I have spent quite a bit of money making my homes lighting situation a bit smarter. I am an Apple guy, mainly because I value my privacy, so naturally, I went with solutions that were Apple HomeKit enabled. My house is a bit older and doesn’t have neutral wires run, which means most of my light switches are the Lutron Caseta PD-6WCL. They work great (I have given up on the sh*tty Leviton switches).
I was always intrigued by the Philips Hue bulbs but never pulled the trigger because they have a huge flaw. If anyone turns off the light switch, which people do all the time, the bulb is no longer accessible on the network and goes from “smart” to totally “dumb”. Because of this, I opted to replace my dumb lightswitches with the Lutron Caseta switches. This route takes a bit more work, but ultimately it works very well and I don’t have to worry about the “Philips Hue problem”. Read on for details.
Now that all of that has been said, it looks like Lutron just solved the Philips Hue problem with their latest product, the Lutron Aurora. This product requires no wiring and snaps on over your existing light switch. To turn on Hue lights you tap on the new button or twist them to dim/brighten the lights.
You can preorder the Lutron Aurora smart switch/dimmer for $40 here.
