Which shelly relays should I use?

  • Hi there

    I'm new to home automation, but I've figured that shelly is the way to go, since it is pretty cheap and should work good in my case. But I'm at loss when it comes to electrical wiring stuff, which is why I wanted to ask if someone of you professionals could help me with deciding which shelly relays I need? It would mean the world to me. I dont really know what wiring is needed, what shellys go with what wiring etc... I plan on using them for lights only at the moment, so I don't need to worry about the "strenght" (?) of power (Ampere). My plan is to buy the shellys and let an electrician do the wiring.

    I have been given some shelly switches, it would be nice to use some of them. But I'm not sure if I can use them:

    - 6 x Shelly 1 Plus

    - 2 x Shelly Dimmer 2

    - 1 x Hue Wall Switch

    I have de-attached the light Switches and made photos of all the wiring that is already there. It may be useful to know, that I live in Switzerland. Here are the pictures and the room they are in:

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    Bathroom Light Switch only (one wire was loose, no dimming required)


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    Office Light Switch + Power Socket (I only want the light Switch to be smart, no dimming required, will possibly be a Hue Ceiling Lamp)

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    Bedroom Double Light Switch + Power Socket (I only want the two light switches to be smart, no Dimming required, one will possibly be a Hue Ceiling Lamp)

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    Living Room One Double light switch and one light switch with socket, one of the two top Lights will be a Hue Lamp. Important: The one switch on the bottom is connected to the same lamp as is the top right light switch in the kitchen / dining room. (I would like the three light Switches to be smart, dimming required in two (or one, depends on where the shelly for the lamp that has another switch in Kitchen /dining room has to be installed))

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    Corridor Light Switch, but there are two light Switches for the same light. The other one has also two purple wires, but instead of the orange one there is a brown wire. Dimming required.

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    Kitchen / Dining Room Important: The one switch on the top right is connected to the same lamp as is the bottom light switch in the living room. (I would like the four light switches to be smart, dimming needed in two or three, depends on where the shelly for the lamp that has another switch in the living room has to be installed )

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    Kitchen Working light with power Socket (Here again are two separate light switches present for one light. I would like the light to be smart. No dimming needed.

    Then I have another question: I plan to use one or two Hue lamps: Should I use the Philipps wall Switches, or should i just go for shelly for that? And can I use dimmable shellys without the dimming function if needed? Thank you so much for your advice. If you need to know anything else just let me know! Thank you again..!

    Ron

  • Bathroom: Looks like there is no Neutral (N) going to that switch. With the current wiring you'll need a Shelly 1L and depending on the connected light/lamp (if it is less than 20W resistive load) you will also need a Shelly Bypass. Better solution would be to have the electrician pull a Neutral (N) wire from the lamp to that switch, in which case you can use a Shelly Plus 1 or Plus 1PM (1PM has power metering, 1 doesn't) and don't need a Shelly Bypass.

    Office: Shelly Plus 1 or Plus 1PM.

    Bedroom: Shelly Plus 2PM

    Living Room: Are all 3 lamps and socket on the same circuit breaker? If yes, then you can use the brown (unswitched L) and blue (N) wires to power Shelly devices behind those switches. Otherwise it gets a bit complicated and best is to ask your electrician. Also, what Shelly devices are recommended, depends on which of these 3 switches should be Shelly dimmed and which just Shelly switched. It also matters if the lamp-with-other-switch-in-kitchen/diningroom should be switched or dimmed?

    Kitchen / Dining room: Are all 4 lamps and socket on the same circuit breaker? If yes, then you can use the brown (unswitched L) and blue (N) wires to power Shelly devices behind those switches. Otherwise it gets a bit complicated and best is to ask your electrician. Also, what Shelly devices are recommended, depends on which of these 4 switches should be Shelly dimmed and which just Shelly switched. It also matters if the lamp-with-other-switch-in-livingroom should be switched or dimmed?

    Corridor: Purple is likely the two "Korrespondierende", orange is likely the "switched L". Have the electrician pull a brown unswitched Live (L) from the "brown/2xpurple" switch to the "2xpurple/orange" switch. Have a blue Neutral (N) pulled from the lamp to the "2xpurple/orange" switch. Put Shelly Plus 1 or Plus 1PM behind the switch with the purple/orange wires and power the Shelly from the new brown (unswitched L) and blue (N) wires.

    Kitchen working light: Cable colors seem a bit weird and it's really hard to tell from the photo how this one is wired. One would also need to see pics from both switches (and optimally from the lamp connection) to figure out how it's wired.

    Some general hints:

    - Electrician should make sure that a (usually brown) unswitched live (L) and a (always blue) neutral (N) should be available at each switch location and at each lamp connection location. Electrician must also make sure that the neutral (N) is the "correct" neutral for that circuit (= "matches" with the live L), otherwise this can lead to dangerous situations and is not in complicance with the Swiss NIN (Niederspannungs-Installations-Norm).

    - If dimming of the same lamp is required from multiple switches, then put Shelly Dimmer 2 behind one switch (the one that at the moment "outputs" the switched L to the lamp) and Shelly Plus i4 behind the other switch.

    - From the pictures i can see that you have Feller switches ("Schalter"), which can be easily converted to momentary switches ("Taster") without any additional material required. Also, if you have no lamps that is at the moment controlled by three switches (either by a "Kreuzschalter" or by a "Stromstossschalter"), the current switches should be able to be used with the Shellys. If the electrician wants to sell you new switches (or momentary switches) because "they are needed for the Shellys", it's probably best to ask for a detailed reason – or even another electricians opinion. I have seen electricians trying to take advantage of unknowing customers with tricks like this.

    - Electrician in Switzerland is by law required to measure the new installation and must provide you with a copy of the measurement protocol and the security certificate ("Sicherheitsnachweis", "SiNa"). Most electricians i have seen will not do this for private houses and apartments though, unless specifically asked. Also it's best to tell them from the start if you require this documentation, even though it's technically a legal requirement for them to provide it. The silly thing about this is that from my experience this paperwork and "certification" is kind of a joke, as in private homes the installing company can self-certify their installation. I have seen multiple "SiNa" certifying things that were not done at all, that were not in compliance to the current standards or were downright dangerous.

    - Sadly, it's hard to find a good and competent electrician in Switzerland. We are at electrician company number 4 at the moment and i'm still not fully happy (the current company has some good employees, but which employee gets sent to your house in the end tends to be a bit of a "lottery"). The work of the previous 3 companies was somewhere between "just incompetent" to downright life-threatening-dangerous.

    Other notes:

    - Dimmable shellys can be set to 100% so no dimming takes place. You will still have the power (wattage) limitations of the Shelly Dimmer 2, though.

    - Mixing Hue + Shelly (for the same lamp) doesn't make sense in my opinion; get Shelly switches/dimmers and use Shelly Duo or Shelly Bulb lamps instead of Hue lamps. Or forget about using Shellys and get Hue switches and Hue bulbs.

    Shellys – 16x Plus 1PM / 8x 1PM / 4x Dimmer 2 / 3x Shelly 2.5 / 3x Plus 2PM / 2x Button 1 / 1x Plus 1 / 3x Plus i4 / 1x i3 / 1x Door/Window 2 / 5x PM Mini Gen3 / 2x H&T Gen3 / 1x Plus AddOn //// WLAN – 4x UniFi Access Points //// Rollläden / Rollos / Storen – Somfy Tahoma Switch mi 5x Somfy io & 3x Velux io-homecontrol / 2x euroMOT powerFlex //// Heizung / Klima – Viessmann mit Vitoconnect 100 (OPTO1) & Vitocom 100 (LAN1) / Mitsubishi