I have purchased a WD500Z-1 Z-wave dimmer switch. Here is a link to the doc for it:
I’m attempting to replace an existing dimmer switch. The existing switch has 3 wires-- 2 Black wires and 1 Green wire. There are 3 wires coming out of the junction box–1 bare, 1 white and 1 black. The bare is ground and connected to the green wire on the existing switch, the white to one of the black on the existing switch, and the second black to the remaining black.
I had to flip the breaker to work on the switch, so there was no light taking the picture, but this is what it looks like:
I know the White is neutral and the Bare is ground, and the Black is probably line, however I am unsure as to which wire on my Z-wave unit to connect to the Black wire coming from my junction box. I would assume the black? So:
Green -> Ground (bare)
White -> Neutral (white)
Black -> Line (black)
…and then the blue wire on the Z-wave unit would remain disconnected…? Is correct?
From other posts I have read, it seems I may not have manual control over the switch if I hook it up in this manner here, which may be a deal breaker for me. The entire point of going with the Z-wave wall switch was to have both remote control and manual control if someone just wants to turn on the light normally.
You might be confused. So coming out of the wall is:
1 White (neutral)
1 Ground (bare)
1 Black (line? or load?)
The white will go to white, and the green will go to bare. That I’m 99.99% sure of. What I’m uncertain about is which color to connect the final black wire coming from the wall. I can connect it to either Black or Blue on the Z-wave unit.
The picture I linked is a little hard to distinguish because of the bad lighting making the shadows look like black wires, but the 2 black wires are coming from the switch I’m replacing. The switch I’m replacing is currently hooked up with one of its black wires going to the white from the wall (neutral), the other black going to black from the wall (load? line?) and the green going to the bare wire from the wall (ground).
I guess my question is multi-fold:
a.) Can I connect the switch with:
(WD500Z) White -> (Wall) White (neutral)
(WD500Z) Green -> (Wall) Bare (ground)
(WD500Z) Black -> (Wall) Black (Line? load?)
(WD500Z) Blue -> disconnected?
or
(WD500Z) White -> (Wall) White (neutral)
(WD500Z) Green -> (Wall) Bare (ground)
(WD500Z) Black -> disconnected?
(WD500Z) Blue ->(Wall) Black (Line? load?)
b.) If I install the switch in this manner, will I lose functionality like manual control over the switch by physically pressing it?
EDIT: I tried to touch up the image to make it more clear where the wires are going
If that switch currently dims a fixture, then I’m sorry to tell you but that white is not a neutral but the load leg of the switch. Meaning you do not have a neutral in the box, but rather in the fixture, and the wiring in the box is merely conveying the line (hot) from the fixture, through the switch, and back up to the fixture. You can use a Zwave micro Dimmer in this situation since there are some that do not require a neutral, or a Lutron Caseta (ie non Zwave) Dimmer, but not a Zwave Dimmer like you are currently trying to install.
Edit: found an image to illustrate your situation:
