This Just Solved Your Smart Home's BIGGEST Problem

This guy lives in 2015

Ok so I'm totally confused. Isn't turning your boiler on and off the jobs of your thermostat?

Actually, in my house I'm the one that want's all the light switches to match. Deco style. The amazon basics smart switches are close enough. So I stick with those.

I wish Aqara would produce this thing without relays inside. Just the power supply and the input side. My lights are smart anyway, so no need to switch them with a relay. I just need the input from the light switch - but this thing (and similar things) just don't fit in the shallow boxes we commonly have here in Germany behind the light switch.

Title makes it sound like this is something new... I've had Fibaro and Merten/Schneider (how's that for old!) relay and dimmer "pucks" installed for ten years now... Z-wave not Zigbee, but that's not really relevant...
I still come for the humour ;-)

These type of modules have been available for years. There are two major problems when trying to use them to make ordinary switches smart: 1) a neutral wire us required which isn’t there in most UK light switches, because of the way only the live and switched live wires are run down from the ceiling rose, and 2) the wall boxes are normally too shallow to fit the smart switch module.

My biggest smart home problem is losing switches and having to reset or replace them.

Haha you have the same boiler as me! the "Aubess WIFI Power Monitor switch" also works well for this purpose for those without wanting Zigbee. It's Tuya compatible and I'm using it offline (no cloud) with a HomeAssistant powered heating setup.

Sonoff and shelly have something similar, I think the shelly one can do LED dimming though. For people worried about working with mains. Its alright, but if you're going to do it you need need to buy the right tools, do not use the screwdriver in your drawer (most likely its those shitty "tester" screwdrivers that light up when mains is present), buy a VDE screwdriver from good brands like knipex, wiha,wera etc, as well as pliers, cutting, stripping tools, and buy a proper voltage indicator AND proving unit (its expensive but you have to buy it, especially for people not used to working with electrics) Also do not attempt anything at all if your fuseboard is still the old rewirable fuse ones, you need to shift your priorities to updating your electrics to current standards first before smartifying anything.

It's probably a bad idea on heating, especially when open therm is fitted to the boiler

Good shout to double check the connection at the switch, and not trusting the consumer unit. Nearly caught me out when I was changing a faceplate and found out that the light was connected to the boiler circuit not the downstairs lights circuit!

Kudos Paul for the quality Elf’n’Safety caveats re electrics. Good one.

As an electrician in Australia, wiring for anyone besides an electrician is a no go. I really appreciate the way you handled the working on electricity and the precautions needed.. Good work.

first

Tuya have had a wifi unit for years and I have used this to control lights for the older members of the family and visitors who do not know who Alexa is! Also the dimmer unit allows you to use these press switches (not on off) to turn on/off lights and dim.

not the best solution - likely requires a bigger back box than a normal light switch fitting or wall mounted box. Better option is something like the itech zwave light switch

This may be good for 2 lights in a smaller back box. However, I think the fibaro dimmers are a better option, they’re smaller, offer dimming capabilities and also can work without a neutral connection. They also work with a range of switches, including the 3 position retractive for up/down dimming. They have loads of useful options too, such as soft start and action to take following a power cut.

Hi. as always, relevant revie. but
know that SONOFF has been having a smaller and cheaper Zigbee switch like this for 2 years

Alpha of the house huh? Should we ask the Mrs.? 😅

ehhhhh srsly switch a boiler on/off hardwired??? what happened with Plugwise / TADA / any other opentherm modulating thermostat with HA/Homey/Google/ connection??

I reccomend the sonoff ZBMINIL2. No neutral needed. Smaller. Cheaper

Great video as always Paul! This is definitely the most efficient way to automate the light switches around your house if you have deep enough back boxes.

I have been installing these kind of modules since I started my smart home, I use them for lights and shutters.
Since my house and installation is a bit old my light switch back boxes are not deep enough for modules this size, there are however zigbee alternatives that are smaller than this, as a last resort I've also seen people unscrew the casing of the module to reduce the size even more.

I agree that electrical installations can be very unpredicatable, especially if you have an older, not up to code installation like me, however I've found that the combination of turning off the breaker box + using an electricians screwdriver is pretty much all you need, if you don't see a light, you're good to go. Just to be safe I try to never to not make contact between different exposed wires, and never touch exposed wires with both your hands, if you happen to be shocked it will close the circuit with your body which is way worse than having a single contact shock. I've had the latter 2 times while renovating my house, and besides the jumpscare I was just fine.

This Aqara device differentiates itself due to the energy monitoring capability, which not all of most relay modules have, but unless you want to hook it up in your breaker box or something I find it unnecessary as I would typically use a smart plug to monitor an appliance's consumption since it's a much more plug and play solution.
Also I found others I've used to have a simpler wiring than this one, never seen other modules with the need to shunt 2 inputs and have a common for the switch.

