Lutron Aurora Hue Controller is Brilliant, and way too expensive
The Lutron Aurora Hue switch controller is brilliant, just brilliant. Slap it over the light switch and you solve the usability issue with a Philips Hue installation. Power comes from a coin battery, and it uses Zigbee for effortless and reliable setup and configuration. But, $40 a switch, yeah, $40… I’d be shocked if there’s more than $2 in hardware in this thing (likely much lower than that because, volume), and sure not having to get your hands dirty, or pay an electrician to, has value for home owners, and certainly more for renters, but $40. In context, you can get a Z-Wave dimmer switch for $30.
Now available for preorder and set to ship out in June, the solution I speak of is called the Lutron Aurora, and it’s a $40 smart dimmer dial that pairs with Philips Hue smart bulbs. What’s particularly clever about it is that you don’t wire it into your wall where the light switch once was — instead, you just snap it in place on top of the switch itself, which locks it into the on position.
Couple of thoughts
– I wonder how long the batter lasts.
– We have a bunch of three way switches in the house. I assume that we would want to install this on only one of the switches and just makes sure my kids don’t try and use the other ones.
– Figure I might need 8 – 10 of these things – would be $400 – plus the cost of batteries.
Haven’t really done much in the way of home automation in our house – one of these days I’ll get the bug.
Lutron is claiming that the battery should last ~3 years. So not too bad.
HA is addictive. Better to just stay away 😉