I have a switch in a bedroom that controls an outlet. unfortunately the outlet it controls is not the one that we want it to control. so I was thinking that I could wire in a z-wave on/off switch and just have that control a couple of plugin modules. That part sounds simple enough.
My question is how to wire the switch so that it is not wired to a load and that the outlet which the switch currently controls, gets direct, unswitched power.
I just put in a WT00Z-1 made by Linear and use it to control two lamp modules and it works great. There is no “Load” out on this so its a virtual switch. You simply connect the hot wire together and the neutrals together. The nice thing is if someone come and plugs a heater or vacuum into the outlet (not the module) they won’t overload the switch. You will need to create a scene to turn on the modules when the switch triggers it.
Connect neutral to switch. Connect two leads to hot via wire nut, connect one to switch, and the other to load.
thanks for the replies - so let me make sure I am understanding…
I haven’t opened up the current switch to see what the wiring…
I assume there will be one hot lead coming from the panel, one neutral wire and one lead going to the load. right?
so assuming that is the case, i would connect the neutral to the switch. then connect wirenut the hot and the load wire together to get constant power to the switch.
then do I add a jumper from that wirenut to the switch?
and then just not connect anything to the “load” on the switch?
Perfect. Thanks!!!
Not trying to cause trouble but just a hot to the switch and a neutral from the switch means that the neutral is not bonded back to the source. Forgive me if I missed something.
Edit
I spoke to soon. It’s a virtual hook up to a standard switch. That should work but it was a pain to set up in Vera so I opted for the store bought virtual switch. I am still a newbie here.
So i just opened up the switch box to install this today and found that there were just two wires coming into the old switch. So it appears that there is no ground and no neutral.
I tried tying the two existing wires together with a jumper wire going to the hot port on the new switch. Nothing else attached to the new switch.
This did not work.
Normally when these switches are working you get a little audible click when the switch goes on. I did not get that and I was unable to get smartthings to see it.
Does it REQUIRE a neutral wire to work? Is there anything I can do to make this work?
I have attached an image of the old switch for reference.
You need a neutral for your smart switch and looked like you are missing that wire in you picture. You can run a neutral to the switch from the same circuit for find a different option.
Oh bummer I was afraid of that. Can anyone provide more detail or suggestions on how to easily get a neutral wire there.
Since you are not using the load of the smart switch for controlling. The easiest way to get line hot and neutral to the switch location is drop your light fixture and look inside your fixture gangbox. Your switch wiring should be in there. You can then connect Line and neutral down to the switch location with the existing wiring and swap out the dumb switch to smart switch. One downside is that when St is down. You won’t be able to control the light.
Unfortunately there is no light fixture. The original switch was controlling an outlet.
The end goal is to have the switch powered and functional with smartthings so it can control other smart devices but no longer control the outlet.
Then you should be OK. Your outlet has a neutral and line.
If the switch controls only one socket (of the two in the outlet) then I would recommend replacing the outlet as well to simplify wiring (as the metal junction plate has been removed to make the outlets operate independently). Just connect the neutral (white) to white and the line (almost always black) to black. When connecting to the smart switch connect the bottom two connectors (neutral and line). If they exist, the load and traveler in the smart switch should be left unconnected.
Also, a ground should exist in the wire. It’s just not connected. Hopefully there is enough length to be able to utilize it.
Thanks for the response. I am confused though. I haven’t opened up the outlet box to see what’s in there but I know There is currently one wire going from the switch to the outlet.
So if there is a neutral in the outlet box, if there is only one line going between the switch and the outlet, conn citing he neutral to that line would prevent that outlet from receiving power,wouldn’t it?
You have two wires coming from the outlet and going to your switch box. I would guess (what is most likely the case in your outlet box) the neutral (from breaker) should be connected into the neutral connector of the outlet, the line (from breaker) connects to one of the wires going to your switch. The other wire coming back from your switch goes into the line connector in your outlet.
Obviously that is the standard wiring and things could be different, but there has to be a neutral in the outlet box. If you connect the white neutral to your neutral connector in your outlet and to the white wire going to your switch box, then repeat this for the line (connect to line in outlet and to the black wire going to your switch) you will be able to power your smart switch.
In any case, you could attach pictures of your outlet box to look things over. Often the circuit continues and you will also have another set of wires traveling out of the box (to power something else) as well.
Thanks for the feedback. I just took some pictures of the outlet box and I have attached them here. Looks like there are cables coming into that box from three locations (from the switch and two other locations)
It’s a bit crowded in there but take a look at the pics…
I just did this last night. There should be a white wire in the outlet box that is tied to the hot terminal on your outlet. This is currently being used as the load at the switch. Disconnect that white wire and tie it to the other white (neutral) wires that are in the box. You will now have a hot (black) and a neutral (white) at the switch. Since you are running out of space in your outlet box, it would probably be easier to get a new outlet that doesn’t have the jumper busted off.
Now, here’s the issue I am having. I purchased a Leviton DZS15 for the switch before I knew that this was a “cheaper” version with one way communication. Everything works correctly, but there is about a 5 second delay from when I activate the switch to when my lights turn on. Is this because of the switch model? If I swap it out with a Leviton VRS15 will this fix the issue of the delay?
quick question - the GE switch I bought from lowes comes with s short chunk of white white in the box. any ideas what this is for?
Yes, the short white piece is to connect the neutral, which is currently most likely just all tied together with a wire nut, to the switch. Connect one end of the short piece of wire to the switch and connect the other end with the existing neutral wires in the wire nut.
