Ghost light in red 2-in1 new installation

[KenyaTaurus]

Good day, everybody.

I’m new in the smart home world and I got a couple of inovelli blue 2-1 smart switches.

Before this, I was familiar with electronics and electrical wiring, but for some reason I cannot make this installation work for non neutral , advice would be very much appreciated.

The switch works perfectly on the turn on/off side.
I can use the home assistant app to make it work.

The issue is that I have “ghost light” where the lights are non 100% turned off. I saw that this happens because of residual electricity, which I think it makes sense for this non neutral installation? The light used to work fine before with the dumb switch.

So far I have tried the aotec bypass but this is non working either.

This is a picture of the lights “turned off”

I have tried this with and without this bypass.
But with no success so far.

Any thoughts here?

[hydro311]

The bypass needs a neutral, which is why you’ll need to install it at the fixture in this case.

The way you have it now is not correct.

How to wire a bypass to your Nano Dimmer load. : Aeotec Help Desk (freshdesk.com)

[Bry]

What @hydro311 said, but what is the make and model of the lights? Can you post the details for a link? I am curious if that is a fluorescent tube or a LED tube and if those fixtures have a ballast.

[hydro311]

Good call!

[KenyaTaurus]

Thanks for the responses!

I tried this bypass because I read somewhere on the internet that this was able to fix flickering and ghost lights despise not having neutral. Probably I understood that wrong.

For sure, the led is a generic/cheap one. A previous electrician installed in my aunt’s house:

23W, 127V ±10%
0.18A.

Right now the single pole switch handles two of this bulbs.

Here is the product link https://www-magg-com-mx.translate.goog/bl-flat-1200?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en-US&_x_tr_pto=wapp&_x_tr_hist=true (translated to English)

I’m down for changing the lights, if needed. But the current installation only supports 3 pin lights with the same voltage, in order to change that I would have to open the ceiling, which seems like an overkill for a switch installation

[Bry]

That fixture is adaptable, but I’m guessing you don’t have a ballast.

Try installing the bypass properly at the first light as @hydro311 suggested and see what happens. Installing it at the switch is not proper.

[KenyaTaurus]

Sorry but I’m not able to do so in the lights side since the ceiling connection is hard to access to:

[harjms]

Unfortunately the bypass has to be installed at the light fixture or if it’s tubing down to the switch you may be able to pull a neutral wire and not need the bypass at all.

[KenyaTaurus]

Thank you for your assistance.

I think unless I’m brave enough to open the ceil and fix the concrete by myself, I think I’m going to hire an electrician to pull a neutral wire.

I was planning to install other 5 switches so I think it would make sense to ask for the same fix in the other places since we have the same led light model in other rooms too.

[harjms]

Curious is there not a junction box for these lights?

[k8gg]

Is there a way to install the bypass somewhere inside the MAGG LED light fixture?

[KenyaTaurus]

Sorry but there is no junction box. I don’t know what the original electrician was thinking but the wire is inside the wall.

So I asked my aunt if she knew about “random electrical boxes” and looks like we found the wires!

Now I can see the green wire, instead of the white and red in the other side of the wall

[MRobi]

“random electrical boxes” is a very scary term! I would not be touching random electrical boxes anywhere.
Also… are those wires twisted together with electrical tape???

[PJF]

I’m seeing some sketchy stuff there. I expect the ceiling has wires spliced without a box, or they ran the cords from the lights to another spot, your random box isn’t a box at all, and it contains spices twisted and taped together. I doubt an actual licensed electrician did that work.

It also looks like water hose running to the switch.

[hydro311]

@PJF

It also looks like water hose running to the switch.

I noticed that earlier too - sure looks like PEX. Even if PEX-A (the bendiest version), I have no idea how that could possibly be serving as conduit, but that definitely looks like PEX.

Soooo much WTF with this setup.

[KenyaTaurus]

I appreciate everybody’s comments here, this confirmed what I was afraid of and I think it’s better to contact an electrician.

We are good to close this thread, if I’m able to get the fix over the week I will update the thread.

Thank you again for your time and patience.

[harjms]

Can you update us all if you have an electrician come out and fix? I’m at the edge of my seat waiting to see what they think is going on and the solution is…

[MRobi]

@PJF

your random box isn’t a box at all

To be fair, it kind of looks like a low voltage mounting “box”. LOL
But I’m with you, this certainly wasn’t the work of a licensed electrician.

@harjms

Can you update us all if you have an electrician come out and fix?

I’d like an update as well. I have a hunch the electrician is going to rip it all out and redo the whole thing to code. As-is this seems like a pretty serious hazard.