I was disappointed because the description says that this switch won’t have a non-neutral version. However, as I was looking at the wiring diagram I realized that the way this switch works it doesn’t matter if your existing setup has neutral wire or not. The electrical circuit is the same for this setup if your source coming into the switch box first or the ceiling box first. I edited the wiring diagram to move the source lines from wire nuts in the box to the wire nuts in the light to demonstrate.
The wiring circuit diagram shows that they really are the same electrically, regardless of whether the source comes in at the light box or the switch box.
Even if you had an extra wire running from the light/fan to the switch, there shouldn’t be an issue as you could just cap the end at the switch. As long as you have two wires that run between the switch box and the light box you can make this work and I think that the only houses where it couldn’t work would have very non-standard wiring. I think even ancient knob and tube wiring could work with this switch. Is there a wiring setup that I’m missing?
I think calling out “neutral wire required” may be confusing to some potential customers since we normally consider “neutral wire required” to mean the source wires enter at the switch box, not the light box.
Let me check with the engineers on this one, but the reason a neutral wire is required is because it’s needed to keep the Z-Wave chip inside the switch powered.
In the non-neutral setting our dimmers allow for some power to trickle to the switch and this isn’t built into the canopy module so that’s why we’re recommending a neutral wire.
I’m not an electrician by any means so I want to verify this, but my understanding is that a neutral is required at this time.
However, yes, I believe if you have power originating from the light, it should work, thanks for pointing that out!
Great question - we have a tech sheet that we’ve requested various parameters on, but they may change prior to launch so we haven’t released it yet.
Would it be helpful to share it even though they may change? I’m happy to do so if so, I just didn’t want to confuse everyone!
As for the beta tester question, yes, we’re all set for this round, but I’ll definitely keep you in mind for future projects!
Yes, we definitely will work thru this problem with this switch. We’re also working on patching up that issue and sending out an update shortly. The manufacturer has a list of these issues/enhancements but they are delayed due to the health issues over in China.
Yes, as long as the hub connects to Alexa, you’ll be able to control the fan and lights separately
I did some more digging and it looks like this switch should be able to work in any setup with parallel routing (line and neutral run together/near each other). Early knob and tube used direct routing to save money since it can require less wire, but eventually moved to parallel routing since it was much easier to troubleshoot and fix.
To add project Hurricane to an existing non-neutral switch circuit you essentially turn the load wire into a neutral wire by attaching it to the neutral wire instead of the fixture since the module takes the place of the load wire(s). So yes, it requires a neutral, but any house that doesn’t have early knob and tube wiring should be able to rework the circuit to work without running any new wires through the walls.
All subsequent generations of wiring run at least two wires together in the same bundle, so it’s only knob and tube wiring that gets tricky. You could safely state that it works with all wiring setups*. (except some early knob and tube installations, see your electrician if your wiring is older than 1920). That way those that normally see “neutral required” and turn away won’t think that this product wouldn’t work for them.
So in summary, yes a neutral wire is required, but just by changing the grouping of the wires at the module you turn your load wire into a neutral and you’re in business. I think calling out a neutral as required may confuse some customers that normally shop for “no neutral required” products.
Looking to get these for a few of my rooms but i have a large living room with one switch that controls 2 fans with lights. Will there be an option to add a second unit for the fan tied to the same switch? Or is there another way to do this?
UPDATE: I think I get it now, please correct me if I am wrong.
The new Hurricane switch will work fine for three fan functions “Fan Light On/Off / Fan Speed / & Fan On/Off” To do this with my fan listed below, I will replace the Hampton Bay Remote Reciever with the new one wiring the motor line to the fan motor / the light line to selected fan lights (or both to one wire) / and the neutral straight to the fan.
But If I want to seperate the lights, I will need to use the 4th wire (not counting ground) to connect the targeted light to a dimmer switch (like your red series paddle) if an extra wire is not available then I could install something like an Aeotec Z-Wave Dimmer Module in the Fan outlet box.
ORIGINAL QUESTION: BELOW
Sorry to bug you, but I am confused. Do I just switch out the my receiver unit with the new one?
Will your new hurricane switch/receiver unit work with my fan?
PS *I just ordered 8 of your Red Gen 2 Dimmer Paddle Switches as suggested by a helpful SmartThings Community member. The RGB Alerts sound simply amazing.
@oakwhisper You’re definitely correct that any “non-neutral” installation could be rewired at the fan to provide a line and neutral to the wall switch, exactly as your diagram shows. The “switch” actually has no physical relay, since that is handled at the receiver. I agree “neutral required” is a bit confusing, since while it is technically true, the installation can be easily modified. @Eric_Inovelli removing the “neutral required” could be good to scare off less customers and then provide some documentation with the switch that spells out how to remedy existing non-neutral installations. Though that’s probably more up to the lawyers and insurance.
@kagtha The wiring diagrams shown previously only has a single light control wire, so you’ll either need a custom solution of tying the two fan lights together and accepting they will both always be on together, or the nano dimmer you mentioned and tie it’s control to some scene combination at the switch.
Question, since I have 5 of these I will need soon:
If I direct wire the switch to the fan, but then wire in some can LED’s around the room, can I tie that LED circuit into the “Light” portion of the module (and neutral) and dim the lights for the entire room + light kit, assuming I stay under the max load rating of the switch?
They would have to be tied into the fan light circuit in the canopy the way this is wired, but yes it should work as long as all the lights are dimmable and don’t exceed the rated wattage.
Hey, yes on both questions. Right now, we’re looking at Mass Production to start April 17th (about a 3wk delay from the original date) due to COVID-19. The lead firmware engineer was stuck in quarantine for a bit (he cleared) but it stopped him from getting to HQ to work on the units firmware.
In addition, we ran into a snag with the OTA (over-the-air) capabilities on the switch (it kept failing) so they had to produce all new beta units, which caused a slight delay.
So, if I had to take an educated guess, with Mass Production starting on the 17th of April, it’ll likely be in the US in the first week of May.
So I have one on order for our seasonal (winter) home but it sounds like we’ll be back at our real place by the time it ships. Can I arrange for the shipping address to be changed if that is the case?
Thank you Eric! I always appreciate your candor and quick responses. Glad to hear that the lead engineer recovered and is out of quarantine. Everyone’s health and safety is the main thing to focus on right now.
Hey @keithInMI – we originally had a cutoff of the end of February, but we’ll be opening them back up for a limited time shortly due to the high demand (and emails we keep receiving) and bc we love you guys lol
NOTE: The above link will work by Friday (we’re in the process of building out the page on the new site).
link still not working