I have a switch in my garage that goes to some exterior low wattage halogen bulbs (3) for night time lighting of the driveway. Does Zooz make an on/off switch I can install in an outlet with no neutral wire? I’ll swap the halogens with LEDs if needed, but I’m not sure about how to wire a z-wave switch to only two wires (or if something like that is even made)
Thanks in advance for any advice!
Steve
Is that outlet there and that switch on the same circuit?
If so, just pigtail a neutral for the switch from the one feeding that outlet.
But if they are on different circuits, do NOT do that - don’t ever mix neutrals across circuits.
ETA - if pigtailing a neutral can work here, doublecheck the halogen load with the desired switch you want to use before you buy it - a halogen load can be problematic with some switches.
They are on completely different circuits.
When I had an electrician wire my garage, I applied for a permit to pull a dedicated 50-amp circuit into a sub-panel, than ran four separate 15 amp circuits and this one light to the front of the garage (silly builders in the 90’s only put power for one ceiling light, the garage door opener, and a single outlet in the garage. I needed more than this.
I was also planning on an electric car charger coming off that sub-panel eventually, but that hasn’t happened yet.
As much as I hate to, I may just leave that as a manual switch, as I’d have to tear out sheetrock and get an electrician to help me wire a neutral wire to that circuit.
You could do it with a ZEN52 (or similar) relay device mounted in another junction box where line load and neutral exist. Use ZEN52 contacts to make and break line to load connections. Then in the switch box steal power from the GFCI to power an on/off switch (Zen73 with no load attached) which you then use as a scene controller talking to the ZEN52. You didn’t mention a hub brand but there you could setup direct association so the switches work together even if the hub is down.
You could probably use a ZEN73 alone and just steal the neutral from the GFCI even though it is a different circuit. The current draw of the ZEN73 neutral is minimal and there is zero risk of overloading the neutral wire. The load neutral is properly supplied elsewhere in the wiring of the home. It might not be NEC kosher but there are far worse violations in multi-gang boxes with bundles of neutral wires commingled under a single wire nut.
Note the neutral connection must be upstream from the GFCI outlet–not on the load side where additional outlets can be wired–or the GFCI will probably trip. But check that the breakers in the branch panel aren’t GF (ground fault) or AF (arc fault) breakers for the same reason. If the panel is fairly new, I wouldn’t be surprised by that, as it is current code.
You’re right: it isn’t. It also isn’t code that the power supplying the light didn’t come into the box, go through the switch, and on to the light–and the accompanying neutral for that circuit is with the line side.
@sparker, as your picture shows two black wires going to the switch (and assuming the circuit was wired with Romex, not individual wires run through a conduit), I’d double check your assumption the neutral isn’t there somewhere!
Disclaimer: I’m not a licensed electrician and this is not professional advice. If you have any question at all, you should consult same.
I agree. The fact that the switch was two black wires is a clue. If the switch were a dead end switch fed by NM cable then the switch would have a black wire on one end and a white wire (marked with black tape or some marking to identify it as not a neutral). Since that isn’t the case there must be at least two white wire lurking in the shadows………
I’ll pull everything out of the box tomorrow and post a picture.
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I pulled all the wiring for the switch, and the outlet (each on their own circuit), and it turns out that above and behind the “spark box” (the white plastic insert we were required by local inspector to install), there is actually a neutral. You could not see it at all unless you pulled ALL the wiring out of the box.
So “mea culpa” for not pulling everything out of the outlet at the outset. Thanks to everybody for the responses!!!
For what’s next, I’ve read that I can’t install my ZEN-71 switch here since there are three 3-watt halogen floodlight bulbs in three 3.5” cans in this string. Can I use a ZEN-75, or am I going to need to pull the entire can’s and replace them with LED cans?
You’ve probably already read this article, that warns in general against using (most) Zooz switches/dimmers with halogen bulbs. As for the ZEN75, it looks to me this switch is an exception to that rule. Its description indicates it will handle halogen bulbs up to 350 watts. The fact the switch has a “smart bulb mode” tells me it uses a relay–rather than solid state switching–to control the load. This would account for why the ZEN75 can handle the higher inrush current generated by halogen lamps and rules out the ZEN75 using solid state switching. The article about ZEN75 supported loads also speaks to this issue.
Perhaps @Sara can let us know if I’m on the right track! 
