So disappointed. We’re connecting up a system with a dozen lights / dimmers at my brothers house in eastern Canada. I brought all the devices with me from the US where you can pretty much get anything on Amazon in a day. His home is less than 4 years old and the }}#%^^£ electrician ran most of the lighting circuits with power to a light so a good percentage of the lights we were going to connect have no neutral. I know inovelli have no neutral options but nothing on Amazon here for Inovelli. I reached out to zooz and they said all their devices require a neutral. I know Lutron have options but he’s not going to want to fool with a bridge.
Couple of questions.
We bought a dumb timer for a new bathroom. fan/light that we installed yesterday. I don’t recall the brand but the device has a dedicated ground and a separate white wire that was in a green sleeve. The instructions indicated that if the wiring to the box didn’t have a neutral that the white wire in the green sleeve ( neutral ) could
Be connected to ground. I’m sure this is probably an electrical code question but is that acceptable to do with a smart switch that requires a neutral?
Second question ( also likely more of a code question but will ask anyway ). Some of his switches with no neutral are above an outlet. Is it acceptable to fish a neutral up to the switch from the outlet?
Just venting more than anything but also looking for some options that will let me connect the devices we have while I’m visiting.
Thanks in advance.
Mac
Inovelli switches can be purchased directly from their web site at Inovelli.com. They were out of stock for a while, but have just receive their latest shipment, so should have stock again.
Green sleeve typically represents a ground wire. White is neutral and black/red are hot.
Fishing a ground from the outlet would work, but cause you some issues as it will create a second circuit. It’s a bit hard to explain, but if you do this, when you turn off the your breaker for the outlets, power will still flow through them via the neutral in some cases, unless you also turn off the breaker that feeds the switch.
I’m not an electrician, but ground is not neutral, even though both technically will complete a circuit if you connect that white wire to either.
Ground is not supposed to be carrying current on it except for when something goes wrong, like a short circuit, which should then cause the circuit breaker to trip.
I’m not sure about all the potential safety implications of a scenario like that, but clearly it’s safer to avoid entirely.
With a switch there is normally only a black wire which connects and disconnects the hot to the load. With the neutral at the light the return current is still on the neutral.
I think With a smart switch, the neutral Is only returning the current from powering the smart switch electronics….not the load.
But I agree…better safe than sorry and will steer clear and look for the proper device.
I was surprised however that the dumb timer gave us that option to connect the neutral to ground. Must be engineered that way however as I’m guessing Leviton is UL and CSA rated.
I have quit a few switch boxes without neutral. If you just need on/off, the Zooz ZEN 51, INSTALLED AT THE FIXTURE, works great. It doesn’t matter if it’s single switch control or multiple switches as there’s only one switched input at the fixture.
Thanks. I was in a hurry between meetings and taking out a new puppy. I fixed it. Stupid mistake. All my switches are grounded. All of the boxes are nonmetallic so no ground to the boxes.
since these switches are very expensive in Canada (much cheaper if you get them in the US), I suggest (as others have before me), taking a second look at Lutron. They are expensive, but they are highly reliable and dependable. Yes, you need another hub, but they work well.
