Leviton VRF01-1LX fan speed control wiring

Community Playground General Discussions
1

I currently have standard wall switches for controlling fan speeds in my house (similar to this one), and would like to replace them with z-wave switches instead. The only such switch that I’m aware of is the Leviton VRF01-1LX, but I have some questions about how to wire it up.

My current fan switches have three wires: two black and one green. I assume the blacks are the line and load and the green is ground (though it could be neutral – I don’t know). However, the instruction manual for the VRF01-1LX seems to indicate that I should have a minimum of four wires (line, load, neutral, and ground). Is one of the wires optional? Or will I be required to run an additional wire in order to make this work?

Any help is greatly appreciated. I’m not very knowledgeable on electrical wiring.

2

Most newer switchesboxes have neutral wires in the box but they are all connected together and not needed for many “normal” switches. You would just need to connect the neutral wire on the leviton witch to this bundle of (usually white) wires. The two black wires you mention are your line and load (depending on where they are coming from, one is from your panel and the other runs to the fan). The green wire is your ground. Check your outlet box to see if you can find the bundle of white neutral wires (if your wiring is really old (mid-1980’s or older) you may not have them in there…)

You can check this page for more information (same concept):

http://www.smarthome.com/SLCsolution11.html

By the way: I have 4 of those Leviton fan controls and they work great, 0% is off, 25% is low speed, 50% is medium, 75%-100% is high speed. (From Vera Interface)

3

Green is normal the ground wire. Check the back of the box and see if there is number of wires wire-nutted together usually white that would be the neutral. Do you have a greenlee pen for checking power? The wire that lights up the pen when the switch is off is the line or hot - the other line if only 2 wires on the switch besides the green is the load. The VRF01-1LX needs a neutral as do all Leviton Controllers and the VRS15-1LX relay switch to operate. 8)

4

Thanks for the replies. You’re absolutely correct - there are neutral wires bundled together at the back of the switchbox that I somehow failed to notice.