Very non-thrilling answer: I would just leave them be. You'll be very happy you have them if (when?) your home automation system ever goes down.
I probably wouldn't. They only control half of each outlet anyway, and it's only one light in the room. My system hasn't ever been down for more than about 30 minutes after noticing it was anyway. I really don't need these.
The next owners will want them, if you care about stuff like that (we don't normally).
We tend to not make many decisions based on what the next folks will like. I'm sure that'll bite us when it comes to selling, but I might as well enjoy my house and not someone else's.
It is easy to rewire the outlets themselves so that both halves are permanently on, like "normal" outlets, regardless of the switches. And easy to later put them back to switched operation again.
That's an idea, but for some reason I prefer the thought of having a black plate over the switch to having a switch that does nothing. It'll mean buying a new switch if I want to put it back, but these are old toggle switches anyway so I'd put in decoras for the next folks.
The only thing you cannot do, is bury the switch boxes into the wall with plaster over them. Okay, you can probably also do that if you totally disconnect the live wiring that goes to them first.
Haha, no I never considered that. I skirt codes sometimes but I know that's a big no-no.
I use these
light switch covers for any lights with traditional switches and home automation bulbs. Easy to bypass but prevents anyone from changing the switch without realizing it.
I'm not that concerned about the switch getting thrown accidentally, as the switched outlets are wired so only one of the plugs is switched, so I just plug my lamps into the always-on plug. It's not a big deal.
Oh well, I think the blank plate is probably the way I'll go eventually. I'll probably mount a Hue Tap to the front of it.
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