This is my first post here. I’m slowly working my way into the Zwave world. So far, I have an in wall outlet, a Kwikset door lock and my Liftmaster gateway all online and working great.
I’m looking to add some more to my living room, and have a 4 gang switch box that I’d like to add an on/off switch, a dimmer, and a fan control module.
The question I have is, what is the best way to connect these devices to the neutral cluster that’s already there? I don’t think it’ll be possible to join them all with one wire nut. What I’m thinking of doing is jumping out of the original neutral cluster with a short pigtail, and then connecting all the Zwave switches to that. Does anyone see any harm in that?
It should not be an issue to wire nut 5 neutrals into a sing bundle(4 switches and a feed). You just need big nuts.
While splitting the bundle into multiple connected bundles is absolutely possible, one needs to thoroughly understand the ratings of the circuit and the connection between bundles. If your connection(bridge) between bundles has a lower capacity than the circuit’s total rating(probably 15amps) then your bridge becomes a fire hazard.
Leviton Z-Wave switches (mostly) have two spots to connect the neutral, hot, and load wires… so for those, I just tap one neutral wire from the box, and then daisy-chain the neutrals all the way down. Same for hot wires.
I am not an electrician, but from a “does it work” standpoint daisy chaining it works fine. The only issue is that if the wire pops out of one somehow you lose the whole box.
Wire nuts are rated for a specific (combination of) number of wires. Sounds like you will exceed that, so you’d have to go with a pigtail or daisy-chain solution (and stay within the rating of the box, although it doesn’t sound like that’s an issue).
While @oti@ is correct about nut ratings, the extremely common IDEAL Industries - WT52 Red is rated to accommodate 5 #12 wires(common in 15 and 20amp circuits) or 6 #14 wires common in 15amp circuits. Here’s the rating sheet.
[quote=“DeltaNu1142, post:5, topic:190846”]Oh, sure. But if one wire pops out, something isn’t going to work and you’re going to need to open the box up anyway.
And in all the time I’ve been doing this, I haven’t had any wires “pop out” after putting on the face plate.[/quote]
As always there is more then one way to complete the task. I’m not a professional electrician!
When I have 4 switches in a box and they all are shared off one neutral and hot line comming in I usually prewire jumpers to all the switches outside the box for Hot, neutral and ground then connect the end one to the wires coming in.
Thanks for all the replies! I guess my first task is to just take the faceplate and switches out to actually see what’s back there. There’s a good chance that I won’t need to make a short jumper for all the Zwave devices to connect to. The daisy chain method seems like a good alternative. I just ordered GE/Jasco switches and will see if they can be wired like that.
I have one situation with three GE/Jasco switches in one the gang box. It fits but even with the daisy chain trick it’s a tight fit, it’s a lot of wire and wire nuts in the box.
Take a look at Wago push wire and lever-nut connectors. I haven’t had a chance to use them yet, and they’re a lot more expensive than wire nuts, but they look fantastic.
I’ve not seen the Wago push connectors, but a similar product I found in a fixture was a one use type of device. Meaning once you push the wire into the connector you have to cut the wire it to remove the connection. Just a caution.
Regards
JohnRob
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