Re: New technology wall switch dimmers?

["none" <none@xxxxxxxxxx>]

"Charles Sullivan" <cwsulliv@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:pan.2006.02.19.17.29.22.300242@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> There has been a lot of discussion here recently about newer
> HA technologies (Insteon, ZigBee, Z-wave, etc) replacing X10.
>
> Which, if any, of these newer technologies offer (or have the
> capability of offering) wall switch dimmers which don't require
> a neutral wire in the switch box?
>
> Plug-in dimmers are fine, but I have many more (X10) wall switch
> dimmers installed in my house.  As far as I can recall, none of
> the switch boxes have a neutral wire and it would be prohibitively
> expensive to have them rewired.  And I suspect that the switch
> boxes in most houses don't have a neutral wire.
>
> It seems to me that any HA technology which doesn't or can't offer
> wall switches that work without a neutral won't get very far,
> except possibly when pre-planned for in new construction.

You are greatly underestimating the number of homes with neutral wires.

While I could not find an exact date for when the NEC required neutral wires
what I did find says it is common for homes after 1965 to have a neutral
wire at the switch box. How many millions of homes have been built since
1965?

If you're unwilling to upgrade your old wiring (which is not that hard or
expensive, rewiring has been going on for decades, there are many tools and
techniques developed just for the purpose), then there will always be the
old X10 switches that are compatible with 2 wire wiring. There are many
reasons the newer stuff requires a neutral wire and always will. (And one of
those reasons is that there is actually very little demand for 2 wire
automated switches)

You sound like a guy who's upset the latest software won't run on his old
386 PC with windows 3.1.



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