I’ve spent an hour or so searching through the forum for my answer but I can’t quite seem to find what I need. I have a switch that controls an outlet. My goal would be to change out the dumb switch that is currently installed with a red series on/off and used the switch to control something completely different while power is constantly run to the outlet. I am seeing similar situations but most involve two switches for the outlet. Any help with what terms to search would be greatly appreciated.
Just so I understand, do you plan to control the other device via zwave associations or are you looking to control it via load on the switch?
If you don’t care for the switch to control anything at that outlet, you can buy a new outlet and Xxx Series switch. You’ll wire the outlet normally and the wire your xxx series switch with line and neutral only. The switch won’t control anything until you program it on the hub.
You can set the switch to smart bulb mode then it will leave the power to the outlet always on. Then you can either do zwave association or automations through a hub to control other devices.
I have a similar situation in my living room (small older house)… In the switch box (neutral available), I hard-wired the hots to provide constant downstream power to the outlet, but added a new pigtail to that connection as line-hot to the smart switch (currently zooz z71, soon to be Blue).
That way, the outlet can be used for any load completely independent of the switch.
The switch has no load wired up and is in smart-bulb mode – the allows me to use it as a scene controller for the various plug-in (smart-bulb / smart plug) lights in the living room (or whatever else I want).
The way I have set the room up, the outlet is difficult to plug anything in to, but I could for sure access it to change it out for a new one if that’s the best bet. I don’t ever plan on restoring the functionality of the switched outlet as there is also a ceiling fan light in the same small room that will be used primarily. I don’t have anything specific planned as far as what I want the new switch to do, but I’m thinking along the lines of having it control a hue light or two at most. Maybe if I get really exciting it could trigger some scenes around the house in the future. My end goal would be to have a functioning smart on/off switch and a usable outlet that is independent.
You may want to do that regardless as the switch may be wired as a switch loop. You’ll want to rewire the outlet (might as well swap out outlet with new one and no broken tabs) if it is wired as a switch loop. You’ll need to send line and neutral to the Blue series switch to make it work properly.
All done. I replaced the outlet, capped off the (now) unnecessary wire. It works just like it should with no problems. I replaced the switch with a red series on/off with just the line/neutrals connected (load capped) and successfully added it to my HA install. When the time comes I can have it control a smart bulb or scene, correct? Thank you for all of your help.
Correct. You may just want to activate smart bulb mode (edit: disregard with LZW30 series) or ensure switch is off and disable local control. I can’t remember if the otter one allows you send send scenes if not in SBM.