squanch
Novice Member
I’m about to have my electrician install lighting in our kitchen (just refurbed) and we are going to have quite a mixture going in - including a few runs of LED strips (e.g. under worktops, around a recessed ceiling) and pendant lights (e.g. above island, above dining table). NB: The LED strips will be white (not RGB) - in particular these: DuoFlex Dual Colour Flexible Strip
I’m planning to have him install Shellys but I have so far experimented with just a basic on/off Shelly 1 in a spare bedroom and it works great (and I’ve successfully homebridged it to HomeKit with a Raspberry Pi).
My (initial) questions (bear with me as I’m a mathematician not an electrician!):
1. If I have two pendants and two LED strips being controlled from a four gang switch can I use a Shelly Dimmer 2 (for the pendants) and a RGBW2 (for the two two-channel LED strips) in that to do the job. My aim is to be able to turn these lights on and off from the ‘dumb’ wall switches as well as via ‘smart’ functionality.
2. I broadly understand how Shelly 2.5s work as a pair of binary relays. Is the Shelly RGBW2 essentially ‘always on’ from its DC input but the DC voltage output by the four channels to the LED strip is effectively throttled down to zero using its dimming function? What purpose does the AC input switch serve on the RGBW2 and is that the terminal that would be wired up to the four-gang switch somehow?
3. Are Shelly Dimmer 2s completely inappropriate for LED strip lighting usage?
4. I see references to ‘momentary’ switches, press-and-hold dimmer switches and the like. I’m not 100% sure on what the former is. Would it be possible to use the rotating knob dimmers for the above use cases?
5. What other questions should I have at this point?!
Any help greatly appreciated!
I’m planning to have him install Shellys but I have so far experimented with just a basic on/off Shelly 1 in a spare bedroom and it works great (and I’ve successfully homebridged it to HomeKit with a Raspberry Pi).
My (initial) questions (bear with me as I’m a mathematician not an electrician!):
1. If I have two pendants and two LED strips being controlled from a four gang switch can I use a Shelly Dimmer 2 (for the pendants) and a RGBW2 (for the two two-channel LED strips) in that to do the job. My aim is to be able to turn these lights on and off from the ‘dumb’ wall switches as well as via ‘smart’ functionality.
2. I broadly understand how Shelly 2.5s work as a pair of binary relays. Is the Shelly RGBW2 essentially ‘always on’ from its DC input but the DC voltage output by the four channels to the LED strip is effectively throttled down to zero using its dimming function? What purpose does the AC input switch serve on the RGBW2 and is that the terminal that would be wired up to the four-gang switch somehow?
3. Are Shelly Dimmer 2s completely inappropriate for LED strip lighting usage?
4. I see references to ‘momentary’ switches, press-and-hold dimmer switches and the like. I’m not 100% sure on what the former is. Would it be possible to use the rotating knob dimmers for the above use cases?
5. What other questions should I have at this point?!
Any help greatly appreciated!