Smart bulb and dumb bulb on same electrical circuit

Digital Lounge General Discussion
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#1

I got just about everything right with my electrical wiring and my 2-1 switches, but I somehow forgot about one hallway where I ended up with one light fixture with dumb bulbs and one light fixture with smart bulbs on the same electrical circuit – one switch controls both. Obviously I can’t run this in smart bulb mode if I want to turn on and off the dumb bulb, so I’m left with three choices:

  1. bring electrician back and see if the wiring I need changed is right behind the switch rather than behind the wall or in the ceiling – probably not doing this.

  2. put dumb bulbs in both fixtures. I could then just power on and off and dim them from the outlet. Considering this, but I’d lose the ability to set color temperature of at least the smart bulbs

  3. try to use both. I would leave the switch in on/off mode to turn on and off the two fixtures. A hue bulb can handle being turned on and off. I would expose the switch in my home assistant dashboard and Homekit dashboard, rather than the lights, so it could be turned on and off that way.

Dimming at the switch wouldn’t be possible, but I could still use adaptive lighting on the smart bulbs, and maybe allow the config button to cycle colors/scenes on the smart bulb side. I could even dim the smart bulbs directly and try to set the smart bulbs to reset to full brightness when turned on.

Does anyone have thoughts on things I’m not considering?

#2

I take it smart bulbs aren’t an option in the other fixture for some reason?

#3

It’s a fixture with an integrated LED (spouse really wanted this one, and it is neat, but I did this one other place but requested it be on a separate circuit for the above reason)

#4

The only other thing that comes to mind is throwing a relay (like a Zen51) up in the other fixture. That way, running the switch in SBM would ensure full/constant line power to both fixtures, and the relay could pass power when desired (via rule/automation) to the integrated LED fixture.

#5

Yeah, this is how I would do it too. Had to do it outside so I could add a motion light and a light that’s switchable.

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#6

I think you could even get a nano dimmer or something that goes in the box with the dumb fixture to smarten it and allow dimming, if you want more than just on/off control.