Home-Assistant - Three way lights in the bedroom
I wanted automation on the lights. My family wanted all the lights to work with old light switches just like they did before. here is how I updated the lights in the bedroom.
Before - A single light switch as you come in through the door operated the lights on the ceiling. Then two bed side lamps were turned on either side of the bed using a switch on the power cord for each one.
During - The plan was to make all lights controllable by the home assistant box (and then by voice or timers etc), but at the same time make it as user firendly (simple) for the rest of my family. This rules out plugs at floor level on the bedside table lamps. Another problem that had to be worked out was (as documented in other posts) there is no Neutral wire in the light switch on the wall as this is Ireland, and like the UK we only have live wires in those switches.
And after - The final solution. The two bedside lamps had inline switches in the wires. These were swapped out for these ones : https://amzn.to/3s9hBb3. This allowed for automation, but still allowed the lights to be turned on and off inline. The main roof light had one of these Sonoff relays added : https://amzn.to/2WS6y7C. This means the old light switch would still turn the lights on and off, but they were also linked to the automation now. The final step was to add a 3 way light switch : https://amzn.to/2LjfUau in the middle of the bed over the head board. I rotated it 90 degrees so it looks like 3 mains switches and set the left and right ones to be on and off for the bedside lamps and the middle one to be the main light. This switch is great as it needs no wiring at all. It is battery powered and attaches to the HA system by Zigbee.
Now everyone is happy and the lights can be flipped on and off as needed.