HELP: Leviton DZS15 & LED Xmas Lights Issue

Hi everyone, i’m hoping some of you electrical experts could chime in with your suggestions and advice.

To give you some background info, I purchased a Leviton DZS15 light switch a few days ago to replace the switch that controls my exterior porch soffit outlet. This outlet is intended to wire Christmas lights. I figured switching this to a smart switch would be a great solution as i could setup a schedule through smartthings to turn my Christmas lights on and off.

I wired it up last night and got it all paired up with smartthings and it works great (scheduled on/off works awesome).

I did notice though this evening when i got home and before the lights were scheduled to turn on that my christmas lights appeared to be on but very dim. I’d say 10-20% of the original power of when it actually turned on. I went in and check the switch and it was in fact off (turning the switch on put the christmas light on at 100%)

I’m wondering what would be causing the lights to be on (dim) even though it’s turned off.

The one thing i could think of is the switch does have a locator light at the bottom which lights up green when the switch is off. Could this small amount of power be triggering the LED christmas lights (which don’t use very much power) to turn on??

Any suggestions would be GREATLY appreciated. If you’d like, I could show you how the switch was wired.

Any questions, please let me know.

Thanks in advance!
Danny

Found this while doing some research:

http://www.justanswer.com/electrical/8n09j-leviton-dzs15-does-not-turn-off-light-instead-dims.html

From the sounds of it, this switch does not support LEDs, can someone on here confirm?

My next question is, if I am willing to live with the lights always “dimmed” when off (especially since it’s only over the holidays) is there any danger in having LEDs connected to this switch?

Since power consumption on these bulbs are so low, I can only assume it’s even lower when the are dimmed?

Any input would be very helpful!

Thanks!

LED as lights generally ultimately use DC power and don’t work with dimmers. Use a relay based switch with a neutral. Not a summer.

Any chance you could clarify a few things?

The switch i’m using isn’t a dimmer and just an on/off switch.

It also uses a neutral wire wire. Since the 2 that were in the box were tied together, what i did was grab a piece of wire from a piece of cable i had lying around, and tied it into the other 2 (which is how it’s shown on the diagram).

Also, what did you mean by it’s “not a summer”?

Thanks!

wiring to the neutral that way should be ok.
Summer = dimmer. iPhone auto correct on my sloppy typing.

I’m not familiar with that switch — does it make an audible ‘click’ when it turns on and off? Link to the product web site?

Hi Danny - What you are seeing is typical of using a dimmer switch with non-dimmable LED lights. I have a similar situation with one light switch in my house.

The Leviton DZS15 is a dimmer – if you instead used a switch that was a on/off switch rather than a dimmer switch, the LED’s would not light up when turned off.

BTW, some on/off switches are also known as appliance switches / modules (depending on manufacturer). I am not sure of the Leviton equivalent, but I have used the “Enerwave ZW15S”, which is Enerwave’s on/off switch – I am using one on my the fluorescent light in my kitchen. The Enerwave dimmer switch which supports dimmable LED’s lights is the Enerwave ZW500D-W. I have a GE version as well for controlling my outside lights, which I did expect to dim (i.e., primarily using CFL’s for my outside lights – have not dropped the money on the LED equivalents yet).

I have LED bulbs in two different fixtures. In both cases, I have dimmer switches. In one fixture, I have dimmable LED bulbs – the LED lights turn on & fully off. In the other fixture, I have LED lights that do not support dimming – when the switch is turned off, the LED lights are still on, but a very low level. While I have intended on replacing the switch, I have not ‘gotten around to it’ for about 9 months.

I’m not sure where the confusion is, but i’m almost certain the DZS15 is an on/off switch. See pics below, I have their dimmer version controlling my dinning room light and it’s model # is DZMX1.

DZS15 - The one I’m trying to control my LED Xmas lights with.

DZMX1 - The dimmer I’m using to control my Dinning Room light.

Hope this clarifies a few things. I’m hoping to remove the switch tomorrow to show how i’ve wired it and confirm if that may be the issue.

Hi - My bad for not catching your prior response that you are not using a dimmer. When I looked at the spec sheet for the switch, I got that impression.

Going back to my early statement, I have seen that when a non-dimming LED bulbs are connected to dimming switch, the LED’s come on dimly when the switch if off. It sounds like you have installed it correctly, if you have the neutral hooked up as you describe.

I can only guess, especially with cuboy29 having a similar issue, that it may have to do with how the Leviton switch is implemented. Rather than using a relay like some switches (i.e., the audible click as codytruscott asked about), it may be using a solidstate device to do the switching, and the solidstate device may not handle LED loads – none of the documentation I found on the switch mentioned this switch handling LED loads.

Good luck with it.

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Hi Cody! Sorry just noticed your question - yes i do hear a click! Does this help?

Sounds like a relay, but given the number of people with the same problem, it’s clearly not the right switch for the job. Replace the switch with a ge relay switch or a plug in appliance switch of its just a seasonal thing.

I’ve noticed a lot of us have been having trouble with our Christmas lights :grin: ! I have a GE outdoor light module that I had trouble controlling at first, but thanks to @JDRoberts it works now! I have a mix of LEDs and incandescents and they all shut off just fine. If you don’t mind spending money I would try it. Oh and it does not dim so do not buy it if you want dimming. http://amzn.to/1QM6zDk

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