Current Scene: Basement - I have can lights in my basement. At the top of the stairs I have a switch that is wired w/ Black, White, Red and Ground (just a basic on/off switch). There is a set of neutral wires in a wire nut inside this box. At the bottom of the stairs, I have a switch w/ dimmer functionality (not a fancy switch, cheap basic dimmer switch) that has a Black, White, Red and Ground connected to the switch and there is not a neutral wire in the box. These are the only two switches that control the can lights.
I know the red wire is my traveler and ground is ground.
Not sure if this is applicable or not but I do have an electrical receptacle just below this switch.
I have 2 Inovelli switches (Gen 2 Black Dimmer - for bottom of stairs and a Gen 2 On/Off switch - for top of stairs).
This is where I’m stuck. If I had a neutral in the bottom of stair box, I would be golden.
What should be my best plan of action? Should l run a neutral from the top of stairs box (connect it to the existing neutral wires that are in a wire nut) to the bottom of stairs box that is missing a set of neutrals in the box?
Simply sending the neutral to the other box won’t work. You need the neutral AND the line in the box with the dimmer.
When you say there is a receptacle below the switch, do you mean upstairs or in the basement? You’re going to have to get a line and load where you want the dimmer. You’d have to sketch this out, but you might be able to remove the power source from upstairs and feed it downstairs since you can apparently get at that box…
BTW, I think you need to pair the dimmer with a dumb switch or a slave, not an Inovelli switch.
There is a recepticle just below my dimmer switch location at the bottom of the stairs in the basement.
When speaking with an electrician friend of mine, he mentioned that in some instances you can run a neutral from that electrical box. Although, it’s not highly recommended that you cross circuits.
For the upstairs switch that is in conjunction with my dimmer switch below; your recommendation is to have just a basic (non smart) switch here?
I would see if you can re-map the wiring to remove the power source from upstairs and provide it downstairs. Your electrician friend ought to be able to help with that.
For the upstairs switch, use either a dumb switch or a GE smart slave. You ought to be able to use a dumb switch but some here have posted and had issues which they resolved by using a slave.
