I never understood the idea of a smart light bulb. I went ahead and bought smart wall switches instead. Why would I want to give up the ability to control the light from the wall?

There are two use cases that make sense to me. One is being able to turn off all the lights in the basement without going there. The other is setting timers on the outdoor lights so they turn on at sunset and off at sunrise. But not much more beyond that.

I've never seen a smart bulb that was controllable from a wall switch. Normally, the bulb has to be powered continuously.

In one case, I replaced a wall switch with a Smart switch, then wrote a back end program to turn on and off a smart ceiling light. But it was a hack. It's sort of kind of works. But I wouldn't recommend it.

@ajlanes

Are the light bulbs also zigbee? Or are you just using normal bulbs with zigbee wall switches.

@ajlanes

I had too much installed lighting to replace it all. So smart wall switches were the way to go for me.

I also went for Wi-Fi based switches, so I wouldn't have yet another network in my house. It works very so-so. I went with a cheap chinese brand. Occasionally they forget the network and I have to reprogram them. But it mostly works.

@ajlanes

I'm also guessing the bulbs had to be wired with continuous power. Which makes sense in a renovation or new construction, but doesn't work so well in a retrofit, like my situation.