Philips Hue Wall Switch makes old light buttons smart (mer)

Smart lighting and old-fashioned light switches do not go together: if the switch is in the off mode, the lamp with old switches no longer receives power and you therefore lose all smart features. Philips says it can solve this with the ‘Hue Wall Switch’, with which you could make old light buttons smart.

Philips Hue Wall Switch

Making an old house smarter has its advantages, but it also presents a number of (technical) problems. If you always want to be able to control your smart lights, you should actually remove all the old light buttons from the wall. In this way you prevent the power supply of your lamp from coming to a standstill and the lamp no longer responding to your commands to switch on the lamps. At the same time, this has disadvantages for the times when your phone is out of range and it is not possible to give voice commands; you cannot switch the lamps on or off manually.

Signify, the Dutch manufacturer that works behind the scenes on Philips Hue equipment, says it has solved this problem with a product that will be released in March – the Philips Hue Wall Switch. Contrary to what the name suggests, the module does not replace your entire switch: it just adds a small device in your light switch. How old the switch in your wall is, does not matter to the operation of the product, according to Signify.

Works with the Hue bridge

After the module is mounted behind the light switch, it stays in contact with your Hue Bridge; Unfortunately, the Bluetooth lamps from Hue do not work with this Wall Switch. You can then switch off your lights with the light switch and then switch on your lights with the Hue app. As can be expected, you can also switch off your lights while the light switch is in the ‘on position’. Do you prefer to switch the lights on or off using voice commands? Even then you can use the Wall Switch to your heart’s content.

With the Hue Wall Switch, Signify is competing with products from parties such as Fibaro and light switch developer Busch-Jaeger. In the case of Fibaro, this is the Smart Implant – to use this module you need equipment from the Fibaro ecosystem. Busch-Jaeger also has its own ‘Friends of Hue’ light switch. Although the outcome of using the switch is the same, the entire switch must be replaced.

Hue Wall Switch launch

Signify has announced that the Philips Hue Wall Switch will arrive on the market in the Netherlands and Belgium on March 9. The price for one Wall Switch is 39.99 euros, while you will pay 69.99 euros for two switches (in one package). It seems obvious to us that packages with more switches will become available. What do you think of the Hue Wall Switch? Let us know in the comments at the bottom of the article.