@vkc I've have some zooz switches that i've been really happy with. as others have said, it needs a zwave stick, and neutral wire in the box.

@vkc Another vote for Lutron Caseta here. I had some installed for our outdoor house lights about a year ago and they've been great. They're a reputable brand (important for house wiring IMO), I don't have to explain them to my family, and they can easily override the schedule without upsetting a delicate jenga tower of scripts.

Plus since I set them up they've quietly done their job and I've rarely had to think about them. Which is about the highest praise I can give a tech gadget.

@vkc I have several of these zwave switches and they work great.
https://enbrightenme.com/collections/z-wave

@vkc I have only good experiences with Sonoff ZigBee devices, so that I'll recommend https://help.sonoff.tech/docs/zbm5 even without having used that particular device myself.

But that depends on details of your requirements you didn't mention.

The problem I've had to solve is that all I have at the switch is two wires (i.e. no neutral), so to support dimmable bulbs the switch needs an external power source. You implied that's not what you want right now, which is great because I have no specific recommendation here 😊 but I'd buy pretty much any "Tuya ZigBee" relay with external switch support I could find on aliexpress or similar - Home Assistant is that good :)

Majority of my lights are Zigbee and I've entertained the idea of installing SONOFF Mini Switch devices behind a couple of wall switches. However I also have a Tuya Wifi switch for my balcony outlets. All in Home Assistant.
@vkc

@vkc

edit: ignore me, it took me too long to work out what you were actually asking for.

i don't think it's what you are looking for, but ikea has a smart power plug, that works on zigbee.

i also use ikea zigbee smart globes, so i don't need to mess with house wiring, and i put the remotes next to or on top of the actual switches. renter friendly as well.

@vkc
Girier Zigbee switches are my favourite. Sonoff switches were highly dissapointing.

If you can, build a Zigbee network. These in-wall switches will repeat the signal in a mesh style, making it a very resilient network.

Every Wi-Fi device that you add will consume 10x more energy, and degrade the quality of the network. It's the wrong tech for IoT.

@vkc
My friends recommend Shelly for light switches

@vkc for controlling actual lights: the inovelli switches are great, the only downside being the price. The on-off switch is only currently available in the matter/thread variant if you need to switch something besides lights.

@vkc I swear by Lutron Caseta, requires there hub but it locally can be controlled via HA. Alternatively if you have zwave support, then the Zooz switches are not bad.

@vkc lutron caseta with a pro hub, inovelli. My lutron casetas never miss a beat

@vkc I have found Wifi stuff to be relatively unreliable, and in general I'd rather keep my home automation stuff independent of the network.

ZWaveJS is also quite nice, standalone or via the HA addon, both are great.

I'm using the Zooz Z-Wave devices. They've been solid. They do require neutral though, which many retrofit installations won't have in the switch boxes as it was only added to code recently. You should definitely check this before you buy anything, if you don't have neutral it will limit your options considerably.

@vkc I have a variety of Z-Wave devices, including light switches. You would need to get some sort of Z-Wave stick to talk to them; Home Assistant themselves have just released a fancy one. I have some GE/UltraPro/Enbrighten ones (all 3 brands are actually the same product line that’s been passed around a few companies) and some Zooz ones. It seems like every time we have a power outage, there is a small chance that one of the GE switches isn’t coming back. I haven’t lost a Zooz yet but I have way fewer of them.

@vkc +1 for shelley.

@vkc
I been using sonoff in the past (with 3rd party firmware), also have a shelly 1 set up atm as a switch for a led strip. Most cheaper commercial ones available where I live tend to be Tuya rebrands

@vkc I have an "Enbrighten Zigbee Dimmer" , not clear to me whether they are still available

I have been running all of my switches on the Lutron Caseta ecosystem. Home Assistant has improved the UX of the integration process over the years but it has been rock solid since day 1. I highly recommend it and often Offer Up has great deals from construction contractors that bought too many for a job.

@vkc
Have both #shelly and #tplink . Highly recommend shelly. Not cloud required, perfect integration, updates and native #mqtt integration

@vkc I too rather enjoy Shellys. Can use them in all sorts of places and they still act like regular switches without a connection.

@vkc I have tp link switches and dimmers. HA uses polling to manage state, so I don't love them. But they have been perfectly reliable.