Hardwire Hue Bulbs

This is less about SmartThings and more a question about Hue bulbs and wiring, but don’t know of a Hue community to ask. I have a switch that powers on and off a set of lights and want to replace it with a zwave switch. However, I don’t want the switch to actually power on and off the Hue bulbs. Is it alright to just directly wire the line to the load (Hue bulbs) without the switch in-between, or should I put some hardwired surge protector inline? If the zwave switch isn’t connected to the load, do I need to wire the load line out of the switch to something, or can I just leave it unwired (but the switch still connected to line, ground, and neutral)? My hope is that the bulbs are always on, but the zwave switch triggers the bulbs on and off through ST.

That’s an excellent question, and one that gets asked two or three times a month in the forum. :sunglasses: So you should be able to find lots of discussions about it.

You can just start with the FAQ ( this is a clickable link)

Also see the following discussion from about a week ago, it should help:

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Sorry for the duplicative post, but thank you for provide a few relevant links to review. I’ll do some reading and see if they cover my question. Thanks again!

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For the Smart switch, you need to wire up the Line, Neutral and Ground. You do not need to connect a load line to it…however, if you want your Hue Bulbs to work (and they are powered from that gang box) then they need to be connected to the Line somehow. You can either bypass the Smart switch entirely and connect the two wires directly to each other which will provide constant power to the bulbs, or you can (if the Switch you get supports it) wire up both the Line and Load into the same terminal on the Switch.

That’s how I’m doing it… Still a fan of the GE switches. I’ve got 16 installed now. I’ve been buying them at Lowe’s now and getting them to match the Home Depot (online) price.