Question: does the Inovelli Red series on/off switch “go to sleep” if it can’t sense a load?
Background: I’ve had it wired up for a few days to an outlet via extension cord with only Line and Neutral terminals connected (and Ground). I’ve observed a few times where its indicator light is off instead of blue, and only by pressing the On side of the paddle can I return the switch to a working state (the Off side has no effect in this scenario).
If it matters, in this scenario some automations have run on the Z-wave mesh since the last time the switch was used manually. The longest time span that the switch has gone between a manual use and the next command on the mesh is about 7 hours.
How long does the LED stay on? I’ve noticed a bug with the switch where if you set the OFF state LED brightness to 0, the LED will only stay on for about 7 seconds. I had to factory reset the switch to correct this, leaving the OFF state brightness untouched. Factory reset your switch and see if the problem remains.
I haven’t altered any out-of-the-box settings like LED brightness.
RE: how long it stays on, it’s been about 4h since I posted this issue and the LED hasn’t gone out during that time and the problem hasn’t reproduced. So I don’t think my observation is related to default or altered settings.
Given that I haven’t found any other mention of this issue, I lean toward either (a) interactions with my specific Z-wave mesh / hub, or (b) the fact that there is no load on my switch. These factors seem to make me semi-unique.
I had my switch on my bench with no load for around a day and a half and as far as I noticed it was blue unless I had triggered it from Home Assistant. I never noticed the indicator being off.
At a 2nd location in my house I have a standard paddle switch, with just 2 conductors and no ground, with Line and Load terminals wired up (no Neutral). I plan to replace with a 2nd Inovelli, but to wire up Line and Neutral because once again all I care for is powering the Z-wave radio and indicator lights and such.
So I’d effectively move the Load wire to Neutral. Is that feasible? I’m not convinced that wiring Line + Load instead would give the electronics inside the switch any power.
Hopefully the box is grounded, but that’s another story…
This is what would be called a “Switch leg”. Both of those wires are carrying current from the source to the lights. This situation is exactly what the “no neutral required” switches are for, but they would have to be wired to the lamps in the circuit. Since you don’t actually want to run a load off the switch you will have to rewire the switch leg to just be a constant hot and a constant neutral.
In your scenario, you will have to find the other end of that wire and connect the white to another known neutral. Wiring your switch in there as it is will cause the device to try to draw current through the switch in a way it’s not designed for. I hope that makes sense.
There is no white wire in the box. There are only two conductors, both with black insulation under individual mesh sheaths. There is a 120V potential between them.
I assume this is very old school, possibly original to the house. The outlets in this part of the house are ungrounded and the switch was connected “back stab” style.
Note: I just tested out wiring the Inovelli using the Line and Neutral terminals, and the switch powers up. With this setup, the switch becomes an always-on passthrough and if I unscrew the lone bulb on the lighting circuit, the circuit is incomplete and the switch loses power.
That’s interesting that it will run like that. Is the light on or off with the switch in the circuit? Something tells me this is probably an unintended and untested mode of operation. Since the switch draws so little power that they could design in the no neutral required options, it’s probably not the end of the world, but you’re probably not making the guys at UL happy
Do you need the lightbulb in this room or this specific ciruit? You can probably open up the box it’s installed in and bypass it, or even put a z-wave micro relay inside the fixture if you do still need that bulb.
The light bulb is off even though the bulb itself needs to be screwed in to complete the circuit. Weird.
But no, I don’t need that bulb to function. It’s in a sub-optimal location and I’ve previously hung LED shop lights which make it unnecessary. (It’s a boiler/laundry room)
It’s definitely a non-intuitive setup; some future homeowner will be very very confused if I stick with this but don’t document it.
