Ryan's Learnings

This is probably one of the simplest but most useful things I added to our house. It is a simple motion based light switch:  Lutron Maestro Motion Sensor Switch When you enter the laundry room carrying a basket of laundry, the light automatically turns on. Also, since our laundry room is also our back entrance, this light also turns on when entering the house. No connection to any smart services, because it simply isn't needed. It's such a simple device, but it works great and is super convenient.

This post is an overview of my research on smart switches and dimmers, and what I'm using for our house. Note that our house has been renovated in 2017, including all new electrical so all of our switches have a neutral wire. If you don't have a neutral wire, you won't be able to use all smart switches. You can check out Lutron Cresta which works without a neutral wire. Wemo Smart switch (1st gen, non-dimmer) : This is the first smart switch I used when we bought our house: The app is easy to setup and I was able to connect this with Amazon Alexa and Google Home pretty easily. I like the fact that it is a single push button to toggle on and off. I haven't had too many issues after several years of ownership, other than occasionally I've had to re-connnect the Wemo account to google, but I think it's only been a few times in the past 3 years. Leviton Decora smart wi-fi dimmer :  This is the dimmer I'm using in two of our bedrooms. I like the customization opt...

I attempted a relatively simple task of adding a dimmer switch and dimmable light bulbs to a ceiling light fixture. The dimmer switch I used Lutron Diva LED+ dimmer: https://amzn.to/3rkQBEY I went to Home Depot to purchase dimmable lightbulbs. These were standard 60w lightbulbs. My results: Feit, Cree, Ecosmart: Buzzing noise when dimming. Returned them. Phillips: No buzzing, worked great. However, they only had the "edison" style ones in stock which were pretty expensive, but to me it was worth it to not deal with the buzzing noise, even though I needed 3 for the light fixture. Not sure if this is a specific issue with this dimmer, but this is what worked for me.