Insteon Smart On/Off Wall Switch, 1800W, 2477S (White) – Needs Neutral Wire – Requires Insteon Hub for Voice Control with Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant

WORKS With Old X-10 Devices!! SPECIAL NOTE: Connecting the white NEUTRAL WIRE
I would like to say this switch will work with extant X-10 devices. Don’t believe every review you see, some say it will and some say it won’t. I was skeptical but I had one 3-way circuit in my basement and the X-10s that worked well in the past had burned out, and didn’t respond to signals anymore. I had tried some of the after market X-10 knock-offs, but they only worked on the circuit they were a part of. The signal penetration to other circuits in my house didn’t go out anymore.So I replaced both switches from bad X-10s to these wired for 3-way circuits and they worked. However, you must realize a couple of things when you do this. These switches have only 3 wires and a naked ground wire, one is for line, one for load and one for neutral. These switches DO NOT use the TRAVELER WIRE used on your old X-10 3-way switch wiring. You simply leave that traveler in the wall, just tape it up and push it back out of the way. Insteon wiring is very simple and it has a very simple 7 step instruction sheet. If you just follow the instruction sheet and leave the traveler in the wall you can’t go wrong.*********SPECIAL NOTE ABOUT YOUR NEUTRAL WIRE*************:In some cases you will find that you are installing your new Insteon Switch and the house electrical box has no neutral wire to make a connection. This is not uncommon because in old fashioned 3-Way wiring (2 toggle switches controlling one Light), usually the most distant switch WILL NOT have a neutral because all 3 leads (Red Black and White) were necessary for conventional 3-Way circuit wiring to work.I had 2 distant switches with no Neutral Wire to be found. In this case you may solder your little white neutral wire from the Insteon Switch to the Switch’s Naked Ground Wire, then ground your switch to a naked copper ground wire present in your electrical box. I recommend soldering this connection because it is difficult to get the very small gage White Wire reliably connected any other way. If You just twist and wrap with tape you will probably get a shaky loose connection. This is called “Witching a Ground, or Witching a Neutral.” These insteon switches, just like the old X-10 Fluorescent require a neutral connection for the electronic circuitry to work in the switches. The circuitry only uses a few milliamps, and it’s in play all the time. Don’t worry, this will not bypass the circuit overload safety of the the fuse or breaker in your electrical panel, and in many cases it is necessary for the circuitry inside your switch to work.Keep in mind, the accidental shock hazard is practically zero in this SPECIAL CASE because the ungrounded circuit necessary to operate the electronics of the switch is self contained and encased in non-conductive plastic. If this low power circuit becomes defective, voltage cannot leak out to a conductive touch surface and result in a shock. It’s the same principal you see in a double insulated drill or jig saw. These hand tools do not use an equipment ground either and they are safe to operate because they have all plastic touch surfaces. Electrical defects will not result in leakage of electricity to the plastic touch surface. Yet equipment grounding is very important and essential in safe use of PLUGGED APPLIANCES with metal surfaces which will become electrified if their circuitry becomes defective and leaks current to metal touch surfaces. The circuitry of the Insteon switch is encased in plastic, yet some people might still object to combining its neutral wire with its ground.However, here is another way to accomplish this and be just as safe from accidental shock and not conflict with the NEC. Connection of the Neutral Wire is a much discussed topic and I don’t think anyone has mentioned this OTHER method in the comments section. I know a few commenters have stated they could not find any other way to make the switches work without Witching a Neutral to a ground wire. This idea of Witching a neutral to a ground been opposed by others who cite both safety issues and legal issues with this practice. These are legitimate concerns, although I do not see a real accidental shock or fire safety issue, the legal issue remains in the minds of a lot of people. Here is one other way to do this without any conflict with the NEC or safety.This alternative to “Witching a Neutral,” would be to use your old traveler wire in an X-10 circuit as a neutral. This could be accomplished by just connecting the dead-end of it to a Neutral Wire (in the opposite switch box) which will have a neutral wire somewhere to make a connection.You will need to locate the BUNDLE OF 3 WIRES AND A NAKED GROUND WIRE running between your 2 boxes for the switches. The Wires in this BUNDLE (or cable) are Red, Black, and White and one is a naked ground. One of the wires will be dead and not connected to anything at either end. Hopefully you can single out the White one as the one not in use. Just make sure when you are getting a dead wire! Check it with a VOM, it should be dead at all times. It should be dead when the light is on, off, or anytime. This dead unused wire will be converted to a Neutral for the distant switch which has none. Connect this dead wire from the bundle running between the 2 boxes to a NEUTRAL WIRE that will exist in the first box. Make sure you select a true neutral wire when you make this connection. It will be a White Wire, but keep in mind, not all White wires are Neutral. A White Wire will be hot if it is on a circuit carrying 2 legs of 230 volts or if it exists as a part of another conventional 3-Way switch. Use a VOM to make sure you connect your DEAD WIRE BETWEEN SWITCHES will be connected to a true neutral in your house wiring. Neutral wires are dead all the time, Use a VOM (Volt Ohm Meter) to test this. True Neutral Wires will always test with Zero resistance (0 Ohms) with a naked ground wire. Call an electrician if you do not follow this, or can’t use a VOM (Volt Ohm Meter).I should point out that this very common wiring method is not shown in the wiring diagrams Fig. 2 thru Fig. 4 for this switch. All the Fig. wiring diagrams only show 2 wires what run from one switch to the other. There is always a neutral wire shown in the Fig.s but it seems to be coming out of nowhere. Just look for a BUNDLE OF 3 WIRES and a naked ground, If you see a BUNDLE LIKE THIS, it is the most common wiring method, and it will have no neutral at the most distant switch. If you don’t see this BUNDLE connecting both switches, the other wiring diagrams will apply.Hope this helps someone. It can be a mess at times, and there are 3 ways to solve this problem: #1 Witch a Neutral to a Ground, #2 Do it this Way, or #3 rip out the walls and fish in a neutral wire all the way back from your Electrical Panel.I would add that there is another much less common wiring method for the connection of two (3-Way switches) that has a neutral existing at both ends (boxes). You will not see it very often, and it’s depicted in Fig. 3 for this switch. It’s when the hot wire starts at one switch and the load is carried directly to the light bulb from a terminal at the other switch. If it’s like this, you are lucky, because a white neutral wire will exist at both switches. In this rare instance, you will not need to Witch a Neutral or String the Neutral over from the other switch that has one.Almost all the time, electricians will run the (cable) BUNDLE OF 3 WIRES AND A NAKED GROUND between 2 switches. It’s for their convenience because this way the load leaves the SAME box that has the hot wire. The only advantage for this less popular wiring diagram is when the light is much closer to the distant switch. You won’t see this much because the logical location for the other switch usually has nothing to do with the location of the light. But you won’t know, until you test it with a VOM and see which kind of a 3 way circuit it is.***********ADDRESSING THE INSTEON SWITCHES WITH X-10 SIGNALS*************After you have finished wiring and turned on the power, you must address both switches. You can do this with an X-10 console device. I have several, if you don’t have one, they are still sold on the internet and they are not expensive. Just press the clear button on the new Insteon switch for 3 seconds until the switch starts blinking, Then send it a signal from whatever X-10 address you choose with your X-10 console and it will take that address. Make sure you address both switches with the same console address. Then you must address the 2 new Insteon switches to each other. You address them to each other the same way, except you press the clear button at the top of one switch for 3 seconds until it starts blinking, then send it a signal from the mated switch you installed, they do it vice-versa with the other switch so that both switches may communicate with each other. When I did this, all the X-10 switches with the same address in my basement responded to both on and off. This is great, because I want to have at least a couple of switches so that when I hit them, they cut on/off every light in my basement, without having to go into every room, and cut them off one at a time. These new Insteons are sending an X-10 address signal all through my basement, and I have 4 circuits for light there and all of them are responding to this new Insteon circuit. Gradually, I plan to replace the other 3 circuits when they go out with Insteon, but no rush, they still work. These switches are just as good or better than x-10, no traveler wiring, and they are addressed exactly like you did with the old X-10 Fluorescent switches that are no longer being manufactured. I think there are a lot of people with broken X-10s that will be happy with this as a replacement. I hope that helps.

