which smart light system?

[manjh]

I am using KAKU switches for most of my lights. Since there is also a number of temp/humidity sensors on 433mhz, it is becoming quite busy on that bandwidth causing "missed commands" occasionally, and I am thinking of moving towards a smart light system.
Before buying any starterset, I am not sure which brand to pick.
Important for me is keeping all options open for the future, not tying myself hard to any brand. And, of course, it will have to work flawlessly with Domoticz.
Looking at the current market, I can see several brands offering starterkits: Philips, Ikea, Trust, Xiaomi, and perhaps a few more that I missed.

Any advise from anyone?

[philchillbill]

The Hue/Tradfri/Xiaomi stuff integrate a radio into each individual lamp. If you are using KAKU today, you're not making the lamp smart but rather the power to the fixture. If you like that concept, Neo Coolcam has very nice smart plugs in variants for both zwave (more expensive) and wifi (pretty cheap). If you have a ceiling spotlight with (say) 3 spots, the Hue approach would be buy 3 smart lamps (each with radios in them), which may be overkill for 3 lamps within 25 cm of each other. I have lots of such 'grouped' lights in my house (Harco Loor design stuff with up to 15 lamps in one fixture). Best way to control that is via built-in wall dimmers/switches that sit behind the wall switch (e.g. Fibaro zwave). So there are more options than just actual smart bulbs - it also depends on fitting-types (E27, GU10 are no problem in 'smart', but MR16 and G4 are). I'd always prefer a smart switchpoint to a smart individual lamp as then you have infinite options for fitting-type.

[bbqkees]

I have used a number of smart lighting systems over the years and in my opinion the only system that provides proper light, is really flicker free and extremely reliable is Philips Hue.
However, with Hue you don't have 'real' wall switches (although they just brought these to market with Niko).
If you want that you are better off with Z-Wave wall dimmers and switches.
But lots of Z-Wave dimmers will cause a intermittent flickering of the lights.

In my house I currently use a mix of Philips Hue for lights that don't really need a wall switch, and Z-Wave wall dimmers for controlling the other lights (ceiling, wall etc).
For the outside lights and the garden I use Sonoffs with EspEasy firmware.

For some Hue lights I have 'bypassed' the missing wall switches by using the additional switch inputs of the Z-Wave dimmers and use those to turn on of off a Domoticz light group which also include the Hue lights.

There is also the cheap option of MiLight, but I am not really impressed by the light quality of that system.

[manjh]

The Hue/Tradfri/Xiaomi stuff integrate a radio into each individual lamp. If you are using KAKU today, you're not making the lamp smart but rather the power to the lamp. If you like that concept, Neo Coolcam has very nice smart plugs in variants for both zwave (more expensive) and wifi (pretty cheap). If you have a ceiling spotlight with (say) 3 spots, the Hue approach would be buy 3 smart lamps (each with radios in them), which may be overkill for 3 lamps within 25 cm of each other. I have lots of such 'grouped' lights in my house (Harco Loor design stuff with up to 15 lamps in one fixture). Best way to control that is via built-in wall dimmers/switches that sit behind the wall switch (e.g. Fibaro zwave). So there are more options than just actual smart bulbs - it also depends on fitting-types (E27, GU10 are no problem in 'smart', but MR16 and G4 are). I'd always prefer a smart switchpoint to a smart individual lamp as then you have infinite options for fitting-type.

Good point. It may seem like a nice gimmick being able to control individual lamps in a fixture of 3 or 5. But on the other hand, I have seen a friend battle with this trying to get the light color and intensity equalized for three Hue lamps in one fixture... so the advantage can turn into a disadvantage.

[manjh]

I have used a number of smart lighting systems over the years and in my opinion the only system that provides proper light, is really flicker free and extremely reliable is Philips Hue.
However, with Hue you don't have 'real' wall switches (although they just brought these to market with Niko).
If you want that you are better off with Z-Wave wall dimmers and switches.
But lots of Z-Wave dimmers will cause a intermittent flickering of the lights.

In my house I currently use a mix of Philips Hue for lights that don't really need a wall switch, and Z-Wave wall dimmers for controlling the other lights (ceiling, wall etc).
For the outside lights and the garden I use Sonoffs with EspEasy firmware.

For some Hue lights I have 'bypassed' the missing wall switches by using the additional switch inputs of the Z-Wave dimmers and use those to turn on of off a Domoticz light group which also include the Hue lights.

There is also the cheap option of MiLight, but I am not really impressed by the light quality of that system.

SonOff came to mind, I have several single and 4-channel SonOffs in my house with ESPEasy, and control them directly from Domoticz. Works great, but the units are not small enough to build into a standard wall mount. I use them whenever I can put them into a light casing, or when they are mounted in a place where it does not matter. If only SonOff would come up with a miniature version...

[manjh]

Right, this brings me to the point where I understand I need to organize my requirements.
1. Do I really need to control each lamp individually, or is it sufficient to control them as a group? For instance, the light fixture above my dining table contains five GU10 LEDs. It is OK to switch/dim them as group.
2. Do I want to change color of the light? I have seen the newer Hue white abiance lamps, the claim is that they can produce white light (true), but also warm white (not so true: I don't like their version of warm white). Even more, the real Rgb lamps are a bit over-the-top for me.
I can't imagine myself using that a lot, after the initial "hey, that's cool" period.

So, looking at the global picture, what I want is to control the lamps in a similar way as the KAKU units do, except with a better communication. Direct control of switches via IP would be ideal, since I would not need any hub or bridge.
SonOff, but then in a miniature package....

[philchillbill]

Zwave might then be your best bet. It’s 2 way and also mesh so a big improvement over KAKU. Being 868MHz in the EU, it’s got far better range and penetration than WiFi plus less congestion.

I recently had my main router (Ziggo) crap out on handing out DHCP addresses as my device pool of WiFi endpoints had exceeded 100. Luckily I could change it to 150 and continue. The Apple Airport routers were limited to 50. So before you go with WiFi for every possible endpoint in your house, check that your router can handle it. If not then you may not need a gateway as with zwave, but you might need a new router without realizing it...


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[bbqkees]

Again you do not necessarily have to use one single system.
In my house the combination of Hue and Z-Wave works very well.
If you have a single lamp its cheaper to use a white-only GU10 or E27 Hue and for f.i. ceilings spot lights of which more are connected to the same switch just use regular LED lights with a single Z-Wave relay or dimmer.

A single Hue light is about 15 to 20 Euro.
A Z-Wave dimmer about 60 and each additional LED light lets say 5 Euro.
So at a certain number of lights Z-Wave becomes the cheaper alternative. Also if you want in-wall control that's already a plus for the Z-Wave dimmer.

In my house everything is 2700K LED or Hue Color but the Color Hue lights are rarely used in any color other than white.

Set everything in a group or scene and you can control all lights as a whole, it does not matter which technology is used for each individual light.
At sunset Domoticz turns on several groups of lights. In f.i. the living room its 6 Hue lights set to 25% white and a set of Z-Wave controlled lights that are set at about 20%.

[pvm]

But lots of Z-Wave dimmers will cause a intermittent flickering of the lights.

This does not occur for everyone, I expect you are one of the few. What is a lot of dimmers, 100?

I would also advice Z-Wave for lights also controlled by wall-switches, and possibly other solution where they fit.