posted:To follow up on this I finally replaced my FEIT junk from Costco with some nicer 5/6" retrofits from 1000bulbs and they dim down to nothing without any ringing. Nice, glad that worked out. I was very surprised at the actual quality difference in things like dimming and light quality that comes with more expensive LEDs. Most of the higher end brands you find on 1000bulbs are simply not available retail and are more things interior/lighting designers and electrical supply houses carry.
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Dec 12, 2021 15:41
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Is Feit considered junk? I just replaced some buzzing Feit E12 bulbs in a fan dimmer with another set of Feit E12s and that poo poo still buzzes. It was the only thing Home Depot had last night.
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Dec 12, 2021 17:21
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Henrik Zetterberg posted:Is Feit considered junk? I just replaced some buzzing Feit E12 bulbs in a fan dimmer with another set of Feit E12s and that poo poo still buzzes. It was the only thing Home Depot had last night. I think they suck
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Dec 12, 2021 17:24
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Henrik Zetterberg posted:Is Feit considered junk? I just replaced some buzzing Feit E12 bulbs in a fan dimmer with another set of Feit E12s and that poo poo still buzzes. It was the only thing Home Depot had last night. I don't know if they have a higher model range, but everything you find retail is junk. This applies to pretty much all bulbs, not just Feit.
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Dec 12, 2021 17:31
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I’m starting to come around to that. My whole house is basically lit with them. With utility subsidies they can be less than $1 per bulb at Costco but when there are problems around dimming or blinking I start to wonder why I care when I’m pairing with $40-60 in Zwave dimmers. I’m going to start looking for nicer A19 and chandelier bulbs and if tests go well do some rapid replacement.
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Dec 12, 2021 17:32
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Dang, that's disappointing. I'm trying to use the Lutron compatibility tool to get some decent, non-buzzing E12 LEDs. Any brand suggestions? Funny enough, the Lutron tool only lists a bunch of GE candelabra bulbs and gave them the highest ratings.
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Dec 12, 2021 17:41
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Henrik Zetterberg posted:Dang, that's disappointing. The best performing bulbs I've used with all of my Lutron dimmers, be it Maestro, Caseta and Caseta ELV are incadescent  I'm not that old but in some rooms I simply can't deal with LEDs -- but running 6x bulbs isn't that bad. Whoever renovated my kitchen though, added nearly 12 recessed lights in no seeming pattern whatsoever and they dim like poo poo -- FEIT bulbs. No buzz, but also no real dynamic range to speak of whatsoever. The closest I've found were some Phillips ones (I really need to make a spreadsheet to track what bulb part numbers I install where... this is the one I found on my Home Depot e-receipt) I have used the HD Ecosmart BR30/BR45 outside and they seem to do OK though I'm not looking for precise dimming from them. They also have been some of the only bulbs that seem to actually die in surges. Would be curious to get some part numbers of BR30s for indoor use that I could try in the kitchen; does anyone sell a 'sampler' pack of different color temperatures to combine with testing against a dimmer? Lutron got me with only having the PD-5NE have a middle / favorite button, so I generally have the ELV+ dimmers everywhere, even where not needed.
