School me on wireless switches

[simpler=better]

I've got a bunch of lights that I want to control remotely.

#1-Remote I can keep in the car, so I can turn on the outdoor floods & indoor entry light when I get home late.


#2-Add a switch in the wall by the front door to control the same entry light (The hardwired switch is on the wrong side of the room, don't get me started.)


Should I be going with X10? Leviton? Lutron? Zwave?

 

[Denwood]

The easiest solution would be ZigBee bulbs (either Hue, or GE-link) at $12/each and a Smarthings Hub ($100).

 

[Whiskeymike]

I plan to go with Wemo insight or similar light switches I can control from Amazon Echo, Apple Home kit, and my phones. I use it now for garage openers and they are awesome. I just have to take out my phone when I hit my driveway and open it. If I wait till I get to the door, I have to wait for my phone to switch from LTE to Wifi which takes a few seconds. Otherwise, I turn off my wifi and it works great. This way I can turn on the lights while I'm away from the house, up in bed, in my kitchen via voice or by the switch as I walk through the door.

My only issue is these things require a neutral wire and I'm not sure if my house has neutral wires to the light switches. (what year did that become code?) I'd obviously rather not run new wiring to each switch.

 

[simpler=better]

Lucky for me, all the lights I'm working with have neturals in the switch boxes.

 

[Todd.Brock]

I use Wink to control my front porch lights. On at sunset off at dawn. Updates automatically. I also have a switch for my back porch lights my wife insists she leaves in. It is programmed to turn off after being on for 10 minutes. You can use the hub - smart hub, wink- to program how / when/ actions- if front light turns on , then turn thermostat to 70 or turn on fan. Sky is the limit- budget too!

I use GE brand zwave switches. They do require neutral. Not sure what all does or does not need a neutral. There is a lot of cool stuff and light bulbs that are more expensive but may not need a neutral because the bulb is acting as the switch

 

[Denwood]

The cool thing about the ZigBee bulbs is that they integrate dimmers, so you can program this based on light levels. I'm using an app called "auto dimmer" which reads ambient LUX levels (from the local airport) and adjusts the lighting during the day and night.

Our front lights fire up based on iOS geolocation which works very well. We use the same to arm the system, lock doors etc when everyone leaves.

The light's power use drops pretty much linearly as you dim them...checked a few using a ZigBee smart plug to monitor power use.

I kind of like having old school switches (the lights switch themselves on/off at the bulb level) as I figure during lightning storms I can cut power to them completely. Zwave switches are not cheap, require neutrals (most) and would be rather vulnerable in electrical anomalies.