Looking for some advice on wiring up the living room.
Currently have ceiling fan and light I am wanting to control. The living room has 4 total switches. one box has 2 switches (one controls ceiling fan light, other the ceiling fan). I then have 2 additional switch boxes at 2 other entry points to the LR each housing a single switch that only operates the ceiling fan light.
I have purchased: GE Smart Fan Control and 3 Add on switches. Will these work together to accomplish my setup? Or will I need the Smart Fan Control, a Smart Light control, and 2 add on switches?
I have not been able to find any diagrams for this particular set up.
You will need a fan control switch for the fan and then a GE smart light switch for the light and then two add-ons for the other two locations that control the light. As far as the wiring there are a number of threads on here about that. I have never done a three way switch only a two way.
actually no, one of the boxes that houses just a light switch does not have one. It only has the traveler, ground, black, white. All the others do have the bundle of white neutrals.
In general, you actually only need a neutral in the box with the smart switch. The neutral can be passed through existing wiring to the add-on switches. The only exception to this is if the load and (line + neutral) are in different boxes. If that is so, you can have the smart switch in any box in the series between them.
It sounds like your neutral situation is optimal and you won’t have an issue with this.
I am gonna swap 1 of my add-on switches for one of the smart light switches that way I have the smart light switch in the smart fan control in the box together and then to addons just for the light itself
FYI you can’t just put the Master switch wherever you want. It needs to be at the switch that has the line voltage present when the light is off, I believe.
This is a common misconception. You can put the master in any of the locations by jumping your line/hot to that location. The hot is not used for the remote switches and is capped off. What you can do is tie your line/hot at the box the power comes in to a wire that goes to another box and then place the master there hooking up to the now permanently live hot, neutral and ground - and of course a traveler back to the other location(s). Then you can place an add-on in that box where the power originates.
As I mentioned above, this is only possible if line and load are in separate boxes in a 3 way. However, the OP has a 4 way and therefore there should be 4 wires between the switch boxes. If line and load are in the same box (as I would guess based on the description) all 4 wires would be needed to carry line, load, neutral and traveler to another box but it can be done.
I have the Smart Fan Control switch installed and operating the fan correctly.
Now I am on the Smart Light switch.
When I first wired it up I got nothing out of it. Once I swapped the Line and Traveler I got the switch to work, it is turning the light on and off.
Now I am on the 2 add on switches. The first one I am working on has 2 red wires and 2 black wires and white neutral buddled inside box. Here is a pic.
You’re quite right and thanks for correcting me. And sorry, I overlooked the earlier post where you basically said already what I was trying to say. That’s what I get for trying to watch TV and reply to a thread at the same time.
so I combined the 2 black wires, added the white wire to the neutral on the switch, then put the 2 red in the traveler spot on the switch.
the add on switch is not functioning correctly. The main smart light switch is turning the light on and off. the fan switch is controlling the fan correctly, and the last switch that has yet to be changed to the smart add on switch still turns the light off.
I have something wrong on the 1st add on switch obviously. I think.
This might be your problem. You can’t mix dumb switches with smart switches like this. You need an add on in place of the dumb switch or you need to take it out the mix completely. But it’s hard to tell for sure as I don’t know what you have determined each wire to be (as others have stated, you can’t rely on the colors).
