A Deep Dive Into the Aqara Light Switch H2 US

Controlling a smart home can be challenging. Ideally the smart home includes an array of sensors and logic so the smart home senses what is happening in the home and initiates actions on behalf of the homeowners. A basic example is installing a motion sensor and light sensor in a hallway. When motion is detected and the level of ambient light in the hallway is low, a light is automatically turned on to make it safer for a person to walk through the hall. When motion is no longer detected, the light is automatically turned off to save energy.

But there are many situations where homeowners want to take control of their home themselves. Overall, the user interface (UI) of a do-it-yourself (DIY) smart home system is typically controlled by:

• Voice Assistants scattered around a home.
• Light switches that have been replaced by basic, two-button, smart switches.
• Multi-button keypads with each button assigned a different function such as a lighting scene or macro.
• Apps running on the homeowners’ smart phones and tablets.

Voice assistants, including Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, and Apple HomePod, have become the dominant tool people use to control their smart home. Voice commands work well but have their drawbacks.

For one, they can be challenging even for family members to remember names assigned to rooms and lighting fixtures. For example, is the name of the room by the front door the entryway, foyer, or entranceway? Is the light fixture in the foyer named pendant, chandelier, or just “hanging light”? Unless the voice command to turn on a light includes the proper room name and the correct name assigned to the light fixture, the command won’t work. And when house guests are involved – forget about it.

Additionally, background noise, such as someone watching TV, someone listening to music, or people talking, can make it difficult for a voice assistant to understand the command that was spoken.

Other UI choices aren’t ideal either. House guests don’t have access to the apps that the homeowners’ use, which means they then have to hunt for the correct switch to turn on a specific light in rooms with multiple switches and light fixtures.

It can even be challenging for homeowners to remember what each button does on a wall mounted keypad. Their options are to either label the buttons by scribbling on each one with a Sharpie or printing functions onto self-stick labels that quickly wear with use.

Aqara’s new H2 line of light switches for the U.S. takes a step in the right direction for making smart home’s easier to control. Aqara designs and develops hardware and software solutions for the smart home. The name, Aqara, is a combination of the Latin words “Acutulus” (smart) and “Ara” (home). The company was founded in 2009 and it has grown to be one of the largest manufacturers of smart home products in the world. Aqara has over 12 million customers, in more than 170 countries and territories, that have activated over 36 million devices.

The Aqara Light Switch H2 US is a smart wall switch designed to control lighting in your home with enhanced functionality, usability, and automation capabilities. Here’s a more detailed breakdown of its features:

1. Touch Control Interface: The Aqara Light Switch H2 features a modern, sleek design with touch-sensitive buttons, making it easy to operate with a simple tap. This provides a more intuitive user experience compared to traditional mechanical switches. An LED on each button provides feedback to the user.
2. Multiple Protocol Support: The Aqara Light Switch H2 is compatible with both Zigbee and Thread protocols. The Zigbee protocol is used to connect the switch to the Aqara Home ecosystem and provides for more extensive customization and functionality. Thread is used to connect the switch to third party ecosystems that support the Matter smart home standard. The Aqara Light Switch H2 can also be connected to the Aqara Hub H3 through Thread but the functionality of the switch is more limited than when Zigbee is used. These two protocols are mutually exclusive and the homeowner must choose one.
3. Wireless Control via the Aqara App: The Aqara app provides the ability to configure the Light Switch H2 and control your home whether you’re at home or away (remote control requires an Aqara Hub). This adds a layer of convenience and security. The Aqara app is available for both iOS and Android devices. 
4. Voice Assistant Integration: The Light Switch H2 is compatible with popular voice assistants so you can control the lights using voice commands. 
5. Easy Installation: The Light Switch H2 is designed for easy installation. It fits into a standard wall box, making it straightforward to replace traditional switches. The Light Switch H2 can be installed in homes with, or without, a neutral wire.
6. Energy Monitoring: The switch provides insights into the energy consumption of the connected lighting loads, helping users monitor and manage electricity usage. This feature is useful for tracking how much energy your lights consume, potentially leading to more energy-efficient habits. Energy monitoring requires connection of the Light Switch H2 to a neutral wire.
7. Sleek and Minimalist Design: The switch has a modern and minimalist aesthetic, designed to fit seamlessly into various home decors. 
8. Three Configurations: The Light Switch H2 is available in three configurations – 2 buttons for control of a single lighting load, 2 buttons for control of 2 lighting loads, and 4 buttons for control of 3 lighting loads with a 4^th button for control of other smart home functions
9. Disconnected Mode: When connected to Aqara’s Home ecosystem through Zigbee, the operation of the internal relay(s) can be disconnected from a user pressing the buttons on the switch. This allows the buttons to be assigned any smart home functionality, such as triggering lighting scenes.
10. Power Off Memory: Power off memory is configurable with several options including the state of the relay(s) is restored after a power outage and relay(s) are all turned off after a power outage.
11. 3-Way Control: The Light Switch H2, with 2 buttons for controlling a single lighting load, is compatible with 3-way lighting configurations using a remotely located single pole switch that is wired to the Light Switch H2.
12. Safety and Durability: The switch is built with safety in mind through the inclusion of short circuit and overload protection.

