Switches
(unfinished)
Switches are one of the staples of every automation system, and there’s a lot to consider:
- what sort of load you’ll have on the switch
- how your wiring is
- multi-way switching
- switch vs dimmer
- leading edge vs trailing edge dimmers
Switch loading
Lighting
Your first thought about switches will more than likely be about lights. When it comes to switching lights, there are a few things to keep in mind. Light switches and dimmers will always have a max load rating. For light switches and dimmers, they’ll have separate max watt rating for LED vs incadescent bulbs. These matter because dimming bulbs generates extra heat at the switch that needs to be dissipated. Some switches will even have breakway tabs on either end of the switch to force separation between switches, and even more max watt ratings depending on if you leave the tabs on one or both sides of the switch. You definitely want to pay attention to that for safety. This will usually be around 150W for LED and 600W for incadescent bulbs.
Fluorescent lights
Just a note, Fluorescent lights do not play well with dimmer switches! You need to use an on/off only switch with Fluorescent bulbs
Variable speed ceiling fans
Ceiling fan smart switches often look very similar/exactly the same as a light dimmer, however the internals are different. You should not use a light dimming switch as a variable speed fan controller! Read this post if you want to fully understand why not. I use a z-wave homeseer hs-fc200+ to control my ceiling fans.
Exhaust fans
Any switch that supports high amperage resistive loads should work fine with exhaust fans.
Other switched loads
You may also have switches for other things…
Your existing electrical wiring
If you’re lucky, your wire goes from your electrical panel to the switch and then on to the switched fixture. If you’re unlucky, your wire goes from your electrical panel to the switched fixture and then the hot wire goes to the switch.
Smart switches require electricity to run. If your neutral wire goes to the switch, you can tie your switch in with the neutral wire and have it powered separately from the power for the switched fixture.
If you have the first setup, you can use any switch you want. If you no neutral at the switch, your options become more limited.
multi-way switching
There are several different ways that smart switches do multi-way switching.
Insteon
- Two switches. One controls the light, the other controls nothing
- The switches are linked as controllers to each other
- For me, the response of the dummy switch has always been instant
- requires a neutral wire and paying attention to how you reuse your traveler wires for powering the second switch
Lutron
- One normal switch, one pico switch
- Pico is like a TV remote. You can get a faceplate to put in a normal outlet
- doesn’t require a neutral wire
Z-Wave
- One switch controls the light
- Often work with a traveler wire for dummy switches
- I have not tried any z-wave 3-way switching
Leading edge vs trailing edge dimmers
A/C switch dimmers work by cutting off part of the AC waveform so that light bulbs don’t get full power causing them to dim. If you think of the AC waveform as a bell, there are two ways to cut off part of the waveform. As it goes from 0 to the peak (leading-edge), or from peak to 0 (trailing edge).
Leading edge dimmers:
- most common
- usually have a minimum load rating
Leading edge dimmers are the most common type of dimmers. They work by They are meant to be used with incandescent bulbs. Trailing edge dimmers are much harder to find and much more expensive. Lutron is an example of a company that makes them.
If you want some more in-depth details, read: https://www.artisticcontrols.com/articles/leading-edge-dimmer-vs-trailing-edge-dimmer/
My setup
I’ve used:
- Insteon
- GE switches
- Zooz zen30
When I first started wiring my place up, Insteon was the big player in town that was still reasonably priced. I’m now moving more towards Z-Wave devices. See my Insteon blog post for more information on them.