I have an interesting use case and need to validate (or not) an idea. Garage is 50-75’ from the house. Currently there is a three-way circuit from our mudroom to the garage. We’ve only ever used it for the lights, but I now have some rechargeable tools out there and would like the power to always be on, while still having light switch control in the garage and in the house. Also, I have been using a z-wave switch in the garage with out issue.
How about I use a Red switch in the house with the relay turned off, an auxillary z-wave switch in the garage and a z-wave outlet with the lights plugged in.
So, the power would always be on to garage, the Red and aux would control the light on/off.
BTW, I currently use Home Assistant talking to a SmartThings hub, but have Ha Blue on order and plan to migrate to non-SmartThings z-wave network.
Am I thinking right? Also interested in other ideas
I lost you at the z-wave outlet part. Are the lights the 3-way switches are controlling plugged into a receptacle or are they wired to the switch in the garage?
Currently in a receptacle controlled by the switch. Was thinking if the power is always on, then lights would go in smart switch with the three ways controlling (OK, not really three ways then - just toggles). And as I said, I;m open to any ideas.
I’m presuming that power is being fed from the house side. You’re going to have to have the Aux in the house and the Inovelli Switch in the garage. The reason for this is that when you have a power feed to the Aux first, you actually send the line and neutral over to the Inovelli via the black and white of the 3-wire. Since the Inovelli is in the garage, this gives you the added benefit of having a hot and neutral in the garage. The signaling between the Inovelli and the Aux takes place over the red.
So now in the garage, grab the constant hot and neutral and send it to a receptacle for the chargers, or send it to half of a split receptacle. The other receptacle for the lights, or the other half of the split receptacle gets the switched line from the Inovelli.