Hi everyone,
We’re the Repenic team.
Following our previous posts about Repenic Zigbee switches, we wanted to introduce our Zigbee Smart Dimmer in a little more detail, particularly some of the features that are useful when the dimmer is connected to Homey.
The idea behind the dimmer is fairly simple: keep the familiar physical rotary control on the wall, while adding the flexibility of Zigbee, Homey Flows and smart lighting automation.
But there is more to it than simply turning the light on, off and changing the brightness.
Designed for Real-World LED Lighting
Different dimmable lamps can behave very differently, particularly at the lower end of the brightness range.
The Repenic Smart Dimmer supports both leading-edge and trailing-edge dimming, allowing the appropriate dimming method to be selected for the connected load.
It also provides adjustable minimum and maximum brightness, so the usable range can be tailored to the lamp rather than assuming that every LED will behave perfectly from 0–100%.
For example, if a particular LED becomes unstable below 10%, the minimum brightness can be set accordingly.
The dimmer is designed for compatible dimmable LED, halogen and incandescent lamps, with a 5–250W load range depending on the configuration.
Brightness Memory or a Defined Starting Level?
There are two different ways to control what happens when the light is switched on.
Brightness Memory remembers the previous brightness.
For example:
30% → OFF → ON → 30%
Starting Brightness allows a fixed brightness level to be used whenever the light is switched on.
For example:
80% → OFF → ON → 20%
This can be useful in rooms where you don’t always want the light to return to the last brightness level.
Soft Start
Soft Start provides a gradual transition from OFF to the selected brightness rather than switching on instantly.
This can be particularly useful in bedrooms, hallways and other areas where suddenly switching on a bright light can be uncomfortable.
It is a small feature, but one that can make a noticeable difference to the everyday experience of using the light.
Sunrise Mode
Sunrise Mode gradually increases the brightness over a defined period.
For example:
06:00 → low brightness
06:30 → 100%
Rather than going directly from darkness to full brightness, the light can gradually become brighter.
This can be useful in bedrooms, but it can also be incorporated into Homey Flows for other gradual lighting routines.
Co-sleeping Mode
Co-sleeping Mode provides the opposite experience.
Instead of switching the light off immediately, it gradually reduces the brightness until the light is completely off.
For example:
22:00 → begin fading
22:30 → OFF
This can be useful when you want to reduce the lighting gradually at bedtime rather than making an abrupt transition to darkness.
Moonlight Mode
Moonlight Mode is designed for situations where you only need a small amount of light during certain hours.
For example, during the night a hallway or bedroom light could automatically start at around 10% brightness rather than coming on at full brightness.
This can be particularly useful for:
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Bedrooms
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Hallways
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Staircases
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Children’s rooms
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Night-time navigation
The idea is to provide enough light to see without fully illuminating the room.
Boost Mode
Some low-wattage LED lamps can be difficult to start when they are switched on at a very low brightness level.
Boost Mode is designed to help certain low-wattage lamps start reliably in these situations.
This is particularly useful where a lamp behaves well once running, but struggles to start at a very low brightness.
Boost Mode is available through compatible Homey and Hubitat setups.
Power-on Behaviour
Another feature that can be overlooked is what happens when power is restored after an interruption.
The dimmer provides several options:
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Always ON
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Always OFF
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Opposite state
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Previous state
This allows the behaviour to be tailored to the room.
For example, you may want a hallway light to come back on after a power interruption, while a bedroom light may be better left off.
Multi-way Dimming
For UK homes, multi-way lighting is particularly important.
The Repenic Smart Dimmer can be combined with compatible Repenic Multi-way Dimmers to control the same lighting circuit from up to three physical locations.
This means a hallway, landing or staircase can retain familiar physical controls while also gaining smart control through Homey.
The rotary control can still be used normally at the wall, while Homey can provide app control, Flows and automation.
Energy Monitoring
The dimmer can also provide power-consumption information.
When connected to a compatible smart-home platform, this allows lighting to become part of a wider energy-monitoring setup rather than simply being treated as an ON/OFF device.
For example, you can monitor how the lighting circuit behaves at different brightness levels and incorporate that information into your smart-home system.
Zigbee + Homey
The Smart Dimmer uses Zigbee 3.0 and is supported by Homey.
Once connected to Homey, the dimmer can be used for:
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ON/OFF control
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Dimming
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Relative dimming
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Homey Flows
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Schedules
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Scenes
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Automation
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Energy monitoring
The Repenic Homey app also provides Flow support for changing the dim level, turning the dimmer on or off, toggling it and controlling the dimming rate.
Designed for UK Homes
The Smart Dimmer is designed for 220–240V UK two-wire lighting circuits and does not require a neutral wire, making it suitable for many existing UK installations.
It fits standard 25mm back boxes and supports common UK grid systems including MK, BG, DETA, Hager, Hamilton, Crabtree and Schneider.
The dimmer is available in 1-, 2-, 3- and 4-gang configurations, with finishes including brushed brass, brushed steel, matt black and matt white.
So while it looks like a conventional premium rotary dimmer at the wall, there is quite a lot happening behind that control.
For Homey users, the aim is to combine proper physical lighting control with Zigbee connectivity and automation, without making the everyday experience of using the light more complicated.
Want to see the dimmer in action?
If you’d like to see how Repenic’s smart switches perform in a real-world installation, there’s also an independent video review covering the range in more detail:
Have Repenic solved the UK’s smart switch problem?
It covers the switches from a practical perspective and gives a better idea of how they look, feel and work in a real installation.
