I'm planning on retrofitting an existing house. It's a rented place and some of the wiring goes through brick and concrete so I'm not going to be running any more wiring.
Currently my kit consists of fairly simple stuff. A Logitech Harmony smart hub for the AV gear, a nest thermostat and in the living room an Auraglow IR controlled light bulb. I've hacked about on the harmony such that my Synology NAS now runs scheduled tasks to control the light bulb, there's more detail here including my modified version of the HarmonyHubControl project which is /much/ faster.
I also have a LimitlessLED/milight kit on its way, as well as a Z Wave USB dongle that I intend to use with the Synology NAS.
Anyway, I want to fit a smart switch, but of course I need a neutral feed for that, however what I don't need is any physical switching between the lightswitch and the bulb. If I have the smart switch report back to my Synology NAS via Z-Wave, and then the NAS tell the bulb what to do, then I can reduce the number of wires going to the switch.
Looking at my ceiling roses the wiring is as follows:
Neutral terminal block:
O - Neutral feed from ring main
O - Neutral feed to rest of ring main
O - Bulb
Live terminal block
O - Live feed from ring main
O - Live feed to ring main
O - Live feed to light switch
Switched terminal block
O - Switched live from light switch
O - Bulb
My plan is to rewire the ceiling rose as follows
Neutral terminal block:
O - Neutral feed from ring main (untouched)
O - Neutral feed to rest of ring main (untouched)
OO - Bulb + neutral feed from light switch (formerly switched live - will need black tape on the red wire)
Live terminal block:
O - Live feed from ring main (untouched)
O - Live feed to ring main (untouched)
OO - Live feed to light switch + Bulb
Switched terminal block: no-longer connected.
I then ignore the physical switch in any smart switch I buy, and treat the two wires in my light switch wiring as the live and neutral feed because they're now hardwired to the live and neutral in my house's lighting circuit.
Only disadvantages I can see of this system are that if someone ever puts in a "dumb" light bulb then it will be permanently on, and by extension I have no actual physical control over the lighting, only wireless control. But I'm not too worried about this. I guess another slight advantage is that there's no 240V sparks in my switches, so less worry about gas leaks. Also any electrician that looks at my wiring is going to be rather confused, and if a standard switch is fitted without rewiring the ceiling rose, it'll connect live to neutral and throw the breaker, but my landlord's sparky is used to me by now, and I'll likely tell him what I've done just out of courtesy.
Can anyone spot any problems with my plan? Here's a crappy MS Paint circuit diagram done on a touchpad which hopefully may make the idea more clear.
Currently my kit consists of fairly simple stuff. A Logitech Harmony smart hub for the AV gear, a nest thermostat and in the living room an Auraglow IR controlled light bulb. I've hacked about on the harmony such that my Synology NAS now runs scheduled tasks to control the light bulb, there's more detail here including my modified version of the HarmonyHubControl project which is /much/ faster.
I also have a LimitlessLED/milight kit on its way, as well as a Z Wave USB dongle that I intend to use with the Synology NAS.
Anyway, I want to fit a smart switch, but of course I need a neutral feed for that, however what I don't need is any physical switching between the lightswitch and the bulb. If I have the smart switch report back to my Synology NAS via Z-Wave, and then the NAS tell the bulb what to do, then I can reduce the number of wires going to the switch.
Looking at my ceiling roses the wiring is as follows:
Neutral terminal block:
O - Neutral feed from ring main
O - Neutral feed to rest of ring main
O - Bulb
Live terminal block
O - Live feed from ring main
O - Live feed to ring main
O - Live feed to light switch
Switched terminal block
O - Switched live from light switch
O - Bulb
My plan is to rewire the ceiling rose as follows
Neutral terminal block:
O - Neutral feed from ring main (untouched)
O - Neutral feed to rest of ring main (untouched)
OO - Bulb + neutral feed from light switch (formerly switched live - will need black tape on the red wire)
Live terminal block:
O - Live feed from ring main (untouched)
O - Live feed to ring main (untouched)
OO - Live feed to light switch + Bulb
Switched terminal block: no-longer connected.
I then ignore the physical switch in any smart switch I buy, and treat the two wires in my light switch wiring as the live and neutral feed because they're now hardwired to the live and neutral in my house's lighting circuit.
Only disadvantages I can see of this system are that if someone ever puts in a "dumb" light bulb then it will be permanently on, and by extension I have no actual physical control over the lighting, only wireless control. But I'm not too worried about this. I guess another slight advantage is that there's no 240V sparks in my switches, so less worry about gas leaks. Also any electrician that looks at my wiring is going to be rather confused, and if a standard switch is fitted without rewiring the ceiling rose, it'll connect live to neutral and throw the breaker, but my landlord's sparky is used to me by now, and I'll likely tell him what I've done just out of courtesy.
Can anyone spot any problems with my plan? Here's a crappy MS Paint circuit diagram done on a touchpad which hopefully may make the idea more clear.
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