I recently had my whole house rewired and explained upfront to my electrician the intent to use Inovelli lights through out.
We are now at finish wiring and he is telling me that we won’t be able to use the Inovelli Blue 2-1 + Aux switches for any of the 3-way / 4-way switches because of the way the wires are currently run. Here is what he has told me:
1.) The lines and load are in separate boxes
2.) he can’t follow the wiring diagram for 2-1 + Aux in the line / load in separate box configuration because he only has travelers running between the boxes so doesn’t have a way to bridge the load terminal from the smart switch to the lights
Something about this doesn’t make sense to me. I’m far from an expert but I can’t figure out what wiring configuration would let a functioning 3-way switch be setup with the two constraints he highlighted above being true.
Thought I’d ask for a second opinion here. Once I’m done with finish and in the house I’ll likely come back and ask for help identifying solutions, but for now I just wanted a second opinion if there is an obvious configuration I’m missing that could lead to these constraints
It doesn’t make sense, if the line and neutral is in the one box and only 2 traveler wires go to the other switch box then how does the neutral get to the load connection in the other switch box.
Apologies, I shorthanded that. What I believ he meant is he didn’t run a line between the boxes just two travellers [and the neutral]… I still don’t understand how that’s possible
So when you run a multi-way with a neutral, you provide power to the first box. A 3-wire (if using Romex) then connects that first box and the remaining switch boxes. You first advised that he couldn’t install the Inovelli because he had only run two travelers between the boxes. With a 3-wire between the switch boxes, you connect two travelers AND a neutral.
I had some thoughts for if you didn’t have Romex, but since you do, I won’t digress.
From your latest post, it sounds as if you believe you have two travelers AND a neutral, which is what is expected. So it sounds like you have a 3-wire between the boxes, which makes sense. (If you didn’t have a 3-wire between the boxes, there would only be one very archaic, illegal code-wise and no longer used way to run it . . . and no one in their right mind would wire it that way anymore.)
So I’m wondering if the electrician doesn’t understand the wiring requirements. I’m going to suggest you ask the electrician these questions, which I’m pretty sure we already know the answer to, just to confirm:
Are these lines and loads in separate boxes, where the first box gets a hot and neutral and the last box has the 2-wire going to the light, carrying the switched load?
Are there 3-wires run between the switch boxes?
Based on your last post, the answer to both should be yes. This is just the standard wiring methodology. So, if that’s the case, we can help you follow wiring instructions, although for a standard topology like this, the Inovelli wiring diagram should suffice.