Aqara Triple Wall Switch H1 (Neutral) in Zigbee2MQTT & Home Assistant

The QBKG34LM is Aqara’s triple-rocker, with-neutral wall switch. Aqara markets it as the Smart Wall Switch H1 Triple Rocker (With Neutral), but if you go looking for it in Zigbee2MQTT or on blakadder you’ll find it listed under the T1 name — same hardware, same model number, same Zigbee ID. If you’ve been running the D1 triple (QBKG25LM or QBKG26LM), the with-neutral version adds a few things the D1 can’t do.

I’ve been using this switch in Zigbee2MQTT with Home Assistant, and this guide covers everything: pairing, entities, decoupled mode per button, power monitoring, and what the neutral wire actually changes in practice. No Aqara app, no cloud.

What Is the Aqara Smart Wall Switch H1 Triple Rocker (With Neutral)?

Model number: QBKG34LM. Zigbee ID: lumi.switch.b3n01. Zigbee 3.0 protocol. (Aqara’s English store page calls it the H1; Zigbee2MQTT and blakadder list the same device as the T1. Don’t let the dual naming throw you — the model number is the constant.)

Three physical rockers on a single faceplate, each independently controllable. Requires a neutral wire at the wall box — not the live-only wiring that older no-neutral switches use. This is a China-market-primary device, which is part of why English setup documentation for it is thin. The 什么值得买 (SMZDM, “What’s Worth Buying?”) community covered the H1/T1 triple at launch, with the discussion focused on the Zigbee 3.0 routing upgrade and the practical neutral-wire advantages for apartment wiring.

The neutral wire changes two things that matter for a local-first setup:

Zigbee routing. The QBKG34LM is a Zigbee router, not an end device. Because it’s continuously mains-powered through the neutral, it relays traffic for other devices on your mesh. The no-neutral D1 triple (QBKG25LM/QBKG26LM) is a pure end device — it takes from your mesh without contributing to it. If you have multiple wall switches in a hallway, the with-neutral switches form a mesh backbone, which is a common reason to prefer them in multi-switch apartment builds.

No minimum load requirement. No-neutral switches need a small bleed current to stay powered, which causes flicker or requires a bypass capacitor with LED lighting. The with-neutral version has no such constraint. Modern LED circuits work without any workaround.

See the Aqara H1 no-neutral triple in Zigbee2MQTT and Home Assistant guide if you’re deciding between the two variants before buying.

QBKG34LM vs QBKG25LM / QBKG26LM — Key Differences

If you’re migrating from the D1 triple or choosing between them, here’s the relevant delta:

Power monitoring is worth calling out. The QBKG34LM reports energy (kWh), voltage (V), and current (A) per device — not per button. So you get device-level consumption data on everything wired to this switch, which flows directly into Home Assistant’s Energy dashboard.

See the Aqara D1 triple wall switch (QBKG25LM/QBKG26LM) setup guide if you need the full D1 walkthrough.

Pairing the QBKG34LM with Zigbee2MQTT

Prerequisites: a running Z2M instance with a compatible coordinator (e.g., Sonoff Zigbee 3.0 USB Dongle Plus or similar), and the switch physically installed with neutral wire connected.

Pairing steps:

1. Open the Zigbee2MQTT frontend and click “Permit join (all).”
2. On the QBKG34LM, long-press any rocker button until the blue LED starts blinking. This puts the device in pairing mode.
3. During pairing, press the buttons intermittently to keep the device active — it can time out if left idle.
4. Z2M will discover it as Aqara T1 Wall Switch (With Neutral, Triple Rocker).

What I didn’t expect the first time: the switch can exit pairing mode before Z2M finishes handshaking if you leave it alone too long. A few brief button presses during the pairing window keeps it awake. The blakadder compatibility entry notes this same trick — press the button roughly once a second after pairing starts, until it completes.

Worth knowing: if you’re adding this to an existing Zigbee network as a router, the mesh improvement is immediate — you’ll see routing path changes in the Z2M map within minutes of the switch coming online.

Entities in Home Assistant After Pairing

Once paired, Z2M exposes a clean entity set in HA:

Switch entities (three, independently controllable):
– switch.switch_left
– switch.switch_center
– switch.switch_right

Each maps to one physical rocker. Toggle them independently or together via automations.

Power monitoring sensors:
– sensor.energy — cumulative kWh
– sensor.voltage — live voltage (V)
– sensor.current — live current (A)

Device diagnostic:
– sensor.device_temperature — internal switch temperature

Action events (available in automations via the Z2M action entity):
– single_left, double_left
– single_center, double_center
– single_right, double_right

Single and double click per button. These fire independently of relay state — meaning you can use double-click for a scene while single-click still controls the load in coupled mode. Or in decoupled mode, both clicks become pure automation triggers.

(Exact action string formatting can vary slightly by Z2M version — check the action value in the Z2M device’s “State” panel after pressing each button, and use whatever your install reports.)

Enabling Decoupled Mode for Smart Light Control

Decoupled mode is where the QBKG34LM gets useful for Home Assistant setups. Each button can operate in one of two modes:

• Coupled (control_relay, default): Button press toggles the relay. The light goes on and off with the physical switch.
• Decoupled (decoupled): Button press fires an action event in Z2M/HA. The relay stays in its current state. The button becomes a trigger, not a toggle.

