New house with no wall switches

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Lightbulb

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#261489 30-Nov-2019 13:09

We're in the process of planning a new house. The idea of having no physical light switches in all the traditional places appeals. Instead we'd have a bank of physical switches hidden away in a cupboard somewhere - maybe one switch for each lighting circuit.

Lights would be controlled by phone, remotes etc.

But am not sure whether this is practical (or legal).

Keen to hear whether this is possible, pros and cons etc.

Thanks in advance

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#2363410 30-Nov-2019 13:13

Think of house resale value too. Most people like switches (in my opinion).

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Batman

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#2363411 30-Nov-2019 13:14

the problem is when you want to sell it. why don't you paint it neon pink and lime green too?

MuzaNZ

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#2363454 30-Nov-2019 13:21

if you use 'smart switches' you would have the benefit of remote control while still being able to easily upgrade or change for traditional switches in the future

MadEngineer

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#2363462 30-Nov-2019 13:38

https://www.pdl.co.nz/Trade/Ranges/Products/Smart-Homes-and-Buildings/SmartTouch

Ps, from feedback, if you can’t simply enter a room and easily turn on a light including when half pissed it will forever drive you mad.

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neb

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#2363463 30-Nov-2019 13:39

Lightbulb:
We're in the process of planning a new house. The idea of having no physical light switches in all the traditional places appeals. [...] Lights would be controlled by phone, remotes etc.

Taking myself as fully representative of everyone else ever, a house like that would drive people nuts, every time you walk into a room, instead of flapping your hand against the wall next to the door you'd have to go back to the living room where you left your phone, unlock it, fire up an app, navigate to the light-switch-for-the-bathroom option, tell it to turn the light on, navigate to the WiFi settings because the light hasn't come on, try and figure out what the problem is, and then realise you've got the solution at hand: You use the phone's torch function to light up enough of the bathroom to take a pee, assuming you haven't already wet your pants in the time you spend faffing around with your phone trying to turn the light on.

I'm assuming this would make the house pretty much unsellable to future buyers...

Yabanize

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#2363464 30-Nov-2019 13:41

The Christchurch house with no switches

These are family friends of mine, As I understand, most of the lights etc are wired back into C-Bus Dimmers/switches located in the central cupboard.

Wiser is the controller, it allows app control, scheduling etc

For media/tv's they use "Push", it allows them to watch and control their Sky box and other devices from anywhere in the house.

All 3 of these systems they used are from Schneider and were quite expensive.

Yabanize

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#2363465 30-Nov-2019 13:42

neb:
Lightbulb:

We're in the process of planning a new house. The idea of having no physical light switches in all the traditional places appeals. [...] Lights would be controlled by phone, remotes etc.

Taking myself as fully representative of everyone else ever, a house like that would drive people nuts, every time you walk into a room, instead of flapping your hand against the wall next to the door you'd have to go back to the living room where you left your phone, unlock it, fire up an app, navigate to the light-switch-for-the-bathroom option, tell it to turn the light on, navigate to the WiFi settings because the light hasn't come on, try and figure out what the problem is, and then realise you've got the solution at hand: You use the phone's torch function to light up enough of the bathroom to take a pee, assuming you haven't already wet your pants in the time you spend faffing around with your phone trying to turn the light on. I'm assuming this would make the house pretty much unsellable to future buyers...

That is incorrect, the idea is to mostly use sensors and scheduling so things all happen automatically.

mattwnz

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#2363470 30-Nov-2019 14:22

Yabanize:

That is incorrect, the idea is to mostly use sensors and scheduling so things all happen automatically.

Ideally yes, except when there is a problem. What if you don't want the lights to turn on, when the system thinks they should be on. If using scheduling, these need to be base on the constant changes to the amount of sun a room gets. Otherwise you may have lights coming on at 5pm in summer , when it is the middle of summer. There can be a lot of work tweaking sensors etc to get them working exactly how and when you want them to work. The other thing is these system tend to date quickly, and what if the software manufacturer stops supporting the software or hardware, or goes out of business.

