I’ve got several places where I connect a GE Z-Wave wall switch through my STH to a GE Z-Wave receptacle to control a lamp. I add both Z-Wave devices and SmartThings handles the automation. This works fine except when the Internet is down.
GE has the ability to pair an “Add-On” wall switch directly to a regular GE Z-Wave wall switch without going through SmartThings. The add-on switch is not a Z-Wave device.
Is there anything like a dedicated “Add-On” receptacle that pairs directly to a Z-Wave wall switch so that I can control the receptacle and the wall switch together just by adding the Z-Wave wall switch (as if they were actually hard wired together) and hopefully get it to work even when Internet or SmartThings is down?
The GE add-on Light Switch is directly wired to the master switch. Nothing magical about that, it’s the same way dumb switches work. There’s no equivalent for an in wall receptacle that I know of.
Depending on the exact model numbers, as long as they’re in the same room you can probably use Z wave direct association to have the switch control the outlet. Even if the hub isn’t working at all . Just be aware that if you go this way it will happen every time, you can’t put restrictions on it like time of day or anything like that. Also, depending on exactly how you set it up it’s possible that the hub will not know that you turned on the outlet if you turn it on from the wall switch. That means the app might get out of sync.
I’m not feeling very well today, so I will leave it up to others to go into all those details if you’re interested in pursuing that route.
I don’t know about direct associations. That may be what I need.
Also, good to know about the add-on switch. I thought it was using some other non-Z-Wave protocol to talk back to the main switch. I have these added to my (old) house. I guess the electrician must have had to pull a wire.