Some of the above features, such as disconnected mode, require that the Light Switch H2 be connected to an Aqara Hub H3 through Zigbee.

Hands on with the Aqara Light Switch H2

Aqara provided me with a four button, Light Switch H2 to evaluate for this article.

Setup of the Light Switch H2 is quite easy, though it is important to know that the default protocol enabled in the switch is Thread. 

Setup, and the connection of the Light Switch H2 to an Aqara hub, can be done using the Aqara app. Simply press the “+” displayed in the upper right-hand corner of the app and the app will find the Light Switch H2 and guide you through its setup. During setup you have the option of changing the protocol used by the Light Switch H2 to Zigbee. You can also connect the Light Switch H2 to a 3^rd party Matter ecosystem using the app for the ecosystem and scanning the QR code in the instructions. 

I started by connecting the Light Switch H2 to my Aqara Hub and then to the Apple Home ecosystem. Next, I was easily able to connect the switch to Home Assistant and a Hubitat Elevation Hub. 

The Light Switch H2 worked best with the Aqara Hub and Home Assistant. With Apple Home the ability to trigger actions based on the buttons on the Light Switch H2 has a software “bug”. Pressing one of the switch’s buttons will trigger the action assigned to a different button. Aqara has reported this problem to Apple.

I had no problem connecting the Light Switch H2 to a Hubitat Elevation hub but the Hubitat doesn’t recognize it properly. It categorizes the H2 as a “device” so you can’t link the buttons with actions when they are pressed or control the relays with automations. Hopefully this will be resolved by Hubitat in the near future.

In testing I found that:

• Control of the state of the three internal relays was very fast.
• Notification of a change of state of a relay was also very fast.
• The fourth switch could easily be used to control another function within the smart home ecosystem.

Power off memory is a nice feature of the Light Switch H2. For example, in a bedroom you would want all the relays to turn off when power is restored after a blackout. Otherwise, if power is lost early in the evening while lights are turned on in the bedroom, when power is restored in the middle of the night, the lights would turn on, waking you up. In other rooms of the house, it might be advantageous to have the lights restored to the state they were in when the blackout began. The Aqara H2 gives you the ability to choose the power off memory behavior you want for each switch whether the switch is using the Zigbee or Thread protocols.

A disappointment with the Light Switch H2, when connected to Matter ecosystems through Thread, is that disconnected mode isn’t available and the operation of the relays can’t be disconnected from the associated buttons on the device. According to Aqara, this is a limitation with the Matter standard. However, it is frustrating because with the buttons disconnected from the associated relay(s), the Light Switch H2 is a much more flexible device. For example, the buttons could be assigned to trigger various light scenes in a home. Without disconnected mode, the scene triggered by pressing a button must include the lighting load connected to the associated relay. The same holds true for all the buttons and associated relays on a Light Switch H2.

The workaround for this is to connect the Light Switch H2 to an Aqara device that can act as a Matter bridge using the ZigBee protocol. In this configuration the Light Switch H2’s buttons can be disconnected from the operation of the relays. Then you can use the bridge’s ability to link connected devices to Matter to connect the Light Switch H2 to third-party Matter ecosystems. The only disadvantage of this is that a homeowner must potentially purchase an additional Aqara device and add it to their smart home. Aqara devices that can act as Matter bridges include the M3 hub, the newly-released Camera Hub G5 Pro, and some older Aqara devices.

An area for improvement is for Aqara to offer homeowners the ability to have the buttons of the Light Switch H2 engraved with a small amount of text that describes the functionality that the user has assigned to them. This is a feature that separates consumer smart home keypads from the ones sold by professional smart home integrators. Imagine a house full of four-button, Light Switch H2s with different functions assigned to each button. Nobody can remember what all these buttons do without having each button labeled with descriptive text. I’ve spoken to Aqara about this idea so it may appear in a future version of the product.

Finally, I believe that Aqara needs to offer the Light Switch H2 in other colors besides white. Aqara’s design allows the Light Switch H2 to be installed in older homes that don’t have a neutral wire. Almond and Ivory light switches were very popular in older U.S. homes. Installing white Light Switch H2s alongside the ivory/almond switches in these older homes is not going look very good. This may limit homeowners’ willingness to purchase them for retrofit in older homes.

In spite of these few issues, the Light Switch H2 is a well-designed product and the inclusion of both Thread and Zigbee protocols offers flexibility not available from competing products.