Do I have a neutral wire? Smart Switch Question.

sprite- · 8 Apr 2021 at 22:14

Little help please chaps. Automating house currently, all bulbs now WiFi, external cameras, ring, WiFi builds in outdoor waterproof lights and have routines based in camera motion, echos of some type in every room etc. Now I want to put in smart light switches, also I'm a complete electrical noob.

Turned off electrics today to see what wires had behind switches. Got 2 brown going in and one blue capped off, plus a yellow and green not going into the main switch itself.

Does that mean I have a neutral? And just need to uncap it and then easy for me to install smart light switches which require neutral?

Seperate question: any recommendations on smart switches which have physical switches (1, 2 and 3 gang).

Thanks

gpuerrilla · 8 Apr 2021 at 22:43

Its a three-wire light. The two neutrals connect at the connector block.

sprite- · 8 Apr 2021 at 22:45

Th0nt said:
Its a three-wire light. The two neutrals connect at the connector block.

Yeah not sure what that means sorry.... All I know is having a neutral is handy for smart light switches. So is it that I take one of the three neutral wires and plug that into the smart switch?

Hyburnate · 8 Apr 2021 at 22:48

Yes the neutrals are the blue.

ZG002 · 8 Apr 2021 at 23:04

Yes you have a neutral at the switch, you have a loop in and out and Switch wire.

Make sure all the blues stay connected and the two browns that are currently together need to stay connected also.

gpuerrilla · 8 Apr 2021 at 23:06

Sorry I have never installed a smart switch I will have to catch up (on that).

When you say your an electrical noob, I am only concerned as this arrangement is usually for rooms that have say a light switch at either side of the room - so you will need to replace the switches of both sockets with multi-pole.

ZG002 · 8 Apr 2021 at 23:10

Th0nt said:
Sorry I have never installed a smart switch I will have to catch up (on that).

When you say your an electrical noob, I am only concerned as this arrangement is usually for rooms that have say a light switch at either side of the room - so you will need to replace the switches of both sockets with multi-pole.

It isn't, it's a two way switch but it's not actually wired for two way, just loop in and loop out are connected together then the switch wire is in the common feeding the light.

gpuerrilla · 8 Apr 2021 at 23:22

ZG002 said:
It isn't, it's a two way switch but it's not actually wired for two way, just loop in and loop out are connected together then the switch wire is in the common feeding the light.

Ahh well panic over (for me) then!

200sols · 9 Apr 2021 at 06:38

The switched live should be sheathed to identify it really, if you start messing around you really don't want to forget which one it is.

Semple · 9 Apr 2021 at 09:32

sprite- said:
So is it that I take one of the three neutral wires and plug that into the smart switch?

I think all three neutral wires have to stay connected. You could either connect all three wires to the switch if space allows, or run a single wire from the block to the switch - the former preferred due to less connections.

Is your smart switch wifi or Zigbee? If it's wifi i'd be interested to see how well it works being surrounded by an earthed steel box.

200sols · 9 Apr 2021 at 11:17

I'd ditch the block and use a wago connector and run a single wire into the switch.

Zeeflyboy · 9 Apr 2021 at 11:27

+1 for wago connectors, they helped a lot installing my qubinos. I’d always got the single wire route to the module as they tend to be pretty slimline with small connectors.

Also if anyone does run into just a switched live arrangement you can use a fibaro dimmer module as that doesn’t require a neutral to work.

When you do have a dual switch arrangement it’s usually actually pretty simple, will vary from module to module but most will have a second and/or 3rd switch input so you just use the existing wiring in a slightly different way giving a live route to the second/third switch and then returning that to L2 or L3 on the module (or as per the module’s instructions).

metal back box won’t do your signal any favours and it is useful to have a bit more depth to play with when cramming everything back in... where needed I’d modify a plastic back box to fit, and you can always chisel out a bit more room if needed.