GE Light Toggle Zwave trips GFI when I connect to Neutral Bundle

#1

GE Light (not the dimmer switch) Toggle Zwave trips GFI when I connect to white Neutral Bundle of wires. I watched the GE install video and it trips my GFI as soon as I connect the Neutral jumper to the wires. I have a ground, black hot wire on the bottom, a white wire connected to the load, and the white jumper connected to the bundle of white wires and it does not turn on the pool lights because it immediately trips the GFI. If I put the old non-zwave switch back on the pool lights come on fine. Please help!

(Todd Whitehead) #2

Interesting. So, the switch controls a light in the pool and therefore needs a GFCI?

A Ground Fault (sometimes Circuit) Interrupter measures the current going out the black wire compared to current coming back on the white wire. If there is a difference, it assumes that the current has found a new paths to ground (possibly through a person) and kills the power.

The problem here (I think) is that the zwave switch needs power too.

With a normal switch, current leaves the box goes through the switch, through the load and back to the box. All the current is accounted for.

When you put a zwave switch in, the current leaves the box, goes to the switch and most of the current goes to the load back to the box. But a tiny bit goes through the zwave circuit to the white wire in the box and this current is “missing” on the wire back to the GFCI.

Where does the black and white wire from the box go? To the switch or to the light?

Todd

#3

Black and white goes to light and I can add black to Hot input, then white to load, then ground and GFCI is fine. Then when I connect the jumper to the Neutral input and the connect jumper to white bunch of wires in back of the box the GFCI trips and I can not reset until I take the white Neutral jumper off. I put old switch back on and everything works fine. So weird

(Todd Whitehead) #4

Yep. It’s as I described. The current the switch is using to power itself is causing it to trip. Your only option here is to put a module in the light fixture and use the normal switch.

Something like this.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B008VWAPU4/ref=psdcmw_507840_t2_B00IRI1CEK

Use the black and white wire from the box to power this and then put the light on the load and then run the switch loop to the regular switch on the low voltage terminals and this should work for what you are wanting to do.

Todd

#5

So it’s a pool light and not sure I could put it in the pool light fixture as it might not be water right?

(Todd Whitehead) #6

It has to be water tight, doesn’t it? Otherwise the water and electricity would mix.

The other option would be to put a smart bulb in the pool fixture?