Service
Smart Lighting and Climate Automation, Gold Coast
Lighting that knows when you walk in. Climate that stops fighting itself. Switches that still work even when everything else doesn't. We retrofit smart relays behind your existing wall switches: no rewiring, no new switches on the wall, no app required to turn the lights on. The physical switch keeps doing its job. The smart layer adds scenes, schedules, and presence-aware control on top.
What smart lighting and climate actually solve
Smart automation only earns its keep when it solves a real daily friction. If any of these match your house, the work pays off in the first week:
- You've got too many wall switches to remember which one does what
- Your climate is on a 24-hour timer that doesn't match how the house is actually used
- Family members keep leaving lights on in unused rooms
- The 3am bathroom trip means turning on a 2700-lumen bedroom light because there's no dim option
- The aircon and the oven and the dryer compete for the same circuit and trip the breaker every Sunday
- You've tried smart bulbs from Amazon and they kept losing connection or stopped working when the manufacturer updated the app
- You're renovating or building and want the smart layer engineered properly, not bolted on after handover
If the daily friction is "I want voice control of one lamp," the answer is a $40 smart bulb, not us. The retrofit work justifies itself when there are enough lighting and climate decisions in the day that automating them removes a real cognitive load.
What the System Audit covers for lighting and climate
Smart lighting and climate work is quoted from a System Audit, residential $450, 2 to 3 hours on site. The audit produces a written design document covering existing electrical, automation scope, and a fixed-price install quote. Here's what we measure:
1. Existing switch wiring
Every wall switch you want to make smart needs to be opened and inspected. We confirm the wiring type (one-way, two-way, three-way), the cable count in the wall box, the depth of the box itself, and whether there's neutral available at the switch (required for retrofit relays. Most newer Australian houses have neutral at the switch, some older houses don't). Switches without neutral need a different solution, which the audit identifies.
2. Existing climate control
Brand and model of every reverse-cycle aircon, ducted system, ceiling fan, or pool heater. Newer Daikin, Mitsubishi, and Fujitsu units have native Wi-Fi or wired BMS integration. Older units need an IR bridge (a small device that learns the remote control codes and translates them into Home Assistant commands). Ducted systems sometimes need a serial integration or a smart thermostat replacement, depending on the brand.
3. The rooms and the routines
The audit conversation that matters most. Where do you actually spend time, what time do you wake up, when do you leave for work, when does the house empty out, when does it fill back up, when do you go to bed? Smart automation works best when it follows existing routines, not when it tries to invent new ones. We document the patterns so the automations match real life.
4. The "scenes" you'd actually use
A scene is a saved combination of lighting, climate, and other settings that you recall with one tap or one trigger. Most homes need five or six scenes that cover 90 percent of daily use: morning, evening, dinner, movie, away, sleep. We map your routines to specific scenes during the audit so the install isn't building scenes you'll never touch.
5. Existing smart devices that need to be folded in
If you've already got Hue lights in two rooms, a Nest thermostat, a Ring doorbell, or anything similar, we audit which of those can be integrated into Home Assistant cleanly versus which would be better replaced. Some integrate well (Hue, Ring, most Tuya-based devices). Some integrate awkwardly (Nest, after Google's API changes). Some don't integrate at all and need to live in their own app.
6. Network capacity for the device count
A typical lighting and climate retrofit adds twenty to forty connected devices to your network. Consumer routers struggle past forty devices total. The audit confirms whether the existing network can handle the new device count, or whether a router upgrade is part of the same scope (often combined with the network failover work, see Network Failover).
The audit produces a design document with photos of every switch box, a scene-by-scene routine map, an integration plan for existing devices, and a fixed-price install quote. Fee credits 50 percent against installation when you proceed within 90 days.
What audits typically uncover
After enough lighting and climate audits, certain patterns repeat.
1. Some switches don't have neutral, but most do
Pre-2010 Australian homes sometimes have switches wired without neutral at the switch box itself. Retrofit relays need neutral to power themselves. The fix is either pulling neutral to the switch (a partial rewire, possible if the wall is accessible), choosing a no-neutral relay variant (slightly more expensive, slightly less reliable in our experience), or accepting that those specific switches stay dumb. The audit identifies which switches are which.
2. The reverse-cycle aircon is fightable, not dictated
Most homeowners think their aircon controller is "just how it works." Modern Daikin, Mitsubishi, and Fujitsu units have native Wi-Fi modules that integrate cleanly into Home Assistant. The controller you have isn't the only way to control the unit. Once integrated, automations can stop the aircon when nobody's home, run different temperatures in different zones, and avoid the 24/7 schedule that costs you 30 percent on the bill.
3. The "smart" devices already in the house are a mess
Ten different apps, three different ecosystems (Apple HomeKit, Google Home, Amazon Alexa), and devices that don't talk to each other because they're on incompatible standards. The audit produces a consolidation plan: what stays, what gets re-paired into Home Assistant, what gets replaced. Most clients reduce their app count from eight to one as a side effect.
4. The lighting design itself is the problem, not the controls
Sometimes the issue isn't that the lights are dumb, it's that the lighting design is poor: wrong fitting type, wrong colour temperature, no dimming capability on circuits that need it. Smart relays don't fix bad lighting. The audit flags this honestly. If dimming or fitting changes are needed first, that's electrical work, not automation work, and we explain it as such.