This is how you wire physical switches into HA scenes and automations without cutting relay control permanently. You can point the center button at a “cinema mode” scene while the left and right buttons still control their respective loads in coupled mode.

Per-button configuration in Z2M:

In the Z2M frontend, open the QBKG34LM device page and go to the “Exposes” tab. You’ll see three operation-mode selectors — one per button:

• operation_mode_left
• operation_mode_center
• operation_mode_right

Each accepts control_relay (coupled) or decoupled. Set any of them to decoupled; the change takes effect immediately, no restart needed.

Alternatively, via MQTT:

Topic: zigbee2mqtt/<device_name>/set
Payload: {"operation_mode_left": "decoupled"}

Repeat for center and right as needed.

Example automation — decoupled button triggers a scene:

alias: "Center switch → Cinema scene"
trigger:
  - platform: state
    entity_id: sensor.<device_name>_action
    to: "single_center"
action:
  - service: scene.turn_on
    target:
      entity_id: scene.cinema_mode

Replace <device_name> with your switch’s friendly name and confirm the action string against what Z2M actually reports for a center single-press.

If decoupled mode isn’t appearing as an option in the frontend, update Z2M first — operation-mode support for the Aqara H1/T1 switch family has seen fixes across releases, and an out-of-date install is the usual cause.

Power Monitoring in Home Assistant

The energy, voltage, and current sensors feed directly into HA’s Energy dashboard with no extra configuration. Add sensor.energy from the QBKG34LM device as an “Individual device” under Settings > Energy > Individual device consumption.

The kWh reading is cumulative. It doesn’t reset on power loss because the QBKG34LM has power outage memory — the relay state is restored after a power cut, and the energy counter persists.

For a wall switch in this price range, the power monitoring is better than you might expect: voltage and current in real time, plus kWh that survives power outages — more than you get from most plug-in smart sockets. If you have high-draw loads on any of the three circuits (air conditioning, water heaters), this is actual useful data rather than ambient awareness.

If your readings seem off, check the Z2M device’s “Exposes” panel — depending on firmware and Z2M version, Aqara switches in this class may surface calibration parameters you can adjust against a reference clamp meter. If you don’t see them on your install, the reported values are generally close enough for energy-dashboard tracking without calibration.

OTA Firmware Updates via Zigbee2MQTT

The QBKG34LM supports OTA firmware updates through Z2M (it’s handled by Z2M’s standard Zigbee OTA flow for Lumi devices). When a new firmware is available, it appears in the “OTA” tab of the device in the Z2M frontend.

The update process can take 15–30 minutes and the switch should stay powered throughout. The relay state is preserved after the update. Refer to Z2M’s OTA documentation for scheduler setup if you want updates to run automatically.

Overload protection is a with-neutral feature and is firmware-maintained, so keeping firmware current matters here.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I use the Aqara triple wall switch without a neutral wire?

No — the QBKG34LM specifically requires a neutral. If your wall box doesn’t have neutral, look at the D1 triple (QBKG25LM or QBKG26LM), or an H1 no-neutral switch. See the Aqara H1 no-neutral guide.

Does the QBKG34LM work as a Zigbee router to extend my mesh?

Yes. Because it has a neutral wire and stays continuously powered, the device operates as a full Zigbee router. It relays messages for nearby end devices (sensors, battery-powered remotes). The no-neutral D1 triple does not do this — it’s an end device only.

How do I enable decoupled mode on each button in Zigbee2MQTT?

Go to the Z2M frontend, open the QBKG34LM device, navigate to “Exposes,” and set operation_mode_left, operation_mode_center, or operation_mode_right to decoupled (the alternative value is control_relay). Each button is configured independently. Changes take effect immediately.

What is the difference between the Aqara D1 triple switch and the H1 triple switch (with neutral)?

The with-neutral switch adds: Zigbee routing capability, per-device power monitoring (energy/voltage/current), no minimum load requirement for LED circuits, overload protection, and OTA firmware updates via Z2M. The D1 no-neutral requires only live and load wires and works without a neutral, but contributes nothing to mesh routing and has no power monitoring. See the D1 triple setup guide.

Can I track power usage per circuit with the QBKG34LM in Home Assistant?

The energy monitoring is per device, not per button. All three circuits share a single set of power sensors. If you need per-circuit monitoring, you’ll need separate smart plugs or inline power meters on individual circuits. For most use cases — knowing the combined draw on a switch’s three loads — the per-device reading is enough.

Using the QBKG34LM with ZHA Instead of Zigbee2MQTT

If you’re running ZHA rather than Z2M, the QBKG34LM pairs and exposes the three switch entities without issue. Decoupled mode configuration in ZHA is less direct — you’d typically send a ZCL attribute write manually or use a ZHA blueprint rather than the Z2M frontend’s expose panel. The ZHA vs Zigbee2MQTT for Aqara devices comparison covers the tradeoffs if you’re deciding between the two stacks.

For devices where per-button mode configuration matters (and it does here), Z2M’s frontend makes the workflow noticeably smoother.

The timed-off feature — where you set on_time and off_wait_time parameters to auto-cut a load after a fixed duration — is documented in Z2M for this device, but support depends on switch firmware version. If you need it, check your firmware version in Z2M’s device panel against the changelog before relying on it in production automations.