Flickering bulbs, Aeotec, and luck?

Switches Wiring Discussion
1

I have a few questions and things that don’t make sense. I have a GE dimmer in one bathroom, it is hooked up to 3 bulbs, they are 7 watt LED bulbs, so that’s 21 watts. I always had flickering issues with one or two bulbs. This setup had a neutral, so ground, neutral, load and line.

I added an Aeotec bypass, behind the switch, since I had a neutral, read it was fine, so I connected it to the load and the neutral and the flickering stopped…

Fast forward to me setting up some LZW31-SN devices. I ordered 4 for the older back part of my house that does not have neutral wires.

So I of course ordered more Aeotec bypass devices, because, I would surely get flickering, even more so without a neutral right?

So the first one, old 50’s wiring, only 2 wire at the switch, no ground and no neutral. This is a single bulb, so 60 watt LED so that is only really 8 watts. This is WAY less than my 21 watts from before.

I went to the fixture, and great, only 2 wire, no ground or neutral. So I cannot hook up an Aeotec bypass.

So I just went for it, hooked up the LZW31-SN, not even sure I got load / line right because with no ground, couldn’t test easily, went with the old matching top and bottom and assuming some old electrician was doing it that way. It came on and worked, it controlled the light, connected to z-wave controller, dimmed, and all worked, great!

So I turned it on and let it set, at 100% and at 50% and just watched it, waiting for all the flickering madness.

It doesn’t flicker at all.

What?

Why did it flicker with a neutral and 21 watts on one device, and then everyone says with these LZW31-SN and no neutral, and under 25 watts, you have to use the Aeotec Bypass or you get flickering.

Did I just get lucky or something? Is the flickering coming?

2

One of the two at the light has to be a neutral. The light won’t work without both.

3

I guess good point, I just saw the same wire, two wire, so one black and one white heading into the ceiling from the fixture, and the same type of wire, black and white to switch. But what your saying makes sense, somewhere else they made the switch tee into power and one line goes the light, and somewhere else they must be splicing into a neutral.

I wasn’t thinking straight.

I need some long wire to test continuity and somewhere with a ground to test power, back of the house has no ground, was trying the metal box and other things but could get a solid ground anywhere to use my meter…

I just need to figure out which on switch is power, then get a long wire to see the load line on switch and see which wire that is on the fixture, and then I can assume the other is neutral.

It’s weird that it works without bypass though right? I guess it doesn’t always flicker…

I will try to figure it out

4

Wait, I’m over thinking this, the fixture only has 2 wires, so just use the bypass and add as a jumper between the two and done…

I can still try to find a ground to make sure I didn’t swap line and load on the switch, but it powered up, so it either doesn’t care or I got it right, had a 50 50 chance

5

You might read this wiring it might help your understanding of the wires.

John

6

yeah, I was just tired last night and wasn’t thinking, I’m actually better at a lot of the wiring, just the older miss wired stuff it’s been awhile and I didn’t take my time… Do a ton of work on the newer stuff and wired my garage, but the older stuff gets me…

can’t trust colors on the back half of my house, just verified at the switch the White is Line, aka it has power all the time, and the Black is Load, which is heading back up to the fixture, was able to just extend with a wire to a ground to test, my metal box didn’t help with ground…

Now headed back to fixture and should be able to use meter up there between the two to see which one gets power, but doesn’t really matter because only two, so ones power and ones neutral anyway

At least I had the new switch right

7

OK, so black line at the fixture was Load, matching the Black at switch, so the White was actually neutral, so I hooked up the bypass…

Not sure I needed it since it wasn’t flickering, but since I had it, why not