Smart switch wiring with smart bulbs?

Thinking of a solution to do what I would like to do. My current switches do not have a neutral wire so I am looking at the Caseta PD-5ws switch as it does not require a neutral. I would like so use smart bulbs and always have them powered. What I am thinking is to get the PD-6ans switch that requires a neutral and wire my bulb to the hot and neutral of the switch and cap off the red wire. I think this would keep both the switch and bulbs powered and I could set up automatons to run and control the bulbs when the switches are pressed.

Why do you want a smart bulb and a smart switch controlling the same light?

Edit: I’m not an electrician but I don’t think what you’re proposing with Lutron caseta switches will work.

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Yeah, I’m with Mark: let’s separate this into two pieces.

  1. @navat604 or one of the other electricians in the community could say more, but I’m pretty sure that wiring set up is not going to work with that model, and I’m not even sure it’s to code.

  2. what’s your goal in having a smart switch as well as a smart bulb? There are a number of battery operated devices, some of which look just like light switches, which could give you a switch on the wall while leaving your smart bulbs always powered. There’s even a line Which is supposed to be out by the end of the year which doesn’t require batteries, if that’s a concern, but still doesn’t get wired into the mains.

See the FAQ:

My first idea is for my bathroom but I have other similar things I want to do. Ill have an automation setup so when the off button is pressed it will signal the bulbs to turn off then when the on button is pressed during the night only trigger the bulbs to come on at 15%, mornings and evenings at 100% and during the day maybe 50%. I could also have the switches control other rooms, turn on the kitchen light at night and have the patio light come on also.

How is it powered?

Similar to the current Philips Hue Tap Switch. :sunglasses:

But these are using the patented Enocean protocol which has been folded into zigbee 3.0.

https://www.zigbee.org/zigbee-and-enocean-alliances-collaborate-to-combine-benefits-of-enocean-energy-harvesting-wireless-with-zigbee-3-0/

These work by harvesting the kinetic energy of the physical button push.

Remember how many times I’ve said that zigbee was designed for tiny messages sent infrequently? :wink: The tininess of those messages is what makes this kind of protocol practical.

The problem is that when you turn off the switch, the bulbs will lose power and you won’t be able to turn them on from ST. So, then when you turn on the switch the bulbs will have to startup and connect to your hub. Any automations you had that ran when you turn the switch on, the bulb would have been unavailable so it wouldn’t work. Smart bulbs need power 24/7. Any switches connected to the circuit should either be removed (cross-connecting your hot and load in the switch box) or defeated with a switch cover or similar device to prevent people from switching them. Or, you could just use the smart switch with regular LED bulbs. It sounds like that would be a better option for you since you want the wall-switch control.

pd-6ans%20wiring

What im thinking to be able to have the switch and bulb always on.

Other ideas with this is that you can disable the switch and have lights on a timer kind of like a vacation mode.

The Pd-5ws is a good option for smart bulb without neutral but you have to connect the load side of the switch to the bulb which @Ryan780 point out about turning off the switch will also removing power to the bulb.
your wiring on the PD-6ANS will probably not going to work. The hot side of the bulb needs 110VAC to operate and your switch neutral needs 0VAC. One or the other will work but not both or both will fail. Not a good idea to supply a neutral side of the switch anything other than neutral voltage.

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I don’t think you need smart bulbs to do any of the things you’ve mentioned. With a Lutron switch like the PD5-WS and smartthings+webcore, that would be sufficient.

Edit: plus a Lutron bridge, since the ST-Lutron integration is cloud-to-cloud. But you’d need that for your plan involving the PD6-ANS too.

Tried it, switch worked but light did not.

I can’t dim from the switch because there is a fan on the line also.

Ill have to look into switch covers and maybe wait for those kinetic switches.

Not sure how long the switch is going to last with not proper voltage between line and Neutral.

disconnected it and put on a normal switch going to re think how I can do things.

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Sounds like what you need is to rewire the bulb so it’s not connected to the same line as the switch.