I was very pleased to find neutrals in the switchboxes in our newish house, and have had good luck swapping in Leviton dimmers for a pile of them so far. Got a non-dimmer for the garage lights, which are fluorescent tubes. Opened the switch cover for that this afternoon, and saw exactly three wires…hot, load and ground. This is the first box I’ve opened that had no neutral at this house.
Since it’s in the garage, it wouldn’t be god-awful to run a neutral. But I’ll ask–does a Z-wave switch exist which will work with a (sizeable) fluorescent load with no neutral wire? I’m guessing no.
[quote=“BigstickCarpet, post:2, topic:165529”]There are a few z-wave switches that don’t require a neutral. Here’s a chart that lists some of them:
But so far as I can tell (the Home Settings links don’t seem to lead to specs, but the others do), the load type for all of the ones that don’t require neutrals is incandescent, so I suspect that they’re relying on the current leakage through the load to allow them to power the switch’s circuitry and radio with the switch off. Otherwise, I don’t see how they would work?
[quote=“rlmalisz, post:1, topic:165529”]Since it’s in the garage, it wouldn’t be god-awful to run a neutral. But I’ll ask–does a Z-wave switch exist which will work with a (sizeable) fluorescent load with no neutral wire? I’m guessing no.
–Richard[/quote]
You are correct Relay Switches need to have a neutral to work - Z-Wave dimmers do not. 8)
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