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Dec 12, 2021 18:14
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LuckyCat posted:Wondering if anyone has recommendations for a smart thermostat, and a smart fire alarm, that has no voice integration and no ties to Google or Amazon. Most I find are Alexa enabled and I am looking to avoid that and these 2 companies if possible. I currently have the Nest version of both and am looking to sidegrade or upgrade. I am also trying to avoid Google/Amazon and most WiFi products- ideally utilizing zigbee, zwave, and rtl433. I just moved into my new house and am thinking of going with the Centralite thermostat per a friends recommendation, but I only have in-floor hydronic heating (and no A/C) so no need for anything particularly smart or learning like Nest. I think this will work nicely in order to control via HomeAssistant... and I presume you can make it "smart" that way. I ended up skipping out on "smart" fire/CO2 alarms because I figure I don't have much use for it to report to HomeAssistant. dox fucked around with this message at 02:53 on Dec 13, 2021 |
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Dec 13, 2021 02:50
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Crunchy Black posted:I need to know more about this smart cat door. That's the one we have, it scans the cats id chips to permit or deny them access. You can set up individual curfews and permissions for each cat. For now the home assistant integration only lets you read the status of the cats (in/out), but it's useful to know whether they're in or not. Batteries seem to last about a month depending on how often the stupid cat sits looking through the cat flap.  Gyshall posted:What are you using for the TV expandable card? Looks sweet, I'm stealing some of this WhiteHowler posted:I would love any good resources for getting started on this. My HA dashboard looks terrible. It's hard to get the tiles to sort the way I want, since the vertical size can dictate which column they get stuck in. I don't believe you can change how it looks on mobile, but you could set up multiple pages/tabs, and then change which page you open on each device? If you use tiles and nested vertical/horizontal stack cards you can have a lot more control over how stuff is arranged. For the floorplans I used a picture element card and then manually positioned stuff around. It's fairly time consuming to set up initially, but you only need to do it once. They also have a bunch of cool demo dashboards you can use for inspiration set up here: https://demo.home-assistant.io/#/lovelace/0 Slash fucked around with this message at 14:19 on Dec 13, 2021 |
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Dec 13, 2021 14:11
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I've got a ceiling fan light on a Lutron Caseta dimmer. It's two 5.5W E12 candelabra LEDs and they buzz like crazy for 20 seconds or so, then flicker a couple times and come back on without the buzzing. It's really annoying. I've tried swapping LED bulbs, and even purchased one of their recommended list, but the issue still persists. I've got a neutral in the junction box, but the dimmer is only 2 load lines and a ground, no neutral. I don't seem to be able to find a Caseta neutral-required dimmer. I'm assuming 11W is just too small of a load for a non-neutral dimmer. A quick google shows the minimum load for the dimmer is 25W. Should I just put incandescent back in there? I wish there was a neutral-required Caseta dimmer. Henrik Zetterberg fucked around with this message at 19:53 on Dec 14, 2021 |
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Dec 14, 2021 19:06
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I think the Pro dimmers have a neutral, pretty sure. I'll post when I get around to replacing my current non-pro ones this weekend.
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Dec 14, 2021 19:26
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Gyshall posted:I think the Pro dimmers have a neutral, pretty sure. I'll post when I get around to replacing my current non-pro ones this weekend. The pro dimmers are neutral optional, and are the best performing wallbox dimmer lutron makes. The issue you may have is that they look like maestros, not casetas, and they can't be joined into a caseta system. If neither of those things bother you, they're your best bet.
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Dec 14, 2021 19:41
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Gyshall posted:I think the Pro dimmers have a neutral, pretty sure. I'll post when I get around to replacing my current non-pro ones this weekend. Ok yeah, looks like the PD-10NXD-XX is neutral-optional, and the minimum load is 10W with the neutral connected vs 25W without. Where do you buy the Pros? It doesn't look like HD/Lowes has them, and Amazon looks to be pretty thin as well. There's one on Amazon for almost $100 that delivers in February  TacoHavoc posted:The pro dimmers are neutral optional, and are the best performing wallbox dimmer lutron makes. The issue you may have is that they look like maestros, not casetas, and they can't be joined into a caseta system. If neither of those things bother you, they're your best bet. It seems the PD-10NXDs are Casetas? They won't work with my existing Caseta setup? https://www.lutron.com/TechnicalDocumentLibrary/369919_WEB.pdf
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Dec 14, 2021 19:50
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Hello, I'm looking to do some smart lightbulb stuff and have been completely overwhelmed by the huge range of options available. What I'd like to do is have lights that are brighter during the day and dimmer at night, preferably changing color temperature so that I can have white lights during the day that dim to orange at night. I'm hoping to find something that I can turn on and off from as simple of a light switch as I can get. I've got a bunch of Apple products already so I figure that I'd be using HomeKit for programming and control. (I'd also really like for my lights to not stop working if my internet (or AWS) dies, which I have heard is a thing that happens to some systems.) Is this something that's possible, and if so, what kinds of things should I be looking for in order to get this set up?
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Dec 14, 2021 21:16
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Henrik Zetterberg posted:Ok yeah, looks like the PD-10NXD-XX is neutral-optional, and the minimum load is 10W with the neutral connected vs 25W without. Where do you buy the Pros? It doesn't look like HD/Lowes has them, and Amazon looks to be pretty thin as well. There's one on Amazon for almost $100 that delivers in February The PD-5NE works w/ a neutral, did I miss why you can't use that one? I got a PD-10NXD off eBay for a large incandescent fixture I have -- worked totally fine out of the box when I integrated to my system.
