I’m looking forward to receiving my pre-order Blue dimmers.
I’m running them for ceiling fan lights, and my switch box doesn’t have a neutral as the house is older.
I understand that whether a bypass is needed depends on load. The switch controls an array of 6 LED downlights, each of which is ~8-10W. I’m assuming they are all wired together.
Does this mean that the full load is likely 48-60w and a bypass likely isn’t needed? Or is this a case where the first LED in the array may flicker or turn on because its individual load is less than 20w?
Probably not required based on the wattage. But TBH, with LEDs you really never know until you wire it. Plus there is not an established track record yet with the Blues, so it’s difficult to speak from experience.
One thing to remember is that the switch needs to bleed flowing power even when the lights are off, so the 10W load must be present AT ALL TIMES in order to work properly. I’d recommend you have a bypass, but as others have said it MIGHT work without.
If you get smart bulbs for them all that draw load at all times for their radio, you might have a better shot for it working OOTB. SBM + Hue is pretty slick on these switches.
Thanks. I’m going to have an electrician handle, but I want to understand how this works myself:
10w load is pretty minimal, but if that is flowing through a series of downlights, does the electrical path follow the first light (shortest way to make a circuit), or is it split between the 8 lights in the series?
I believe my setup is similar to the attached picture. If I use a bypass, is the proper point of installation illustrated in the BLUE box here, to create a circuit before any of the lights?
Since the lights are wired in parallel, I don’t believe it matters, but you’d be fine putting it in the first light box.
I would just buy the Aeotec bypass instead of letting your electrician source it. That way you have the proper one and won’t pay a markup. They’re available on the Inovelli site as well as many other places.
Just curious, if the lights were wired in series rather parallel, would it then matter? Would the guidance be to install the bypass at the first or last bulb (or something more exotic, such as every light needing a separate bypass)?
They won’t be wired in series because they would not work if they were. Each of your bulbs needs 120 volts and to achieve that they have to be wired in parallel.
