I have several spots in my house where the three way is not where I want the smart switch. Is there a way to install one of these switches in place of one of the 4 ways or would that require I also replace the 3 way as well as the 4 way? For example I want the switch in my kitchen that turns on the family room lights to be a LZW31 but it is a 4 way currently. Am I making sense ?
Lol, not completely. I understand you want to put an Inovelli switch in place of one of the switches in a 4-way to control something else.
1 - What are you trying to control, and what type of switch leg is it on? i.e 2-way, 3-way.
2 - What is the 4-way presently controlling?
3 - What hub are you using?
Okay. So there are a total of 5 switches that control the hallway lights in my house. (The lights are recessed LEDs in the ceiling) The switch with line is all the way next to the laundry room and never used much. Then there are 3 (4 way ) with one in the kitchen and the one that is used the most. The switch with load on it is again in a weird location and also not used much.
I want to have the smart switch in that kitchen location because that is where I would want to initiate scenes and view the notification LED.
I use Home Assistant if that matters here.
Ok, see if this is close.
You have a 6-way leg controlling your hallway lights. The panel feed to this leg with the switch next to the laundry room. Continuing with this leg there are three 4-way switches I think in the kitchen and then finally a 3-way switch which also has the load to the lights.
You want to put an Inovelli in one of the kitchen switches, taking it out of the 6-way leg, to act as a scene controller and present notifications?
Close?
You got it except I dont want to take it out I want it to still control the hallway lights.
That’s going to be tough with dumb switches. The problem is that with the exception of that first 3-way switch in the chain (which is out of the way and of no value here) every other switch has the hot alternating between one of the 2 travelers. So as-is, there wouldn’t be any way to power the Inovelli.
If the 2nd switch in the chain (which will be a 4-way switch) is in an acceptable location, you could take the first switch out of the leg, but that would render that switch as inoperable. Now you have power full time at the 2nd location and you could put the Inovelli there as the first switch in the chain.
You can also put an Inovelli in the Kitchen in one location and use Aux switches in the rest, including the first out of place switch.
You can’t do it using the existing 4-way switches. You could possibly do it using Aux switches. The possibility of doing it depends on how the wiring is physically run. If you have a 3 conductor cable running from switch to switch then you should be able to do it.
So if I want to switch a current dumb 4-way to a smart switch what is the way to do it? If I swapped all out for smart switches would that work.? Aux Switch has been mentioned. But that doesn’t allow me to see the awesome notifications.
So you would send a hot an neutral to each switch as opposed to the traditional dumb switch wiring. But you then have to “link” the switches together via Zwave association. There are a few drawbacks. See below. Inovelli is working on some of them so the link may not be completely up to date.
In your case the wiring would look like this:
Ok. Thanks all for the information here. This has been my blocker since I moved into this house. Almost every location where I WANT a smart switch is a dang 4-way. Wish I could cut and paste my switches…
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If you only want the LZW31 to be in the kitchen (like you first posted) then using aux switches would allow you to do that.
If you want notifications at all locations then installing smart switches or dimmers at all locations and associating them is the way to do it.
So here is how you can do it with Auxs and 1 Inovelli in the kitchen. The Inovelli can really be in any of the positions.
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From the panel you send the hot to the Inovelli over the black.
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From the Inovelli on, you send the load to the light over the black
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Neutrals are sent throughout over the white
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Travelers are sent throughout over the red
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Hey Thanks Bry. I am still not sure what I will do with this as it sounded like they were really trying to push the Aux’s for this year. I may have to just work on other parts of the house and see what happens.
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