What the install actually involves
Smart lighting and climate retrofits typically run two to four days on site for a four-bedroom home, depending on switch count and integration complexity. Three common scopes:
Lighting only
Retrofit relays installed behind every wall switch you want made smart, paired into Home Assistant, scenes built and tested, mobile dashboard configured. Existing climate left as-is. One to two days on site for ten to fifteen switches. Indicative cost $4,500 to $8,500 including hardware.
Lighting plus climate
Everything in lighting only, plus integration of every reverse-cycle aircon and ducted unit into Home Assistant. Climate scenes added (morning warm-up, away mode, sleep cool-down), occupancy-based automation added if motion sensors are part of scope. Two to three days on site. Indicative cost $7,500 to $14,000 including hardware.
Full smart-home retrofit
Lighting, climate, security tie-in, presence sensing, voice integration (HomeKit, Google Home, or Alexa, depending on preference), and integration with any other smart devices in the house. Three to five days on site, includes the controller and any network upgrades needed. Indicative cost $14,000 to $28,000 depending on switch count and scope.
Every install ends with a two-hour training session covering daily use, the mobile app, how to add devices yourself later, how scenes work, and what to do when something acts up. You receive the system documentation pack with credentials, equipment inventory, and automation logic explained in plain language. The configuration is yours. Any other Home Assistant installer can pick it up later.
Available packages
Home System Audit, from $450 (Zone 1)
2 to 3 hours on site, switch-by-switch inspection, climate inventory, scene mapping, written design document, and fixed-price install quote. Fee credits 50 percent against installation when you proceed within 90 days.
Final scope and pricing for installation work land after the audit. See /pricing/ for the full pricing structure.
The engineering behind the retrofit
Smart lighting can be done badly. Most consumer-grade smart bulb setups fall into the "looks great in the demo, breaks in real life" category. Here's the engineering reasoning behind doing it the way we do.
Why retrofit relays beat smart bulbs
Smart bulbs (Hue, LIFX, Wyze) put the smart layer inside each individual bulb. Sounds simple, has three problems. First, bulb count multiplies. A kitchen with twelve downlights needs twelve smart bulbs, each at $30–$80, each a possible failure point. Second, the wall switch becomes a problem. If someone flips the switch off at the wall, the bulbs lose power and the smart layer dies. Third, when one bulb fails, you're chasing replacements from a discontinued product line. Retrofit relays put the smart layer behind the wall switch instead. One relay controls the whole circuit (twelve downlights through one relay). The bulbs themselves are dumb (cheaper, longer-lasting, replaceable from any supplier). The wall switch keeps physically working.
Why physical fail-safe matters
Every smart-home install has a worst-case scenario: the controller dies, the network drops, the relay firmware bugs out, or the cloud goes down. With the retrofit approach, the wall switch is wired in series with the relay. The switch physically interrupts the circuit. Even with the relay completely offline, even with the controller in pieces on the bench, the switch still turns the lights on and off. This is the "Iron" surviving when the "Air" doesn't, and it's the single biggest reason waterfront clients pick this approach over a Control4 install.
Why Shelly Matter, specifically
Shelly (a Bulgarian company, owned by Allterco) makes the most reliable retrofit relays we've used. They support Matter (the open smart-home standard), they're physically small enough to fit in standard Australian wall boxes, the firmware is mature, and they're well-priced relative to the quality. Other relay brands exist (Sonoff, Aqara) and work, but the build quality, firmware reliability, and Australian support make Shelly our default. The Matter compliance means they work with Home Assistant, Apple Home, Google Home, and any future Matter-compliant platform.
Climate integration is harder than lighting
Lighting is a relatively dumb load: switch on, switch off, dim on a triac. Climate is a stateful system with mode (cool, heat, fan, dry, auto), setpoint, fan speed, swing direction, eco modes, and timers. Integrating a Daikin or Mitsubishi unit means matching every state the manufacturer's controller can produce. Native Wi-Fi modules from the manufacturer (Daikin BRP, Mitsubishi MHK, Fujitsu Anywair) handle this cleanly. IR bridges work but are limited to one-way control. Home Assistant can tell the aircon to do things, but can't always confirm the aircon actually did it.
Presence detection is the unlock
Most useful automations depend on knowing whether someone's home, and which room they're in. Presence detection comes from three sources combined: smartphone Wi-Fi or Bluetooth (good for "is anyone home"), motion sensors in each room (good for "is someone in the kitchen right now"), and door/window sensors (good for state changes). The combination is what lets automations actually be useful: turning the lights off when a room empties, raising the AC setpoint when nobody's home, switching to night mode when the master bedroom door closes after 10pm.
For deeper reading on the platform underneath, see Home Assistant Integration and the guides on Smart Home Without the Cloud and Matter and Thread Explained.
Frequently asked
▸ Do you replace my existing light switches?
▸ If the automation fails, do my lights still work?
▸ Can I integrate my existing aircon?
▸ What's a scene?
▸ Will it work with my voice assistant?
▸ What about kids and guests who don't have the app?
▸ Can I add more later?
▸ Does this work in a rental property?
▸ How long does the install take?
Book a System Audit
Lighting and climate work starts with the audit. 2 to 3 hours on site walking through the house, switch by switch, with conversation about routines and what you actually want the system to do. Most enquiries get a response within four business hours. If you've already got existing smart devices, photos of those help us prepare for the audit.