chrisb
November 10, 2015, 2:32pm
3
Nearly all Zigbee and Z-wave switches require neutral. There are a very limited few older ones that do not.
Are there any neutrals in the box at all? Sometimes in the back of the gang box there’s two or more white wires all screwed together. If so, you can tap into that for neutral.
Here’s a good guide for wiring basics:
So you want an automated hardwired light switch, but you’re not sure where to start. Well you’re in the right place. The most common requirement of any hardwired automated light switch is a neutral wire. Yes, there are a few…(read very, very, very few) switches that don’t require a neutral, but those will limit you to incandescent only. For those of us using LED, Fluorescent or some other energy efficient bulbs under 20w a neutral is REQUIRED!
So what does this look like?
[image]
This is a diagram of a switch with the neutral run directly to the light. This is not good for automated hardwired light switchs and i would HIGHLY recommend that if you want to automate the light, contact an electrician and have them pull a neutral for you. It’s not as expensive as you think and will save you…