It’s finally time to start replacing more of our light switches with zwave switches. We have a handful of Intermatic CA600’s that aren’t very useful since we don’t have a single incandescent light in the house anymore. Side note… I’ve heard you can add a dummy load to them since they require at least 40 watts. If I do that does it mean that they’ll always be drawing 40 watts (defeating the whole purpose of having LED bulbs)?
I also bought a Linear WD500Z dimmer for our front lights and it’s been faithfully working for nearly 3 years. We’ll need around a dozen new switches for our main floor and the budget’s a little tight. Looking around, is the best deal still the WD500z? I’ll need several of the non-dimming version for some cabinet LED strips.
I figure we’ll save at least $150 using these switches (probably need to spend that on a vera plus with all the new devices…). Anyone else use them? They’ve been rebranded from Linear to 2gig, but all the reviews say they’re owned by the same company.
WD500Z-1 is still the same, regardless of what brand they are using Linear, 2Gig, GoControl…
You may also want to look at the GE 12724 Dimmer or the GE 12729 Dimmer Toggle Switch. They should work just as well as the WD500Z-1. Though more expensive at Amazon, they can be found at Lowe’s possibly for less.
Remember that all of these dimmers lack Instant Status.
This weekend I picked up some dimmable LED bulbs at Costco and to my surprise, they work fine with the CA600’s as long as I have 3 bulbs. It’s interesting because they are only 9 or 11 watts (can’t remember) so 3 bulbs are under the 40 watt minimum. I also tried Costco’s BR30 dimmable bulbs, but they don’t work even if I use 4 of them. But at least that let me use some old CA600’s that have been in the box for the last several years.
I hear that they sometimes have connectivity issues, but the 2 that I’ve had installed for the last 2 years haven’t had any trouble yet.
Does your existing dimmer have a neutral connection. That’s normally the reason “dimmable” LEDs won’t dim correctly. It’s not always the reason as I’ve found dimmable LED that are just badly designed.
[quote=“Z-Waver, post:2, topic:191346”]WD500Z-1 is still the same, regardless of what brand they are using Linear, 2Gig, GoControl…
You may also want to look at the GE 12724 Dimmer or the GE 12729 Dimmer Toggle Switch. They should work just as well as the WD500Z-1. Though more expensive at Amazon, they can be found at Lowe’s possibly for less.
Remember that all of these dimmers lack Instant Status.[/quote]
If the GE/Jasco still uses a traveler wire, I would not use these switches. A true scene controller, like Linear and other systems have, is more expensive but more useful. I’ve reprogrammed the function of my Linear scene controllers several times, as unlike the GE, they are not slaved to a specific dimmer.
When the brands “3-way switch” is inexpensive (~$12), it is a dumb device (GE and Enerwave). It communicates through a traveler wire. The Linear WT00Z-1 and similar wirelessly “talk” Zwave and can controller any zwave device.
I have never used Lutron, but I would take a hard look at those switches if I was doing a new house. I have found Linear to be completely reliable, but lacking instant status.
I’ve never had a problem with the GE switches using a traveler wire, … and using slave switches is less expensive then having full scene controllers at every place. They don’t support Instant status, which isn’t important to me personally, but otherwise they’ve been great. I will say that now that LED is mainstream, I will ultimately need to swap out some of my older 4-way setups.
I did a new setup this weekend with the newest GE, and all works great.
I’ve also noticed that LED bulbs can vary in performance, even if the switch/module supports dimming. Some buzz much worse than others when dimmed. I’ve had OK luck with Cree (home depot), and nearly flawless performance with Philips so far, FWIW.
Due to not having neutrals in my switch boxes, and other factors from long before I purchased a Vera, I ended up going Lutron for all my switches. I’ve now done my whole house except for the bathrooms.
Lutron advantages:
Super reliable
Work will all types of light loads, and even though they claim a minimum load, I have switches with one 12w or less light on them and they work perfectly, YMMV
Pico remotes and their accessories. I have remotes/scene controllers installed in switch boxes, or in places without switch boxes, that look installed like a normal switch. I also have desk stand mounts, and car visor mounts for them.
Lutron disadvantages:
Ridiculous limits on the Caseta system in order to help prop up their aging professional install only VARs
Limited devices and visual styles (pretty much all switches and appliance modules), and it is a style many people probably won’t like.
For best integration into systems like Vera you have to pay extra for their “Pro” bridge, which is the same hardware with a telnet feature enabled
All that being said the Vera with cybrmage’s Caseta plugin makes the system pretty great. It does cost a bit extra due to having to have the Lutron Pro bridge. The Pro bridge on Vera has two advantages, practically instant response, and the ability to use the Pico’s as scene controllers.
tl;dr: The Lutron stuff is great, but not for everyone. I really like it and it makes for a great experience in my home.
[quote=“ShawnParr, post:7, topic:191346”]Due to not having neutrals in my switch boxes, and other factors from long before I purchased a Vera, I ended up going Lutron for all my switches. I’ve now done my whole house except for the bathrooms.
…[/quote]
That probably the critical issue for most people. What are the z-wave dimmers that do not require a neutral wire? What are the LEDs know to work well with these dimmers?
A second more minor point, when mixing brands LED indicator light color may be important. For example, GE and Enerwave are blue. Leviton and Linear are green. Also, Enerwave put dumb up and down arrows on their decora paddle switches, making them harder to mix with other brands.
I like the Lutron aesthetic, but these also don’t mix cleanly style-wise with other brands.
A two wire, no neutral, dimmer requires the resistance of the filament in an incandescent light to provide a return to ground for the electronics so the dimmer can function. An LED lamp does not have enough resistance to provide this return so the dimmer can’t get enough power to function correctly. This is the same reason it takes a 3 wire dimmer to control electronic low voltage lighting. The neutral wire provides the dimmer a path to ground so it’s always powered no matter what the load is. This is why you can connect a 7w night light bulb and the LED will start dimming.
Another reason some LEDs don’t work well even with 3 wire dimmers is how the dimmer dims. Dimmers can preform the dimming function using either leading edge or trailing edge dimming. What that means is how the AC wave form is turned on or off. Leading edge is the simplest type as it uses simple triacs however trailing edge dimmers have to use more expensive devices that can be turned off in mid cycle. Earlier LED didn’t dim well when using leading edge dimmers but newer ones will work either way.
Home this helps.
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