I’ve got an old house with old electrical, and when it comes to smart lighting, the lack of common/neutral wire is a bit limiting. Luckily, Insteon makes these wicked little 2-wire dimmers that work in any traditional 2-wire box.I’ve got 5 of these suckers in my house, and I can’t say enough about them. If you are looking to teach an old house new tricks, these are definitely a great choice. These dimmers are RF-only, in contrast to the dual band in the normal Insteon dimmer switch offering, but I have to say, the range and reliability doesn’t suffer a bit. One of these switches in my installation is pretty far from the hub and other switches and I have never had an issue communicating with it.Now, it should be noted that if you don’t already have an Insteon hub or PLM of some sort you’ll need one in order to take advantage of the smart capabilities of this switch, but without one they’ll still function like a normal dimmer. I’ve notice the Insteon starter kits seem to go on sale pretty frequently here (as of this posting it’s $40 USD), and they include the hub and two plug-in dimmer modules (for lamps).Another thing to note is that these are not compatible replacements for three-way switches. By the looks of the reviews on the Amazon listing, it seems as though people have been burnt by that before.

Easy to install and works really well. Keep in mind that you need a grounding (white) wire in the circuit box. Most newer homes have this in each box. You can’t install this (and shouldn’t) to a switched outlet. You don’t want to dim an outlet as it’s against electrical code and could blow certain devices.For any other ordinary dimmable light, this switch is great. I particularly like how you can adjust the brightness of the LED from the app as well. The moving effect of the LED is pretty cool too. Would definitely recommend.

So far it has not had any issues. Insteon my be proprietary, but they work very reliably, with no delay on a local network. There’s little that even comes close. Easy and fast setup does not require you to walk from switch to switch with a hub to set them up. They are priced lower or equal to the competition. This is a great choice for non-dimmable fluorescent tube ballasts.