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Dec 14, 2021 21:24
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The Lutron Caseta line has low voltage dimmers that should do the trick (with neutral required), PD-5NE-WH with a 10w minimum as well: https://www.amazon.ca/Lutron-Caseta-Wireless-Electronic-Wall/dp/B01M22SK1W Edit: beaten but yeah the low voltage ones seem to be what you want to prevent flickering.
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Dec 14, 2021 21:31
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Less Fat Luke posted:The Lutron Caseta line has low voltage dimmers that should do the trick (with neutral required), PD-5NE-WH with a 10w minimum as well: Yeah I use these
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Dec 14, 2021 21:32
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Hmm, I guess I assumed that ELV was for low voltage stuff like LV under-cabinet lighting. I didn't realize it was able to be used on lower-wattage 120V loads. And holy wowzers, $175!
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Dec 14, 2021 21:55
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Henrik Zetterberg posted:Ok yeah, looks like the PD-10NXD-XX is neutral-optional, and the minimum load is 10W with the neutral connected vs 25W without. Where do you buy the Pros? It doesn't look like HD/Lowes has them, and Amazon looks to be pretty thin as well. There's one on Amazon for almost $100 that delivers in February Ah sorry, I was referring to the ma-, rrd-, and hwqs-pro models of dimmer, it's a different thing. I forgot they labeled one caseta dimmer "pro", my bad.
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Dec 14, 2021 22:10
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Henrik Zetterberg posted:Hmm, I guess I assumed that ELV was for low voltage stuff like LV under-cabinet lighting. I didn't realize it was able to be used on lower-wattage 120V loads. Yeah I had a bunch of bookmarks for Black Friday sales on the ELV stuff and nothing went on sale here 
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Dec 14, 2021 22:42
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blastron posted:Hello, I'm looking to do some smart lightbulb stuff and have been completely overwhelmed by the huge range of options available. The simplest solution is probably to get a Philips Hue starter kit and accompanying Hue-branded wall dimmers. The Hue app will let you do some basic automation, and it integrates with HomeKit -- I'm not an Apple user, so you'll need to do your own research on how well it works. Regardless, your lights will still have basic functionality if your Internet goes down, since the switches, hub, and bulbs can communicate over Zigbee. The dimmers are battery-powered and stick to your wall, so buy some cheap switch covers for your existing wall switches -- otherwise someone will eventually hit the hardwired switch by accident and unpower your smart bulbs, making them not-so-smart. Hue has a designer price tag, so this solution is kind of expensive on a per-component basis. It also won't let you do many of the cool things people in this thread are doing. However, if you just want to mess around with simple time-based automation and maybe a few colored lights, the Hue stuff is easy to set up and requires virtually no maintenance.
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Dec 15, 2021 00:05
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HomeAssistant and Hubitat if you want more, and are gung ho about no internet required
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Dec 15, 2021 00:22
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Man I wish the Hue dimmers could be mounted in a multi-gang junction box.
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Dec 15, 2021 00:22
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blastron posted:Hello, I'm looking to do some smart lightbulb stuff and have been completely overwhelmed by the huge range of options available. The dimmer switches are quite nice since the casing has strong magnets on the back so you can just stick it onto any magnetic surface. The actual dimmer part with the buttons is a small remote control that clips into the plate (also using magnets) and is just powered by watch batteries so it's easy to keep running. They default to being brightness up/on/off/brightness down for whatever light you tie them to but you can also program the 4 buttons independently to fire off HomeKit scenes so they're pretty flexible. I'll second WhiteHowler in that some plates of some sort to cover up your existing switches is probably a good idea. If your internet goes out you may not be able to use Siri voice control but you should still use the Home app to control all your stuff. Automations are also cached on your Home hubs (HomePod, Apple TV, etc) so they should fire off regardless. The Hue lights are also nice in that you can configure what they should do in the event of a power outage. You'll need both a HomeKit hub and a Philips Hue Bridge to get all of this working.
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Dec 15, 2021 00:49
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I'm actually completely fine with (and would somewhat prefer) a dumb switch, as long as I can control the color temperature via an app or something similar. Would Hue bulbs support that, or do they need to be always on to connect to the network?