It's also a bit pricey, and I kinda understand why, due to having matter, local support and energy monitoring, but unless you really need all of these things you can get zigbee relay modules for half the price, besides the price, the advantage is that you generally have more control if you get a dedicated module, for example one that can do dimming or control your shutters with percentage.

Fart joke killed me🤣

Looks great but my god you’d need an extension to fit those beasts in

i presume it doesnt need batteries like some other ones out there too

from experience... check the physical space before you get too into the wiring... i've tried these in several locations and cant fit them into the actual space. THere are other smaller/cheaper options available as well.

So I even my vacuum cleaner would overload and trip this thing... My stove for sure, AC no question... It might be able to handle a toaster lol

you'll probably don't listen to any of the non-patreon comments but could you redo this with an ESP32-POE?

This is a totally pointless use of a zigbee relay. Most people in the UK already have a thermostat hard-wired to the boiler. But more profoundly, what is so clever about turning off the boiler for the entire property because the temperature is too high in one location? So here's a much better idea for boiler control - use zigbee radiator thermostats that open and close as heat is required in each room, and that communicate with a switch that turns the boiler on and off. And why not add the capability to have such controls on up to 32 radiators. That would be a good idea, wouldn't it? Well guess what, you can by such a system today. Wiser. Been available for a few years now. And it works with Home Assistant.

I got sick and tired of my TRV's running out of batteries and giving false readings because they were so close to the radiator, so I went and bought wired ones, Aquara relays and Aquara temp sensors. Mounted the temp sensors at the same height as the light switches (middle of the room) at the opposite end of the rooms from the radiators and then used the relays to open and close the wired TRV's (and also one wired to the boiler). Combined with simple temperature control panels in each room, I can heat that room and just that room, and I don't need a central heating controller. Add presence sensors and you can literally have the heating follow you to any room when you are present for more than 5 minutes, or switch off heating and drop it to a lower temp when out of the room for more than 5 minutes. Cool as hell. Currently in the process of adding energy consumption monitors and exterior temp sensors outside so I can design an algorithm that will constantly refine itself to give me the most efficient settings.

Prove that was your father and not you wearing a daft cap in a cupboard?

use a sonoff mini r4. There Cheaper and smaller.

I use much cheaper Tuya Zigbee relays, that work just as well, but are also smaller. In the case of a single light switch, you can get the cheapest ones for like 3-4€ shipped from China. Something like those branded Aubess are very often the cheapest, Sonoff tends to be the least bulky and Girier has very different options, if you have multiple lights you need to have switched with one device.

So this does what the Hue wall switch module does, or the Sonoff ZBMINIL2... But it requires a neutral wire, which these things do? And it's massive...

Meross have one simular switch but its single and not dimmable.

Sorry Paul but what about Sonoff? Like the ZBMINI or the CANDEO dimmer thjat can dim and both are Zigbee etc?

I hope he says master bater. Farting is good too!

Great video as always Paul! 👍🏻. I did something similar throughout our house in 2019 when we had it re-wired. I used a Z-Wave Fibaro double switch module then as it was the only real solution I could find within my budget (about £40 per unit at the time) that allowed me to use our own choice of light switches. I chose retractive light switches so they are never “on” or “off”. Fibaro also does a module which allows dimming if that is important to anyone? The good thing about the Fibaro modules is that they are slightly slimmer than this one allowing them to fit into a deep back box without a further spacer (although it is tight).

Any ideas what to do without a neutral wire?

Shelly. Works great BUT for three years, i already threw out 3 of them out of 10. One was replaced under warranty, other two few moths after warranty expires. For comparison from 12 sonoff, none.

Rather than the switch, install at the light fitting in the ceiling?

In the USA we have mentally inept designed wall plugs that'll kill you .. a neutral wire is the least of your concerns. 👍⚡🫨 .. 💀

Come on Paul I've had that in my lights (not from aqara though) for 3 years...how come you find out about it now?

I used Sonoff and Moes zigbee relays in my entire house. Both have smartthings edge drivers, so it's working just like it should. In addition to those, I have a couple of aqara switches and fibaro z-wave dimmers. All work locally.

Was really excited and wanted to buy some of them instantly, but reading through the reviews I found out they are slightly too large for German DIN wiring boxes as they measure 60mm and the relay comes in 62mm....
Bummer! 🤦🏻‍♂️

Shelly exists for like 10 years… why are you excited about a copy 😅 and it can work without neutral. And it is half the size of these

Problem with this is the size of it, Paul how are you going to get this in the back of 90% of UK light switches.

Do these have similar capabilities to Shelly with the functionality of the "switch" inputs, power on states, etc. the manual doesn't seem to contain any actual information....