What Is a Smart Dimmer Switch?

Curious about smart dimmer switches? This simple guide explains what they are, how they work, the different connection protocols, and the handy features that make modern lighting smarter and smoother.

• Table of Contents
• What Is a Smart Dimmer Switch
• Smart Dimmer Protocols: Zigbee, Wi-Fi, and More
• Smart Dimmer Features Explained
• Faceplate and Material Options
• Can Smart Dimmers Work in Multi-Way Setups?
• Are Smart Dimmers Safe?

What Is a Smart Dimmer Switch

Think of a smart dimmer as a normal dimmer switch that's learned a few clever tricks.
Instead of just turning or pressing a knob, you can also control the lights from your phone, a smart hub, or even with your voice.

So if you've ever wanted to dim the lights without getting off the sofa — or have them slowly brighten automatically when you wake up — that's what a smart dimmer does. It connects to your home network and lets you customise lighting for comfort, convenience, and energy savings.

Smart Dimmer Protocols: Zigbee, Wi-Fi, and More

For a smart dimmer switch to connect to the internet, it needs a wireless protocol. Wi-Fi is a common wireless communication protocol—your phone uses it to connect to the internet, and dimmers can connect to Wi-Fi too. However, a more common choice is Zigbee, a protocol specifically developed for smart homes. Zigbee is generally more stable, more energy-efficient, and less prone to dropping offline than Wi-Fi, making it a better fit for smart dimmers.

Of course, you may have also noticed many other wireless protocols, such as Z-Wave, Matter, Bluetooth, and so on. These can all be applied to smart dimmers, but the differences between them are quite significant:

Z-Wave's smart ecosystem is gradually declining, making it harder for you to expand with other smart products in the future (as the ideal ecosystem uses a single protocol). Its hardware is also more expensive, which is why it is slowly fading from the market.

Matter is a new protocol pushed by tech giants (like Samsung, Apple, and Amazon) over the past year or two. As it is newly introduced, the number of devices using this protocol is relatively low. This limited scale results in higher hardware costs. It also impacts your ability to expand with other smart products. The main advantage of Matter, compared to Zigbee and Z-Wave, lies in the convenience and cost of integration between the ecosystems of these tech giants; it reduces the complexity of cross-platform compatibility and lowers server costs. However, it offers no clear advantage or improvement for the end-user or manufacturer, which is why its development has been slow.

Bluetooth's limitation is the control range. Similar to your phone and Bluetooth headphones, the distance between any two of your Bluetooth devices should ideally not exceed 10 metres (and the closest device to the gateway should also be within 10 metres). This imposes strict requirements on device placement and distance, which can complicate installation.

Whether it's Zigbee, Matter, Z-Wave, or Bluetooth, an additional 'thing' is required for the smart device to connect to the internet, just as you need a router to connect to Wi-Fi. This additional component is called a Gateway or Hub (for Matter, it's called a Thread Border Router or Controller). The key advantage of Wi-Fi dimmers is that they do not require a gateway; they connect directly to your router. However, dimmers often do not require a neutral wire, which can result in poorer dimming performance and reduced compatibility with certain light bulbs. Zigbee dimmers don't have this problem because of their lower power consumption.

Therefore, in the current phase, Zigbee is the more suitable protocol overall.

Smart Dimmer Features Explained

Smart dimmers do a lot more than just brighten or dim lights. Let's go through some of the most useful functions:

Minimum brightness setting: lets you stop your lights from flickering at very low brightness (say, set the lowest point at 10%).

Maximum brightness auto-adjust: automatically lowers brightness slightly if flicker is detected at 100%, protecting both light and comfort.

Soft start: lights gently brighten when switched on — better for bulb lifespan and your eyes.

Brightness memory: when you turn the lights off and on, it remembers your last setting.

The above are the functions of common dimmers on the market; below are the additional functions added by the Repenic dimmer to optimise the user experience.

BOOST: Some lights, due to their low wattage, cannot be turned on again after you dim the brightness and turn off the light (because the current corresponding to the lower brightness is below the current required to start the dimmer). This function can help low-wattage bulbs start normally by briefly increasing the power, and then automatically dim to the previous brightness (only available with Homey and Hubitat).

Co-sleeping mode: Gradually dims to off over 30 minutes — great for bedtime, e.g. for children who need the companionship of lights to fall asleep (only available with Homey and Hubitat).

Moonlight mode: limits brightness to around 10% during late hours — avoids blinding light if you get up at night (only available with Homey and Hubitat).

Sunrise mode: light slowly brightens in the morning to wake you gently (only available with Homey and Hubitat).

Electricity Statistics: You can view via the App how much electricity has been consumed by the lighting system controlled by this dimmer.

Faceplate and Material

Yes, smart dimmers are clever — but they can also look stunning.
Traditional white plastic goes without saying; if you like it, that's fine, as it can work very well.
But if you want to add a bit more style to your home (after all, you spend every day in close proximity to it), you might consider more textured metal panels. 
Common panel finish types include brass, stainless steel, black, white, and so on. 
It should be noted that there are many brands claiming to offer brass panels, but the material they use is merely thin iron sheets, simply sprayed with brass paint on the surface. Moreover, some brands claim their material is steel, but it is actually iron sheets. If you have a magnet, you might as well buy one and test it yourself; basically, all brands provide free return and exchange policies.

At Repenic, all brass is solid brass, and all steel is solid stainless steel; we never play word games.
Additionally, the plastic used in Repenic's dimmer modules is recycled plastic, which differs from brands on the market that use ordinary plastic.

Can Smart Dimmers Work in Multi-Way Setups?

Yes.
For smart dimmers, a common multi-way control solution on the market (what is multi-way control?) is a retractable switch. This switch controls the light in the following ways:
Press once: On or off; 
Press and hold: The light continuously brightens or dims; 
Release: The brightness remains fixed.
You may have noticed that retractable switches don't offer precise control of brightness. Therefore, we've developed a multi-way dimmer that uses a rotary knob like a regular dimmer, making it more user-friendly.

Are Smart Dimmers Safe?

Dimmers on the market usually do not make special statements about their safety, merely providing a UKCA or CE certification report. However, the standards in the certification are only the minimum acceptable by the market and do not indicate excellence. As seen in the table below, dimmers that have also obtained UKCA certification perform quite differently in terms of safety.

Don't put your family and property at risk.

Final Thoughts

A smart dimmer switch is more than just a fancy light control — it’s a small upgrade that makes your home smarter, calmer, and more energy-efficient.

Once you've experienced smooth, flicker-free dimming and app-based control, you'll probably wonder how you ever lived without it.