That’s honestly been my biggest frustration with smart bulbs, too—one person flips the switch and suddenly half your “automation” is just dead weight until you go around resetting everything. I tried the switch guards for a while, but they felt like putting baby-proofing on everything, which just made guests more curious for some reason.
I went the other way in my yard and stuck with regular bulbs, but swapped the switches for smart ones (after a lot of cursing at old wiring). I kept the original faceplates to keep the look, but behind them it’s all new. It’s not perfect either—sometimes someone still finds a way to mess it up, or the app glitches and I end up just using my phone as a flashlight anyway.
The little icons idea is clever. I’ve tried color-coding tape before, but people still get confused, especially after a couple drinks at a BBQ. I guess there’s just no foolproof way to make everyone follow the “smart house rules.”
Have you ever played around with those battery-powered smart buttons? Like the ones you can stick anywhere and program to control scenes or lights? I’m thinking about putting one by the back door so people can hit it instead of the wall switch, but I’m not sure if it’ll just add to the confusion. Wondering if anyone’s had luck training guests (or family) to use those instead of instinctively flipping the old switches. Is it just human nature to go for the switch no matter what?
I keep thinking there’s gotta be a middle ground between “everything is automated and nobody touches anything” and “just let chaos reign.” Maybe it’s just about picking your battles and accepting a little bit of old house weirdness.
