Wireless Remote Switch H1, Requires Aqara Hub, Zigbee 3.0, Configurable Remote Control with 7 Functions without Installation for Smart Homes, Compatible with Apple HomeKit, IFTTT

So, the problem: you have smart lights and a dumb switch. You flick the switch and your lights are dead now. Not cool! So you go and buy a smart switch and you wire it in. And the problem persists! Because wired in smart switches still kill the power. Sounds familiar? Well, this wireless switch is the answer. It works as a smart button (two buttons actually) so instead of killing power you can send a signal to your lights to turn on and off, change scenes, etc. You can also clamp lights wiring from dumb switch days so they always stay on and then replace your dumb switch with H1. H1 can be installed on standard UK switch sockets. You just need to drill two holes in its backplate (hole locations are marked, no need to guess). H1 switch is a ZigBee device, but as we all know not all ZigBee hubs support all devices. My advice is to use Zigbee2MQTT with Sonoff ZigBee dongle running on Raspberry Pi - that will make ALL ZigBee devices compatible with each other. And then use Home Assistant to control and automate everything instead of using a multitude of silly proprietary apps. All in all - great switch which solves an actual problem. It also looks good. I only wish it would come in more colours. My dumb switches and outlets are grey and I would love to see Aqara devices in grey as well.

No Alexa Integration, it does not get seen through the Alexa Skill (the product does not state it does though) There are different guides to try and set this up through different regions, they don’t work and will just cause frustration. (I’m EU). If you have Aqara bulbs I’m sure it works much easier as no need to link to everything else. I’ve been able to setup IFTTT commands between my Bulbs (Lumiman, but it seems most other third party bulbs) and the App Smart Life (in some way related to Plus Minus). Using this link it is possible to trigger scenes to turn on/off bulbs. Not easy to setup, IFTTT does have a cost too for Pro or Pro+ to have more options. Product as with the other Aqara items are amazing for the price in my opinion.

Brought this switch for use with Home Assistant, which does not seem to be fully supported with ZHA in Home Assistant. Device is setup but missing triggers and battery info. The model is shown as 'lumi.remote.b28ac1.' it seems there is various regional models of this unit and other regions seem to be ok and have blueprints. But none working for lumi.remote.b28ac1. So i've added via Aqara and Homekit which was simple and easy to get working. Shame not working for me in Homekit with ZHA

I love theses, blend in to the room perfectly

I already have 6 Aqara switches, all of them wired. One of those 6 is a 2-way switch in the garage. This latest switch works as a remote control for that switch. I’ve always found Aqara very reliable, hence the 7th Aqara switch.

I bought several of these 8 weeks ago, and it has been 8 weeks of hell. They do not function as normal on/off switches you need to use the Eve up to set up multiple rules depending on the light state, which is fun the first time setting up, but when they disconnect from the hub and you have to repeat the same thing over and over, it gets tedious. They are constantly disconnecting from the hub, they are completely unreliable. I have other Aqara devices which all work perfectly, so its not my hub. I should have just burned the over £100.00 spent and would have felt better than the suffering I have experienced. Today I finally gave up, ripped them off the walls and ordered some Hue switches. Save yourself the pain and misery and avoid this one.

This is just what I needed! For years I’ve been running on routines through sensors, but those of you who do this will know the issue of guests turning off the actual light switch in confusion if you didn’t quite adjust your routine times enough by winter or on an unexpectedly dark day. This solves it! Provided your light itself is already smart (online). This switch can be drilled out in premarked holes and mounted in place of your conventional UK wall switch (you can then link the l1 and l together behind the switch) and never have the worry again (rec sparky if not familiar with electrics). The one point I would make is this device does not play well with Alexa but you can routine it through the Apple home app or the Aqara app to turn on particular lights in your house. I mainly rely on an Apple eco system and this works ideal.

Looks like a quality remote switch, but wasted many hours trying to integrate it with Home Assistant using ZHA. It turns out that there is a "Quirk" that partially works around the problem. This is not for the faint hearted. I'm a techie with 40+ years experience, but when I read the details of the quirk, my stomach sank and my brain went numb. We're looking at installing a large number of smart switches and remotes, so whatever we use wants to be low maintenance, both for me (as the techie in the household) and for anybody else (in case I'm not available when something goes wrong). Because of the lack of ZHA integration and the pain of handling the quirk, the Wife Acceptance Factor on this is a big fat zero. I suspect that Aqara want people to buy their hubs, but to make it this difficult to integrate with ZHA in Home Assistant when not using an Aqara hub puts me off using Aqara kit. I don't want to be tied in to a particular ecosystem, and I don't want to do hacky stuff to integrate with Home Assistant. So, as good as this remote switch looks, it has been returned and once I've identified an alternative we'll be buying 30+ single/double/triple rocker remotes & switches from another company (that Aqara don't sell their triple rocker in the UK yet and haven't got an ETA for doing so is another reason for not using them)