Lutron's Aurora dimmer for Philips Hue lighting installs over a light switch

It really doesn’t make any sense that anyone should have this problem to begin with. If you have wall switches, you have no business using Philips Hue. There are several far more appropriate ways to achieve smart home lighting without nuking a useful wall switch. 

Metriacanthosaurus said:

It really doesn’t make any sense that anyone should have this problem to begin with. If you have wall switches, you have no business using Philips Hue. There are several far more appropriate ways to achieve smart home lighting without nuking a useful wall switch. 

If you don't have a neutral wire, you can use one $70 Lutron switch that doesn't require it -- but you're cut off from the rest. This is a decent solution for that.

Metriacanthosaurus said:

It really doesn’t make any sense that anyone should have this problem to begin with. If you have wall switches, you have no business using Philips Hue. There are several far more appropriate ways to achieve smart home lighting without nuking a useful wall switch. 

Could you elaborate? There are plenty of problems that I've had trying to find a good solution, e.g. Hue is perfect for my floor/desk lamps that I can now control and dim from a a more conveniently placed battery-operated dimmer. My front outdoor Hue is on a sensor so I don't need to touch the switch and the back outdoor one is on a timer in case I forget forget to turn it off. But my other Hue bulbs have the frustrating lack of a wife-proof wall switch issue. What is the alternative that can incorporate all of these things? I've still never seen any well-reviewed and moderately priced wall switches, especially that work on lights with switches in two places.

edit: I should mention I live in Europe, where as far as I know Lutron doesn't exist. Looks like I can't even get this clunky workaround let alone any of their other better products.

Metriacanthosaurus said:

It really doesn’t make any sense that anyone should have this problem to begin with. If you have wall switches, you have no business using Philips Hue. There are several far more appropriate ways to achieve smart home lighting without nuking a useful wall switch. 

Unless you can't change the wall switch, because you live in an apartment. Change the wiring, no; change the cover plate, yes.

Or you want the wall switch to control more than just the lights it's hardwired to.

Or you want smart lights that do more than just dim, which is what you get with a smart hardwired wall switch like Lutron Casetá. And you'd rather not have a blank plate over the spot where your wall switch used to be, plus a Philips remote stuck to the wall next to it...

This is a brilliant product. It's not for everyone, but it definitely serves a need and fulfills a hole in Philips' lineup.

Mike Wuerthele said:

Metriacanthosaurus said:

It really doesn’t make any sense that anyone should have this problem to begin with. If you have wall switches, you have no business using Philips Hue. There are several far more appropriate ways to achieve smart home lighting without nuking a useful wall switch. 

If you don't have a neutral wire, you can use one $70 Lutron switch that doesn't require it -- but you're cut off from the rest. This is a decent solution for that.

I wanted to control some outside lights with a WiFi smart switch but you need separate wire pairs going to the source and to the load. It would be nice to have a solution similar to this to avoid having to deal with the drywall. The easiest solution I have thought of so far would be to put the actual switch in the attic where all the wires are easily accessible and just place a remote control on the wall where the switch normally goes.