I have installed a White-Series Inovelli Smart Dimmer in a room with 4 Hue Retrofit Recessed Downlights totaling around 40-60W load.
I replaced an older dimmer switch that existed before. The lighting circuits appeared to be wired as older ceiling-fed switch loops. Power comes to the ceiling/light junction first, then a 2-conductor cable runs down to the wall switch. In the switch box, I have only one white, one black, and ground. The white is not a neutral. It is the line/hot coming down to the switch, and it was previously marked with black tape. The black is the load going back up to the recessed lights. There is no neutral bundle in the switch box. I have installed it correctly, the switch on default mode turned the lights on and off correctly, no flickering or any other issues.
However, the switch buzzes / hums loudly when it’s on. That’s also the case when the switch is set to “Smart Bulb mode” as it’s always on, the humming is constant.
Additionally, not sure if this is related but we were unable to pair the light switch to Home Assistant using Matter, neither using Apple Kit to pair it to Apple Home with matter either. Did not pair correctly on either instance.
How can I eliminate the buzzing? And is it possibly related to why I can’t pair it?
I don’t have any incandescent lighting around… What possibility would that discard if it worked or didn’t? Would there be any reason for the smart dimmer switch to not work with these retrofit recessed hue lights?
I don’t know about these specific lights though however since you are sure you have the switch wired correctly it’s a variable worth eliminating since it appears the switch is not powering up correctly (you can’t pair it etc). How many matter switches do you have paired already?
I have two rooms with similar lights however all of my house has neutrals in 100% of the switch boxes.
The alternative is to go ahead and wire a bypass on one of the lights.
I have no other switches paired already. I have two other installed on the wall, but I didn’t want to mess those up seeing I wasn’t having much success with this one, and considering those are buzzing too when they are on… Same setup for them as well, non-neutral with the same brand and model of hue lights.
We’ve seen substantial posts on this forum with people struggling in non-neutral mode with smart bulbs. The problem is that the smart bulbs don’t draw enough power for the switch to leak through the current to power itself comfortable. There’s generally two ways we’ve seen people solve this:
At the light, install several bypasses. Usually 1 isn’t enough. I think I’ve seen some people install 3-4 of them to achieve stability.
Rewire the two wires going from the light box to the switch so that there is always a hot and a neutral being passed between the two boxes. Then wire the switch so that it has a hot and a neutral and no load. You will then have to use scene controls through your hub to control the smart bulbs. The only thing to note is that the air gap switch on your dimmer will not be able to cut power to the bulbs anymore.