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Dec 15, 2021 01:35
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blastron posted:I'm actually completely fine with (and would somewhat prefer) a dumb switch, as long as I can control the color temperature via an app or something similar. Would Hue bulbs support that, or do they need to be always on to connect to the network? Both the Home app and the Hue app can be used to modify the colours or if you get any of the Hue switches you can set up a HomeKit scene with the colours you want and program the buttons to run that scene.
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Dec 15, 2021 01:43
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Henrik Zetterberg posted:Man I wish the Hue dimmers could be mounted in a multi-gang junction box. I bought one of the ones off Etsy for shits and giggles, if someone made a Decora snap version that would be maybe more optimal. I dislike seeing screws on my wall plates  The hue dimmer is a great scene controller for HA too. I just finished programming my den with the hue remote as a scene controller, and my Lutron with some pretty neat single/double/triple press automations. It's not perfect but I've got both Hue and Caseta playing nicely together this way.
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Dec 15, 2021 01:45
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Mercurius posted:They use Zigbee which is a mesh networking protocol that the Hue Bridge acts as a hub for. Basically they form their own network automatically but it requires the lights to have power (even if the LED itself is off) in order to relay the mesh signal to other lights. You can turn them off physically but if you turn enough off you might find that some of the others that are a decent distance from the other lights that are on (or the hub) won't process any signals until the lights inbetween are back on. Sounds good. My condo is very small (500 square feet) so I figure that if I put the bridge in a central location I might not run into the range problem. Thanks for the recommendation! You've given me a great starting point for more research.
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Dec 15, 2021 01:56
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blastron posted:Sounds good. My condo is very small (500 square feet) so I figure that if I put the bridge in a central location I might not run into the range problem.
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Dec 15, 2021 02:38
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blastron posted:Sounds good. My condo is very small (500 square feet) so I figure that if I put the bridge in a central location I might not run into the range problem. You could put a light 3 units away from your hub and be fine. You shouldn’t have any issues. Welcome to the Hue rabbit/money hole.
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Dec 15, 2021 03:21
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Any issues mixing hue and ikea tradfri if you have hubs for both? I assume they are smart enough to not interfere with each other?
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Dec 15, 2021 03:27
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AFAIK Tradfri bulbs can be used on Hue hubs. Not sure if it works the other way around.
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Dec 15, 2021 05:57
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wolrah posted:AFAIK Tradfri bulbs can be used on Hue hubs. Not sure if it works the other way around. Oh that's right! I remember hearing about that on here way back, totally slipped my mind. I would like to get more color change bulbs at some point. Had some outdoor spotlight type ones under the eaves of my house that I would like to replace with homekit capable ones and it would be nice if they could do colors too to make them festive.
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Dec 15, 2021 06:34
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The Hue Lily XLs rule for holiday-themed spotlights. Just make sure you get the 100W transformer if you’re going to string a few together. They were on sale for black Friday though 😞
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Dec 15, 2021 07:08
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Less Fat Luke posted:The Lutron Caseta line has low voltage dimmers that should do the trick (with neutral required), PD-5NE-WH with a 10w minimum as well: Henrik Zetterberg posted:Hmm, I guess I assumed that ELV was for low voltage stuff like LV under-cabinet lighting. I didn't realize it was able to be used on lower-wattage 120V loads.  I just now realized you linked me to Canadian Amazon and it’s “only” $120 in the US. Goddamn, I thought $60 was a lot for a switch.
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Dec 15, 2021 07:18
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Henrik Zetterberg posted:
LOL sorry about that
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Dec 15, 2021 12:09
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wolrah posted:AFAIK Tradfri bulbs can be used on Hue hubs. Not sure if it works the other way around. Yeah, but they don’t let them export to HomeKit. So you can’t normally control them with Siri and all. I had to use OpenHAB to act as an in-between.
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Dec 15, 2021 12:47
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I am balking at the pricing on Hue bulbs after summing up the total number of bulbs I would have to buy in order to replace everything I want, since I have a lot of multi-bulb fixtures. It looks like smart dimmer switches coupled with “warm glow” dimmable LED lights might be the way to go, since all I really need is automatic dimming within a room and don’t care about addressing individual bulbs. Does anyone have any recommendations for smart switches (or dire warnings against this course of action)?
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Dec 15, 2021 19:20
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