Battery Operated In-Wall Switch w/o Neutral?

Devices & Integrations Connected Things
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Hi All,

I’m looking to replace a old light switch with a zwave (or other supported protocols) light switch.

Since it’s a pretty old house, it doesn’t have the standard neutral wire. I’m also powering a florescent ceiling lamp, so I can’t use GE’s (or other) dimmer type switches that do not require neutral.

Aeon labs has said that they’re working on a battery operated switch that allows you to control a lamp via zwave without neutral; however it won’t be out for awhile.

I’ve toyed with the idea of an Aeon labs micro controller hidden in the ceiling to remotely control the lamp. I would then bridge the switch so it’s always feeding it power and powering the controller, and replace the switch with an accessory switch (battery operated and not hard wired). This however is a problem if I lose internet connection, I won’t be able to manually turn on the lights.

Any other ideas or products you guys know that may solve my problem.

Thanks.

1 Like
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Very creative solution. You should be able to set up the accessory switch to directly turn on the Aeon micro via Z-Wave, which would work without internet. Which accessory switch are you considering? I haven’t seen any great options for battery-powered wall-mounted Z-Wave controllers.