OK folks. I’ve been reading the forums here and over at Smartthings for a couple of weeks now getting familiar with HA and how I might grow my “ecosystem”. Also, sorry for the wall of text, I’m still figuring things out. As the saying goes, “I don’t know what I don’t know.”
Here’s my core problem (you’ve all heard this before, I think.) My house was built in the 1950’s, and US code at the time did not require (and my house does not have) a neutral line at light switches. Since there seems to be a bit of a terminology difference in the US vs EU, what I’m talking about is that my light switches only have two actual wires in the box - one wire that is live from the mains and another out to the lamp - think like the old knife switches in your science labs. (Does anyone use those anymore?)
So! What I’m looking for is a switch or dimmer that will:
- work without a neutral wire
- fit in a US “single gang” box
- has a physical switch that allows for manual control of the light (in parallel)
- Supports LED’s and/or CFL.
I started with this thread:
Smartthings thread
…but it’s over 2 years old now, and things change fast.
At the moment, it looks like this is maybe the only “current production” candidate for me.Jasco (maybe GE?) 45716
The problem is that it doesn’t seem to support anything but incandescent bulbs, and doesn’t seem to be supported by Jasco anymore (at least, I couldn’t find a reference to that part number on the Jasco site.)
There are other options that I’ve researched - for instance the Aeotech Nano Dimmer or the Fibaro 212 Dimmer which both supposedly don’t need a neutral wire. This is a bit of a “must” for me for family reasons (as in if I don’t have this, I won’t have a family any more )
Technically what I’m assuming is happening in these units is that the dimmer switch doesn’t actually turn power completely off in “OFF” mode, it allows just enough power “through” to power the box. OK, I can live with that as long as the light’s not on and I remember that come bulb-change time. (Oh, and both have minimum wattage requirements that might be an issue, but I can deal with that too.)
I’m kind of focusing on the Aeotech unit right now, because it’s slightly smaller. A couple of things, though. The Aeotech unit user guide talks about a “touch panel” capability, but the only “touch panel” I can find only talks about the “Micro” unit (3 wire) not the Nano (2 wire) unit. (This one here note that it only has one button, though. Also, it appears that if I hook up a OG light switch to these, I’ll always be chasing my tail as to what is controlling the load (in other words, what happens if the automation is off when the switch is on?)
So, two questions:
-
Has anyone tried the Jasco 45716 (or the -17, the only difference appears to be the color?) Any chance it will work with LED’s or CFL’s?
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Is anyone using the Aeotech Nano unit with the touch panel, and does it work?
Any suggestions I missed here? New products? How about if I move beyond Z-Wave?
If I’m SOL on all that, here’s my Plan B, There’s a wiring diagram in the Nano documentation that has two switches (S1 and S2 here).
It appears that they are set up to dim/control the circuit (makes sense). Would using this just be as easy as me wiring in two momentary pushbuttons? (Or can I get some sort of wall plate with two momentary pushbuttons already attached?) Or does this setup require the switches to remain closed in operation (like old analog circuitry?)
Anyway, looking forward to getting to know all you folks, and sorry for the noob questions. I suspect they won’t be my last!
Thanks in advance,
Richard Perry