Is there a way to control individual dumb lights on the same circuit?

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I have a light circuit with seven Satco BLINK light fixtures https://www.satco.com/s29339.html running on the same circuit that I'd like to control separately. These lights are ceiling-mounted dimmable LEDs, but with no smart technology. Unfortunately, the builders decided that it was a good idea to have the two lights above the couch area, the three lights above the dining table, and the two lights above the fridge and cabinet wired to the same circuit and switch. :confused:

I've been looking for z-wave or zigbee switches or dimmers (kinda like the Aeotec nano switches and dimmers) that I can wire into the light fixtures in the ceiling, but I haven't seen anything specific to address this problem. I haven't seen any smart light alternatives either.

Any thoughts on how I can address this?

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The nano dimmers should work in what you describe. What problem do you think you have?

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You are either going to have to change the lights to be smart, wire a controller into each light fixture, or use smartbulbs. There is no way for you to control some of the lights on a circuit but not others. Electricity doesn't work that way. When you turn on a switch, it supplies power to the circuit. You can't tell it not to power some of the circuit but power the rest of it.

When you say "ceiling mounted dimmable LEDs" do you mean something like this:
image

You could easily wire a nano dimmer into each fixture. The problem is, you're going to have to have 7 of them, one for every light. That isn't that cost effective. Do you have access to the space above the lights (an attic) or is the wiring in a crawl space? If each area was on a separate circuit, or even had a bypass for the hot between them, then you would only need 3 micro dimmers.

There are zigbee alternatives for these lights as well but they are just as expensive as the nano dimmers.

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Thanks for the replies. The cost is obviously something I need to consider, but my concern was the feasibility of using the nano dimmers or obtaining zigbee alternatives.

They're round, similar the the photo you attached. Here's a photo of how they're mounted:

20200229_185900
20200229_1859001495×1288 1.06 MB

I haven't been able to find zigbee alternatives for these. If you know of any, can you point me in that direction?

Thanks again for the help.

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Thanks. I was worried about the feasibility of wiring nano dimmers for each light while still keeping the line feed going to the other lights on the circuit.

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I've been looking for lights with the exact mount, but I see Sylvania makes some that look similar but require a different mount (SMART+ 15" Flush Mount ADJW). I guess I can look for similar flush mount lights and simply change out the mounting brackets.

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You don't need to look for an eact match... That mount is just a bracket attached to a standard 4" utility box. If you replace the fixture, you will remove the existing bracket, and the replacement light will come with it's own bracket (if needed).

Before you go to the trouble of replacing all the fixtures, do some exploring... (with the breaker OFF)

  1. At the switch

Remove the switchplate and switch from the box... How it the switch wired to the lights? Is it a single cable (wire pair) into the box and a single cable (wire pair) out of the box? Are these multiple wires connected to the load side of the switch???

Just because the single switch controls all the couch/dining romm/kitchen lights does not mean that they are on the "same circuit". They may be different branches of the same circuit. It would not be the first time that a builder has put multiple branches onto the same switch to save costs.

If they are on separate branches, it is relatively easy and inexpensive to split the branches and install Zigbee switches... If the builder installed a single gang box, you will need to add a double gang rework box, but that can be a simply DIY job...

If they are on a single branch, then:

  1. At a fixture. The wiring could be run from the switch to one ceiling box to the next ceiling box to the next. At the ceiling box nearest to the switch, pull the wiring through the bracket to expose the wiring in the box... How is the fixture connected to the wiring in the box? Is there a single cable (wire pair) into the box and a single cable (wire pair) out of the box? Are there more than two cables entering the box? If there are more than two cables, then the circuit is being split, and it could be possible to split the branches and put in nano switches/dimmers to control the branches.

Does the cable entering the box have two or three insulated wires (not counting the bare ground wire)? If the cable has three insulated wires, it may be possible to rewire the fixture to convert a single circuit into a double circuit and reduce the number of nano dimmers/switches you need...

Once you have an idea of how it's wired, we can give you better recommendations...

Sadly, those fixtures, the Sylvania 72567, appear to be discontinued...

You could replace the fixtures with a similar (but not quite as stylish) Hampton bay model that is reasonably priced: HERE

OR, you could replace the fixtures with an inexpensive fixture such as: THIS
And use your choice of Zigbee/Z-Wave/WiFi smart bulb...

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Thank you, @cybrmage! These are great suggestions and questions. I'll do some exploring as you suggested and report back.

Thanks again!

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You looking for something like this?:

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If you decide to go with the nano dimmer, before you purchase the dimmers look at how they are wired to see if you double up on a single dimmer.

For instance, lets assume the two lights over the couch are at the end of the/that circuit. You could put a nano in the first light that can effectively control both.

I would start assuming the wiring is such that the minimum amount of wire is used. You can look at the physical location of the lights an perhaps guess how they might be run. It would save you time in trying to sort the wiring out.

If I were to investigate the wiring, I would start disconnecting the wires in a fixture and see what did not light up.

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I have two of the RGBGenie micro dimmers. They are wonderful and work very well both directly with Hubitat or with a Hue Bridge. Definitely a great choice.

Just make sure that the LEDs support dimming. The RGBGenie micros are trailing edge dimmers so they work very well with LEDs that are dimmable.

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Thanks for the pointer. Are there any benefits of going with the RGBGenie over Aeotec nano dimmers?

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Excellent advice! Thanks, I'll definitely look for that.

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Thanks. I checked the specs and they're definitely dimmable LEDs.

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Well.. I’m a little biased on this one as I wrote the z-wave drivers for RGBGenie.. The zigbee ones are built-in drivers.. But.. The RGBGenie one is available in z-wave or zigbee versions .. Both of which have drivers on HE... It is configurable for trailing or leading edge.. Trailing edge being better for LED loads.. Although I don’t know much about the aeotec version..

The RGBGenie ones are currently listed at a lower price than the aeotec on Amazon

$39 for z-wave , $45 for zigbee .. The aeotec is $59

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Cool! Thanks the info on that. Seems like the way to go. :grin:

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The owner of the company hangs out here too so support should be more readily available..

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Cool fact.. They are advertised as trailing edge, and default to this... But it’s actually configurable trialing or leading edge.. So it’s pretty versatile

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The zigbee version is not user configurable for that. I believe that it's only configurable in the firmware from Sunricher. But why you'd want a leading edge dimmer is a mystery to me.

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It’s configurable on the z-wave .. I’d bet the configuration parameter is there.. Just not in the driver.. And I don’t know why you would want leading edge.. unless you had an incandescent load.. But who has that now days..

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