Hello,
I am a bit of a noobie here. I am looking at purchasing zwave light switches and plugs. I have heard varying opinions from others, but would like some more expert opinions.
I currently have both CFL and LED lights and am curious if the zwave will work with either. I have read reviews on amazon regarding some of the switches and people comment that there is not enough of a load generated by the light. Is this correct or are there certain models/makes I should seek?
Also, any thoughts on a dimmer for a fan?
Thanks!
[quote=“MatthewC, post:1, topic:187313”]Hello,
I am a bit of a noobie here. I am looking at purchasing zwave light switches and plugs. I have heard varying opinions from others, but would like some more expert opinions.
I currently have both CFL and LED lights and am curious if the zwave will work with either. I have read reviews on amazon regarding some of the switches and people comment that there is not enough of a load generated by the light. Is this correct or are there certain models/makes I should seek?
Also, any thoughts on a dimmer for a fan?
Thanks![/quote]
Certian dimmer switches (any one that doesn’t require a neutral wire) will be picky on which bulbs can be used and have a min. load size. Most newer dimmer switches now just require a neutral wire just like the on/off switches which can make it more difficult to install if you don’t have a neutral wire in the box. But this also means you can use any amount of load and any dimmable light bulbs.
So the option is yours. If you have neutral wires in the wall box, just stick to any switch that uses neutral wire.
EDIT:
Dimmer on a fan is a big no no, it will burn it out! There is a GE/Jasco (50.00 ish) fan switch and a levtron (110.00 ish) one. That’s your options if you want to control speed if not, you can always use a regular on and off switch, but you’ll have to control speed by the pull cord.
I am using a dimmer on one 60 watt LED, drawing about 9 watts. No problems. Of course the bulb needs to be dimmable. The folks at Jasco also told me that there should be no problems with low wattage and their switches. Been using mine for just about two months now.
then your switch must have a netural wire and be one of the newer style switches. Older JASCO switches with out the neutral wire on the dimmer needed a min of 50 watts per the instructions.
There is no sure way to tell other than by trial and error. I have a lot of Leviton VRI06 (no neutral) dimmers, and they work perfectly with a single ~10W LED bulb. But it has to be the right bulb! The ones which work the best for me are the older Philips bulbs which are the same trumpet-like shape as the Hue bulbs. Sadly seems like these may be discontinued; none of the newer replacements or any of the Crees I have tried work nearly as well.