Philips Hue Switch and Wall Switch Module Installation in London

• Battery remotes, such as the Dimmer Switch, Tap Dial, Smart Button and Tap Switch Mini: no wiring, fixed beside the old switch, which stays on
• Philips Hue wall switch module: a coin-cell module behind your existing switch that keeps Hue lights powered and turns the switch into a wireless control, with no neutral needed
• Wired wall switch module for smart lights: mains-powered, and listed by Hue as battery-free, but it needs a neutral, so in many British homes it goes in the ceiling above the light
• Wired on/off switch and wired dimmer switch for non-smart lights: modules that let ordinary lights run from the Hue app, the on/off needing a neutral and the dimmer working with or without one

• The supply cable and its neutral arrive at the rose, and the cable down to the switch carries only a permanent live and a switched live, plus an earth in wiring from about 1966 on
• Hue's support article spells out the result: its battery module needs no neutral, its wired module and wired on/off switch need one, and its wired dimmer works either way
• Fitting a wired module at the rose, where the neutral already is, avoids touching the wall at all
• Bringing a neutral down to the switch means a new cable from the rose, an alteration to an existing circuit that is not notifiable outside a bathroom, but it means chasing plaster or lifting floorboards

• Hue says its battery module works on two-way and three-way set-ups only if the other switches are also connected to modules
• Its manual has the common and both strapper wires at each two-way switch joined in the connector, with each module set up as a single rocker
• An intermediate switch in the middle makes three modules, plus an extra connector that Hue does not supply
• The pro traces each wire before disconnecting anything, since landing circuits are easy to misread

• Hue says older dimmers made for incandescent bulbs can make LEDs flicker, and Signify's leaflet says Hue fittings must not be connected to an additional dimmer
• Its battery module does not work with dimmers or dimming modules, or with plates that combine a switch and a socket
• So the dimmer becomes a plain rocker or a retractive push switch with a module behind it; with a push switch, a long press dims Hue lights
• For ordinary dimmable LEDs you want to keep, Hue's wired dimmer for non-smart lights takes trailing-edge LED loads of 5–200 W or leading-edge loads of 5–20 W

• Room behind the plate: Hue gives its battery module as 43 x 38 x 10 mm and its wired module as 41 x 37 x 15 mm, and asks only that the box has enough room, so a shallow box may need a deeper one
• An earth for a metal plate: a chrome or brass plate has to be earthed, so on older wiring with no earth it stays plastic or an earth is run
• The signal: a metal box or plate can weaken it, so the module's response is tested before the plate is screwed back
• A label: with a battery module in, the light is permanently live, so the switch is labelled and you are shown which breaker isolates it

A vetted pro prices your Hue job from the products and your photos, and the JACK app shows that fixed price before you book.

Whether the job touches your wiring matters more than how many lights there are. Fitting B22 or GU10 bulbs, setting up a Bridge and plugging in lamps, Play bars or a lightstrip is set-up work. Ceiling lights, Perifo track, wall switch modules and mains outdoor lights are electrical work on your existing circuits, priced for the isolating, connecting and testing each one needs.

Then the home itself: a heavy fitting that has to go into a joist, a high or sloping ceiling, a two-way landing that needs a module at both switches, old cable with no earth, or a long garden run for low-volt lights. On a high ceiling or a long fitting, your pro can ask another pro on JACK to help through the Pro2Pro feature. Several Hue jobs, and devices from other brands, go on one booking for one fixed price.

You buy the Hue products; JACK does not sell them. Accessories the job needs, such as a deeper back box, an in-use cover for an outdoor socket or aluminium channel for a strip, are agreed and added at cost before you book, and so is parking where it has to be paid for. Prefer to pay for time? As a guide, hourly hire is typically £45–£95 per hour for smart home work and £55–£110 per hour for electrical work, and a full-day handyman booking is a flat £350–£400 for up to 8 hours on site, which suits a whole-house Hue fit.