Would anyone else be interested in a more basic Matter over Thread switch?
My house has a mix of smart switch manufacturers and styles: Eve, Meross, Wemo, and one pair of Leviton switches for light and fan control of a ceiling fan in my son’s room. This mix is due to shortcomings of what was available from certain manufacturers recently; Meross’ 3-way switches didn’t work properly in my experience, so I installed Eve switches where I need 3-way control (with the other side being a dumb switch), and I don’t know if Meross had a dimmer switch when I installed Wemo dimmers.
I would like to (eventually) standardize my entire house on one style and manufacturer of switch, and there are a lot of places in which I do not need:
temperature and humidity sensors
full color notifications (though I’m not quite sure what that means)
scene control
smart bulb mode
an LED bar
There are places where I want those features (probably anywhere I want a dimmer), but for most of my house I just want a basic smart light switch. My desire to standardize on one style/manufacturer is harder to justify at $50 per switch rather than $15 or $20, especially since now this would mean removing smart switches I’ve already installed that have been working well. (Working well, even despite the mix of protocols: currently I have HomeKit over WiFi, HomeKit over Thread, and Matter over WiFi switches, and Matter over Thread smart plugs and a few bulbs.)
Would Inovelli ever consider releasing a cheaper switch of the same style as the White series, that just offers “basic” control via Matter over Thread? I would be very interested in buying a 10-pack of those at a price point like $200, vs. $500 for features I don’t really need or want in most of my house.
Thanks for the consideration – I’ll probably order one of the White series smart dimmers very soon, for part of my house in which I do want the additional features/sensors, and which has poor WiFi coverage but good Thread coverage.
For a variety of reasons -some selfish-, I don’t think that’s a good idea.
That said, I would definitely recommend grabbing 1 or 2 of the current-gen devices and checking them out. You may already know this (even if you disagree,) but I have found that I have gained utility from having full-featured switches/dimmers in places that I would not have originally placed them. I’m not very imaginative, and most of my HA journey has been ‘reactive automation,’ and I have found it very beneficial to be able to add some buttons or notifications at nearly any wall device in my home.
Inovelli sets itself apart by producing devices that are laden with features the others don’t have. I’m not speaking for Inovelli, and this is my personal opinion, but I’d be really surprised if they came out with a low end device. That’s just not their thing.
There are plenty of those featureless switches out there. Why would you wade into that market with all that competition when you can produce a product that no one else can touch?
Inovelli already has sales experience selling stripped-feature switches like the Black Series LZW30 (non-SN), and I’m sure that they can have data on the sales viability and hassles of supporting another SKU where people kept asking about why feature “X” from the Red Series wasn’t supported on the Black Series…
Thanks for all of the replies, everyone – I wasn’t expecting a particularly positive response, but thought I’d ask anyway.
As for this, though:
I don’t think there are plenty of “featureless” Matter over Thread switches out there – if there are, please point me to them so I can buy them in bulk.
The only (edit:) other Matter over Thread light switch I’m aware of is from Eve, and they don’t make a dimmer switch, just on/off (but 3-way compatible), so not suitable for standardizing my whole house on one brand/style. And even if Eve sold a dimmer switch, the basic on/off version is still $50.
I would love to standardize on Inovelli switches throughout my entire home, with full-featured dimmer switches in a few important rooms (living room, dining room), maybe a full-featured on/off switch (sometimes 3-way) in a few other rooms, like one humidity/temperature sensor per floor. For the other half-dozen switches in a floor though, or multiple for one room, I would really like a basic featureless version that looks consistent with the switches which have more features.
Buddy you won’t find switches under $50 especially in this economy that will be matter/thread. Even brands without any features other than “turn it on from your phone” are $50.
Inovelli is a innovation leader, this is probably the wrong place to look for a basic switch, they’re barely keeping up with what they’re working on right now as projects keep getting pushed due to manufactures struggling to accomplish all that inovelli wants to do.
I hope you find it but I doubt inovelli is the place you’ll find the $15-25 switches. Heck you can’t even get basic temperature sensors for less than $15 unless you’re shopping AliExpress for zigbee devices.
I appreciate the reply. I guess I have an unrealistic view since I have eight Onvis smart plugs which are Matter over Thread, and those sell for $12.33 each (3-pack is $37). They work very well, though updating the firmware is a slightly involved process.
For most of the switches in my house, I just want the same internals, but in the form factor of a light switch
For the few other switches in which I do want all of the features in the Inovelli White series, $50 is great – but I don’t need or want those everywhere, and it would be really nice if everything in the house had a consistent style.
FWIW, I think the dimmer itself is a lot of what you’re paying for - especilly one that can fade/ramp on and off. The cheapest dumb dimmer that can fade (readily available at Home Depot) is $35.