Mahon

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#2363474 30-Nov-2019 14:26

Lightbulb:

We're in the process of planning a new house. The idea of having no physical light switches in all the traditional places appeals. Instead we'd have a bank of physical switches hidden away in a cupboard somewhere - maybe one switch for each lighting circuit.

Lights would be controlled by phone, remotes etc.

But am not sure whether this is practical (or legal).

Keen to hear whether this is possible, pros and cons etc.

Thanks in advance

I certainly wouldnt purchase a property with no switches. Even with smart switches I would stay clear....the idea of having to get my phone out to turn anything out does not appeal. Just my opinion.

mattwnz

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#2363476 30-Nov-2019 14:33

Mahon:

Lightbulb:

We're in the process of planning a new house. The idea of having no physical light switches in all the traditional places appeals. Instead we'd have a bank of physical switches hidden away in a cupboard somewhere - maybe one switch for each lighting circuit.

Lights would be controlled by phone, remotes etc.

But am not sure whether this is practical (or legal).

Keen to hear whether this is possible, pros and cons etc.

Thanks in advance

I certainly wouldnt purchase a property with no switches. Even with smart switches I would stay clear....the idea of having to get my phone out to turn anything out does not appeal. Just my opinion.

Same here. People also need to remember that a lot of this stuff can have built in obsolescence. Who knows if mobile phones will be used in 10 years in the same way as they are today for controlling this stuff. Even now it is a PITA to use a mobile, over a physical button or remote. Certainly the software will have changed significantly, and the company who has developed the software will need to keep it all upto date, otherwise you will need to use ancient mobile phones to control anything, much in the same way as some people are forced to use old PCs for certain software that doesn't work on newer versions of windows or macos.

richms

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#2363505 30-Nov-2019 15:57

Even my zigbee button on a blank plate where the lightswitch was going to smart things going to the lights is too slow I find. Talking to alexa to turn on the garage lights - way too slow. Switches are zero lag other than the startup time for crap LED lamps. That is more ideal.

Richard rich.ms

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#2363544 30-Nov-2019 16:01

surfisup1000:

Think of house resale value too. Most people like switches (in my opinion).

Pretty much this, this will affect the resale value as the new owners most likely won't like how it's been setup.

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#2363637 30-Nov-2019 16:35

Having retrofitted Philips Hue lighting in all my living areas (inside and outdoors) I would advise having physical switches. My setup still has the physical on/off switches and also the wireless Hue dimmers. Everything can be operated using Apps, Smartthings, Google Home or Alexa. I have dabbled with Home Assistant and OpenHAB but don’t have the time to seriously integrate everything with one of them.
The physical switches are guarded and are only used to isolate the lights. They are however, still in traditional locations, such as by doorways. I decided to do that so the whole thing can be ‘reverted’ if necessary. The wireless dimmers are what are used most.

If I was building new, I would definitely go for physical switches, but make sure they were ‘smart’. So much easier to put more wires in the walls before the gib goes on than trying to retrofit.

There is an Australian Youtuber called SuperhouseTV (I think) who has centralised relays activated by data wires from physical switches.

“We’ve arranged a society based on science and technology, in which nobody understands anything about science technology. Carl Sagan 1996

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#2363643 30-Nov-2019 16:51

I remember when watching The Block NZ, one of the teams used this Resene product to hide the switches in a room, all you have to do is tap on a zone on the wall and it turns the lights on/off

https://www.resene.co.nz/comn/whtsnew/SmartTouch-conductive-coating.htm

PANiCnz

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#2363647 30-Nov-2019 16:59

I had been wondering about using something like the SONOFF 4CHR2/PROR2 with Xiaomi smart wall switch's. That way you can manage lights with your home automation platform of choice but still have traditional switch for more digitally challenged friends and family.

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