Nspanel wiring without neutral

Hardware
1

Hello,
Long time reader here, first time poster :slight_smile:

I have HA running since couple months now, and I really want to replace a light swith with a Sonoff NSPanel.

Sadly, I live in France, and we don’t have the neutral wire in the light switch boxes, wire that is required in order for the NSPanel to run…

The lighting system is wired like this :

I already have a Philips hue lightbulb, so basically I don’t ever touch this light switch as turning it off will disconnect my lightbulb.

So I was wondering if I can “hack” the wiring coming to the lamp.
Can I remove the light switch, put the NSPanel, connect the red wire that is coming from the fuse panel, hack the wiring at the lightbulb to feed back the neutral to the nspanel that is replacing the light switch?

The wiring colors would be bad/non standard I know, it’s a hacky way, I will document/label everything so it can be reverted.

If so, it would look like this :

schema-interrupteur-simple-commande-eclairage-both
schema-interrupteur-simple-commande-eclairage-both1222×855 123 KB

Do you think this way would work?

Thanks in advance :slight_smile:

(Sorry for any spelling)

2

HI Cyrilus,

Sorry, that will not work. The light has no L connection and the NS panel has no N connection…

  • You could tie the 2 Blue N wires together in the Light box to one side of the light and pull a new L wire into there to run the light.
  • You could connect the 2 wires in the nspanel box together on the L terminal and pull a new wire into there to connect to N.

Both boxes need a connection to L and N, and your ‘solution’ provides neither.

Disclaimer

:warning: DANGER OF ELECTROCUTION :warning:

If your device connects to mains electricity (AC power) there is danger of electrocution if not installed properly. If you don’t know how to install it, please call an electrician.

Beware: certain countries prohibit installation without a licensed electrician present

Remember: SAFETY FIRST. It is not worth the risk to yourself, your family and your home if you don’t know exactly what you are doing. Never tinker or try to flash a device using the serial programming interface while it is connected to MAINS ELECTRICITY (AC power).

3

Hi @Sir_Goodenough ,

Thanks for the confirmation, it felt wrong when I created the schema, looks like there is no way to make this work with the actual wiring.

I will try to have the proper N wire from the breaker box (it’s closer to the light switch), but the cable sheath is narrow and thin, would have prefered leaving the current wiring as is :sweat:

Edit : thanks for safety disclaimer, indeed wise words!

1 Like
4

I always add that when I suggest some mains wiring.

5

There’s this hack for any switch that requires neutral so you don’t have to pull any new wires.
I’ve tested it with sonoff, tuya wifi and zigbee switches but not with nspanel yet but it should just work

Anyway if you could pull the neutral from the light to the switch + additional live wire. You can flash tasmota/esphome and enable decouple mode so the Philips bulbs always stay on

6

You can usually pull a wire from the light to the switch.
Just get one of these:
image

It’s a quick job and can easily be removed when you move from the house.

And all that safety stuff Sir_Goodenough said is also great of course but if you are “only” working with the neutral wire then it’s… safer…