The problem with neutral free electronic switches.

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Because I already had the hub, and I found a load of Energenie stuff for sale cheap, I bought a further four light switches, I already had one, so dinning room, living room, my bedroom and wife's bedroom and office.

The living room simple swapped switch without a problem, other rooms found back boxes not deep enough, so had to get spacers, white switches and white spacers so does not look bad, then my room lights started to flicker when on, swapped the GU10 bulbs with another room and OK, next was wife's room, lights would not switch off, had to add a load capacitor and really not enough space, was a right job, seems G9 LED bulbs don't have the load capacitor built in, but just as it seems all working.

The dinning room lights will not switch on, they had been working, but how can one test? With bulb out will not switch on anyway, so removed bulb and fitted to another lamp, it was OK, swapped switch back to standard grabbed a BA22d bulb switched on lasted around 4 seconds and the trip opened.

About to go to work, so just reset to fix on return, seems reason for tripping was I had grabbed a 110 volt bulb in error, so lights working again now, but it does raise questions as to if it is worth fitting electronic switches.

Does not matter is a dimming switch of wifi switch, no load and it will not switch on, so any fault job one is swap the switch to standard before one can test anything, using RCBO did not help, not a clue if tripped due to overload or earth leakage, swap bulbs and lights can start to flash, and you need deep back boxes with no lugs top and bottom.

Was it all worth it? If you had seen me swearing trying to get the load capacitor to fit, I think one would say no? There is no two way switching in bedrooms and having the smart switches (That means when you fit them you sweat loads, which runs into your eyes and smarts, at least it did with me.) allows us to switch lights on/off when in bed, it also means can switch on wife's bedroom and office lights from in car which lights the route to back door, and as it gets dark in evening can switch on lights rather than TV when I have cat napped in the living room and woke up in the dark. So some good reasons.

However not being able to test the switch with a multi-meter I don't know how I can test that switch removed to be sure switch faulty? OK the one which seemed to have failed was 3 year old.

As to working out if an overload or earth leakage fault, that's also a problem, seems likely it was ionisation as the 110 volt bulb failed, so overload, I unplugged the light fitting, but with an LED bulb to start with how do you test, I only have two ceiling sockets to take the heavier lights, so no place to plug them in with ease to test, at least once unplugged and with standard switch knew ceiling socket OK.

As to how I can test wifi switch removed to confirm it is US, seems I need to build a test rig.
 
Are you using dimmable bulbs? You have to with the energenie light switches as they power themselves by creating a small voltage drop across the switch.
 
Are you using dimmable bulbs? You have to with the energenie light switches as they power themselves by creating a small voltage drop across the switch.
With the living room, the room where I have had no problem the bulbs are not dimmable, in my bedroom not a clue so bulbs old stock, in the office and dinning rooms the single bulb was dimmable, and in my wife's bedroom where I had the largest problem all 5 G9 bulbs were dimmable.

This was the problem, had the G9 bulbs not been dimmable then it was clear what I needed to do, however since they were dimmable buying another batch of bulbs they may have done exactly the same thing. Any the load capacitor would only just fit inside the junction box and ceiling fixing of the lamp. And no way would it have fitted in a standard ceiling rose.

For the living room where there are 8 x 5W candle bulbs on a heavy chandelier I have a special ceiling rose which slides in and out so I do not need to hold the weight while wiring, this means also very little extra room. Lucky this one works fine.
 
I have had problems with the switches not working with some led dimmable led bulbs. They work fine with some brands, but not with others for some reason.

I also found that whilst the switches work with some non dimmable bulbs, they wouldn't turn on and off reliably when switching them via the app or the timer. Again, changing the bulbs to proper dimmable ones fixed that.

Lastly, check the version of the firmware the hub is running and make sure you're on the latest. I had problems with some of my light switches when they updated it to cover the two gang light switches and my hub didn't update automatically.

Support are quite good if you speak with them.
 
For the future in case anyone else has a problem, the device marketed by Levante LEVPFCC-1CEF 2634453 from CEF 4uF Power Factor Correction Ca came with an instructions for Deluce range of electronic timers. Rated 400 volt. The instructions make it clear it is marketed for doing this job.
 
I mulled over changing ours over to "smart" switches, with no neutral in supplied to swiches.

Just sounds like a pain in the ass to be honest!.

We've got two lights on dining room wall that might get replaced with Alexa compatible ones though.
 
Today in Shrewsbury which has a Screwfix so picked up a spacer and on return refitted switch. Worked A1, so not a clue what the problem was.

I do like the switches when working, just a pain when they go wrong.
 
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