How to rewire Zigbee2MQTT Switches to Be Displayed as Lights in Home Assistant

If you're running Zigbee2MQTT (Z2M) version 2.0+ as a Home Assistant (HASS) addon and want to display your switches as lights in HASS, here's how I rewired my Aqara H1 light switches (no neutral, one single rocker, one double rocker) to achieve this.

 

Why Display Switches as Lights?

Displaying switches as lights in HASS makes them more intuitive to manage. For example, you can control them via light groups, use dimmer-style UI controls, or integrate them into "light" automations seamlessly.

 

My Setup

Devices

HASS Addon

Zigbee2MQTT running version 2.0+

 

Here’s the configuration I used to expose my switches as lights.

 

Single Rocker Configuration

The following configuration is for the Aqara H1 Single Rocker (Cinema Lightning Bolt Light):

 

devices:
  '0x04cf8cdf3c789bea':
    friendly_name: Cinema Lightning Bolt Light
    homeassistant:
      switch:
        type: light
        schema: json
        state_topic: zigbee2mqtt/Cinema Lightning Bolt Light
        command_topic: zigbee2mqtt/Cinema Lightning Bolt Light/set
        value_template: '{{ value_json.state }}'
        command_template: '{ "state": "{{ value }}" }'
        payload_on: 'ON'
        payload_off: 'OFF'

Double Rocker Configuration

The following configuration is for the Aqara H1 Double Rocker (Office Light Switch):

 

devices:
  '0x54ef441000cf57e4':
    friendly_name: Office Light Switch
    homeassistant:
      switch_left:
        type: light
        schema: json
        state_topic: zigbee2mqtt/Office Light Switch/left/set
        command_topic: zigbee2mqtt/Office Light Switch/left/set
        value_template: '{{ value_json.state }}'
        payload_on: 'ON'
        payload_off: 'OFF'


      switch_right:
        type: light
        schema: json
        state_topic: zigbee2mqtt/Office Light Switch/right/set
        command_topic: zigbee2mqtt/Office Light Switch/right/set
        value_template: '{{ value_json.state }}'
        payload_on: 'ON'
        payload_off: 'OFF'

Explanation

friendly_name: This is the name of your device as it appears in Zigbee2MQTT and Home Assistant.

 

type: light: Changes the entity type in Home Assistant from switch to light

 

schema: json: Defines the message payload format for Zigbee2MQTT.

 

Topics:

state_topic specifies where the current state is published. command_topic specifies where to send commands to control the device.

 

Templates:

value_template extracts the current state from the JSON payload. command_template formats commands sent to the device.

 

Payloads: payload_on and payload_off define the ON and OFF states.

 

Testing

Make sure to stop the Zigbee2MQTT addon before editing the configuration.yaml

 

When you save the config, you can start the addon again.

 

I made these scripts for quickly starting/stopping the addon:

 

Start

alias: Start Zigbee2MQTT
sequence:
  - data:
      addon: 45df7312_zigbee2mqtt
    action: hassio.addon_start
mode: single
description: ""

Stop

alias: Stop Zigbee2MQTT
sequence:
  - data:
      addon: 45df7312_zigbee2mqtt
    action: hassio.addon_stop
mode: single
description: ""

You can find the addon slug in the URL when you open the addon in home assistant.

 

Final Thoughts

With these configurations, my Aqara H1 switches now act like native light entities in Home Assistant. This makes automation smoother and more intuitive. If you're dealing with other Zigbee switches, this process can easily be adapted.

 

Happy automating!