I got a couple of 45609’s for some simple 2 way lighting.
I’m not fluent in electrical stuff but I figured this was a simple replacement so…
I have a 2 gang switch. One controls LED puck lighting in my cabinets. The other controls under cabinet LED’s.
Each switch was wired with 2 blacks and a ground. I have white wires and both were connected together via wire nut.
My simple brain said, just hook up the Jasco like the one it’s replacing except also attach the white wire. Well when I did that neither light worked. The switches only work when the white wires are connected together. Of course then I don’t have a white wire to connect to the Jasco.
There is one cable coming into the box with a black, white and ground.
There is one cable coming into the box with a black, white, red and ground.
The black from #1 above is pig tailed to both switches.
The black from #2 goes to one of the switches and the red goes to the other.
The whites are tied (wire nut) together.
So I need a white to go to the Jasco but when I “untie” them, nothing works.
I wonder if I have the same issue Dave. I just tried to wire a simple switch. I connected the line, load, and ground to the switch. All neutral wires in the gang box are pig-tailed together so I omitted it from the Jasco switch.
There is no power however when I turn the breaker back on. The LED indicator on the Jasco switch isn’t illuminated and the switch won’t manually turn the light on/off.
Essentially, I’ve got power running into the switch via the line, but the load is not receiving it. Do I need to add a neutral wire from the Jasco switch to the pig-tailed neutral wires for power?
Yes, you need to connect a wire from the jasco neutral connector into the neutral wires in the gang box. The switch uses the hot wire and the neutral to power itself, so it won’t work without a neutral connection.
Yeah… what Steve28 said. Just to add to it a little bit: Zwave switches are not like regular switches. An old switch is a physical device that just opens or closes the circuit. You physically connecting wires when you flip the switch.
But a z-wave switch is an electronic device. When you press the physical button on the switch you aren’t physically connecting wires, instead you’d sending a signal to the little computer inside the switch telling it to connect the wires. Because this is an electronic device on it’s own, it needs a full circuit of power (line in, neutral out) in order to work.
Now, because nothing is every really simple in the Z-wave world… there is an exception to the rule. There are some Z-wave switch (such as the GE/Jasco dimmer 45612) which do NOT need a neutral. Instead of using the neutral the 45612 “leaks” a trickle of power through the load line to the light and out through the light’s neutral line. This trickle of power is small enough that it doesn’t typically light up the lights at all.
But, this switch is rated only for use with incandescent lights. CFLs don’t play nice with dimmer usually anyway, plus that little trickle of power may not be good for the electronics in CFL bulbs. LED typically use a LOT less power than incandescents so it’s possible that the little trickle of power that the switch is letting through might light them up.
EDIT to add: Also, forgot to mention that the 45612 can be use as a master in a 3way (or more) switch setup. BUT the AUX switches WILL need neutral even though the master does not.
I actually made the above connections before I left on my trip and got the unit working. I forgot to post an update. Thanks for the detailed description @chrisb, I was not aware of most of what you posted. It’s certainly good to know moving forward.