Hello.
I recently bought shelly 2.5 with plan on controlling my hallway smart light (Xiaomi/yeelight YLXD01YL).
Issue is I am not that good with electrical wiring.
Maybe you can help me out here, I did not want to bring electrican to install just one shelly as it costs almosts as shelly it self.
I just cannot figure out what is missing here.
I have attachet picture of what I see after I dissconected power and disassembeled my swithc.
I live in EU.
I plan to install 2 gang switch. I plan to set both of them in bypass mode, and just use switch events in automations, as my yeelight always needs power.
Doesn’t look like there’s a neutral wire there, so I think you’re out of luck. (Looks to only be a line, load, and ground)
I there are some threads here for installing smart switches in places without neutrals (I think the Fibaro Dimmer doesn’t need one), so I can only suggest you start searching down that path. The Shelly 2.5 requires a neutral AFAIK.
The only further advice is can give is of the “How Not To” variety.
Do not wire earth ground as a neutral connection. Even if this seems to “work” it is really, very ill-advisable.
Do not use a neutral from a nearby junction box that could be wired to a different circuit at the breaker box. If you have the knowledge and skill to determine whether another nearby neutral connection is an appropriate choice, you probably didn’t need to read this How To. If you are unsure, then don’t.
looks a bit confusing: 3 wires with colors indicating Line (brown), Neutral (blue) and Ground (yellow/green).
The blue wire is used as a switched live here in the UK, assume it is the same here
I have done similar to what you want BUT I’m in the UK and the wiring maybe different to yours.
I essentially needed only a live and neutral at the switch to power the Shelly and not have any switched outputs, only switch inputs (as you want).
The switch wire in the UK is wired to the light fitting like this:
I simply disconnected the blue wire from the switch terminal and connected to neutral terminal instead.
You’ll also need to make the light permanently on so will need to connect the brown wire from the light to the live terminal, leaving the switch terminal empty
Again: you will have no switching function at the switch any more.
Only do this is you understand this fully as youre light fitting will have permanent live even when it appears to be switched off
I’ve had labels made and fitted on the light fitting stating this for anyone thinking of changing the bulb or fitting
Also, there is now the Shelly i3 that is just an input device, it might be better suited to this; it has 3 inputs, is a lot thinner as it has no relays
yeah the only option remaining (except pulling neutral) is to reuse ground wire for neutral (since it’s not used at this point). But you MUST to reconnect it to neutral on the other side. So at first make sure its beginning, secondly ensure the is valid neutral you can connect it to. then mark both ends of cable to make any one in fututr know that’s not ground anymore but neutral.
please note it might be considered as illegal modification
Please don’t use the earth core as a neutral !
It should be at least connected to earth at the light fitting. This will help protect you if you drill/nail through the cable
@Holdestmade
It really doesn’t matter since the ground wire found found in this switch box is not connected to anything (so no passed to light fitting etc - ok it’s my assumption, it must be checked ). The point is to disconnect another end of it from ground and connect to N.
Thats apart from the fact that the earth will not be the same CSA
This would be classed as a PEN conductor, absolutely forbidden within the installation! No, not acceptable whatsoever.
No, you should never use a ground wire as a neutral.
Yes, the ground wire will function as a neutral wire and the ground wire and neutral wire are bonded together at the panelboard.
So since the ground and neutral wires are essentially the same and bonded together, why would you not use the ground wire as a neutral? Because it causes the potential for electrical shock. The big difference between the ground wire and the neutral wire is that the ground wire is always grounded at 0 volts, the neutral wire is a return path of an unbalanced load, and while its voltage is typically 0 volts, it has the potential to pass much higher voltage through it. If you disconnect the neutral wire you will many times read voltage on this neutral wire due to the power passing through a connected device and running to the neutral end that was just disconnected. Many electricians know of this problem and account for it, but a ground wire should never have any voltage on it, so when you connect the ground wire like it was a neutral, the return path voltage on the ground wire is completely unexpected, and it usually runs a higher ampacity since it has a connected load. This creates a very dangerous situation for an electrician working on the power system.
Yeah… we all know about this.
But I wrote about disconnecting this particular yellow cable from the ground. So everything you wrote is not applicable since this. You just don’t read previous posts carefully.
BTW leaving it connected to ground and using as N would cause breaking the differential circuit breaker (it mounted) you didn’t mentioned. So in most cases today it wouldn’t work anyway.
The fact you want to disconnect the earth cable, connected at the switch or not, is bad enough, let alone using it as a neutral conductor.
Oh well thats my opinion (and the law in the UK) so do what you will at your own risk
Yes I know it’s bad practice but it’s the last resort solution for one who cannot pull additional cable.
Also I made the remark it might be illegal and one is doing it on his risk.
