ESP8266 Community Forum

- Wed Aug 29, 2018 3:37 am #77976 I would also check your existing wiring in the light switches first.

In the UK, traditionally light switch wiring fed the live wire down to the switch from the light and the switched returned a 'switched live' back to power the light. In this case there was no neutral available at the light switch itself which complicates powering any smarts inside the switch. It can be done but this relies on using a trickle current across the switch even when it is off.

More recent builds in the UK do have the lighting wiring arranged to give a neutral connection at the light switch even though it is not used for dumb switches.

The Sonoff units require the neutral connection.

If your zWave unit also used a neutral connection then it is likely that you will be OK. However, there are some zWave units that use trickle current powering, as does the LightwaveRF scheme.

- Wed Aug 29, 2018 4:49 am #77979

I would also check your existing wiring in the light switches first.

In the UK, traditionally light switch wiring fed the live wire down to the switch from the light and the switched returned a 'switched live' back to power the light. In this case there was no neutral available at the light switch itself which complicates powering any smarts inside the switch. It can be done but this relies on using a trickle current across the switch even when it is off.

More recent builds in the UK do have the lighting wiring arranged to give a neutral connection at the light switch even though it is not used for dumb switches.

The Sonoff units require the neutral connection.

If your zWave unit also used a neutral connection then it is likely that you will be OK. However, there are some zWave units that use trickle current powering, as does the LightwaveRF scheme.

Thanks for the responses guys. Thankfully I'm in a new build so do have the neutral available which makes life easier!

As to why I want to build it myself instead of using a Sonoff: I'm led to believe the Sonoff are a bit too big for inside the light switch wall box and I don't want to replace my light switches as they are nice metal finish ones, so that counts out the Sonos T1 route.

Also, I think it would be a good project to code myself, learning something new at the same time.

- Wed Aug 29, 2018 5:07 am #77983 I thought UK law changed some years back which requires all house mains wiring work to be done by certified electricians. Just a warning, if this is so, you may invalidate your building insurance.

- Wed Aug 29, 2018 5:10 am #77984

I thought UK law changed some years back which requires all house mains wiring work to be done by certified electricians. Just a warning, if this is so, you may invalidate your building insurance.

Nope, not the case. Some work is notifiable and needs signing off but changing light switches over etc doesn't fall under that.