Just thinking out loud, but I wonder if there would be market demand for a Light/Dimmer switch that uses an RF frequency to communicate with a canopy module for controlling the light (on/off and dimming). This would be similar to the inovelli fan switch that simply requires constant power to the switch and then an installation of a canopy module.
In my house, I had a few locations where the switch box did not have a neutral (it had a switch loop) and getting a neutral into the box would have been problematic. I went with an inovelli red series dimmer that does not require a neutral for these locations. It is not the perfect solution as I still get a barely perceptual flicker on the LED lights every few seconds.
It is easy enough to turn the white wire in a switch loop back to a neutral, thus allowing for the easy installation of a smart switch that would then communicate with an RF module in the light's octagon box for control of the light.
If these existed and they costed less than the inovelli fan switch (which has a more complicated canopy module) I would have bought a few for my house.
I need to point out that I am not a certified electrician. I am a professional engineer licences in Ontario but I am an electronics designer, so again not certified.
I do have about 1500 hours or wiring but only 25% has been inspected.
All that said, I see it as fully legal.
I am also using the red dimmer in one location for the same reason you are. It is driving two high output flush mount 14” round led fixtures in my basement and I am not experiencing an undesirable flicker from them.
If I recall correctly the flicker was identified as a firmware issue with the canopy module. Something with a refresh timing or what not.
An update was developed to fix the problem, however it's not user performable. If you contact Inovelli support they will ship you a new/updated canopy module, and you ship back your old module to be updated.
The post wasn't really about a barely perceptual flicker (but yes it is the dimmer switch, and not the fan switch). But was more about always having a neutral with every electrical device. By definition a smart switch is an electrical device, it uses electricity for transmission of zwave/zigbee, in my opinion it is best to install every electrical device with a neutral (240 volt heater elements being an exception). Some smart dimmers have a work around this requirement and will work without a neutral, I find this less than ideal.
Since you are almost always installing a dimmer switch without a neutral in a switch loop, it is usually easy enough to turn the white wire of the switch loop back to a neutral wire, thus allowing the smart switch to have a neutral. Naturally, you would now have a smart switch that would not be able to switch the hot, so an RF device that would sit in the lights octagon box could accomplish this, similar to how the inovelli fan/light works.
Again, not sure if this would be a good idea, I guess it would depend on how small the manufacturer could make the module that would go in the octagon box. Plus price would be a concern, but considering inovelli's fan/light sells for under 100 Cdn and this is not far from the going Cdn rate for a smart switch I figured it probably would not be cost prohibitive.
On a side note, by barely perceptual, I mean very hard to see. I did not notice anything for months, until I was sleeping in the bedroom on a moonless cloudy night. Even then I could not see it till my eyes had adjusted to the darkness.
