Hello, for the life of me I cannot figure out how to wire red series presence dimmer. I am putting the aux switch in my laundry room and the dimmer in the hallway as the hallway has the line. First picture is current dumb switch in my laundry room that has red, black (attached to common) and white wires.
Other pictures is of my hallway box. The switch controlling the lights is on the left. Two black wires and red traveler. The black wire on the gold screw is the line (attached to a bundle of black wires in the box). The black wire on the black screw is from the traveler that goes to the laundry room box. Red also goes to the laundry room box. The white wire that is attached to the laundry room box is attached to a bundle of other white wires in the hallway box.
I believe I have tried every combination but the lights still won’t turn on. What confuses me is how it is hooked up now, the laundry room white wire on the switch is always hot. When I turn on the lights then all three wires on the laundry switch turn hot. I also cannot pinpoint the actual load wire since it is currently in the bundle of black wires in the hallway box. I believe I am trying to follow the wiring diagram for line/load in same box. Any help appreciated.
You’re a bit mixed up. The 2 gang Hallway box is the Line box as you surmised. However, the Line is the black conductor connected to the black (common) screw, as it should be. So your Line is NOT on the brass screw as you described. Power is then toggled over one of the two black and red travelers on the 3-wire.
I don’t know why the white in the Laundry Room is always hot, if that’s really the case. That doesn’t make sense. You’d have to test with the conductors all removed from the switches to be sure, as a switched hot will sometimes lead you in the wrong direction. As you can see from the “before” drawing below, the white will be hot with the Hallway switch in one position. With the Hallway switch in the other position, the black becomes hot (and the white is not).
Based on the fact that you have standard line wiring in the 2-gang hallway box and ONLY a 3-wire in the laundry room box (i.e. all three conductors from the 3-wire are connected to the switch), that suggests lights in the middle, or what Inovelli calls Load in Both Boxes.
Ah yes, you are correct. The white is only hot when the hall switch is a certain position. As these are canned lights in the room I am trying to use the switches on, how do I go about rewiring those? Would it be easier to just go smart bulb mode?
I’m not sure I understand your question. I posted a wiring diagram. However, that requires re-wiring at the first light. Are you saying that because they are cans you can’t get to the light to re-wire and are looking for an alternative?
Correct, I see in the wiring diagram that rewiring is needed. I am not sure based off of that diagram how I would rewire the cans to make it work. Attached is picture of the can wiring. I’m assuming there is more that I can’t see behind the can itself. Would smart bulbs be able to work in this situation in order to avoid rewiring? Thanks again for your help
Yeah, there’s a junction box above the can in the ceiling. There’s three screws in your picture that should be able to be unscrewed to detach the can from the ceiling and pull it out (a metal cable whip will keep it dangling to the junction box). I’d probably suggest an electrician for any rewiring here since the can removal and reinstallation is likely a pain and wiring in that junction box will be cramped.
What @rohan said. Plus it will get more complicated as you have to find the first light to do the re-wiring.
You can definitely make this a 2-way by bundling two conductors in the Laundry Room box.
Is the Laundry Room a single-gang box or are there more switches in it? If the box is a multi-gang AND there is a constant hot and neutral in it, you can independently power a second Inovelli and then associate the two switches using Zwave associations if your hub supports it.
The laundry room is a three gang box but the other two switches are for the garage on a different circuit. I actually already have a different smart switch already installed to control the garage lights upon door opening.
Maybe it would be better for me to switch to red/blue dimmer and install that in the hallway and keep the dumb switch in the laundry room. I would just use a different motion/presence sensor to trigger the lights to turn on. If I am reading the diagram correctly for the red/blue dimmer, I would not have to rewire the load?
I don’t think you’re understanding the concept I suggested.
Keep the Red dimmer in the Hallway. You connect 2 conductors together in the Laundry Room box to make the Red dimmer in the Hallway a 2-way.
Add a Red dimmer in the Laundry Room. You just need a hot and a neutral there. It doesn’t matter if the power in the box is on a different branch circuit. You’re just powering the switch with no load.
You use Zwave associations to bind the two switches together to that both control the light.
There is no advantage that I can think of to switch to Blues, unless you would rather do Zigbee binding instead of Zwave associations. (Your hub has to support at least one of these.)
Not possible without re-wiring at the light.
Red and Blue, both dimmer and presence, all wire the same. They all require re-wiring at the light.
