I’m afraid you really don’t know what you are doing. Neither does your electrician by the sound of it! Most products smart light switches require a neutral to the switch and state as such. Also sounds like your ‘neutral’ is actually switched live and is not marked correctly with brown sleeving. Regards the depth, of course they are deep. They require this for the electronics. Similar to mechanical dimmer switches in this respect. If you don’t know what you are doing, say so, please don’t write ‘don’t buy’ reviews if you don’t understand what is required.
I'm electrician. Only good thing you do well is switching electricity off before start messing with wires. All after that was dangerous. Please do not touch your circuits if you do not know what you doing. All the best. Ryszard
Sorry dude but you need to stop messing with lighting circuits that you obviously know nothing about and while your at is stop spreading false information like how things are wired in new houses. How a lighting circuit is wired is completely down to the electrician that does the install. Not when it was done. I personally wire my loop L an N at each switch all the time. It’s also worth noting that in general older installations are less likely to have a neutral at the switch than modern houses. This is because they were wired in singles taking the neutral loops to all the lights and the live loops to the switches. Or spider wiring where a 2 core cable was taken from a junction box to a switch. It’s also worth mentioning if ever you do future videos that just because a cable is black or blue doesn’t mean it’s a neutral. And also worth noting that even if there isn’t a neural at a switch it may stil possible rejig cables in other lights and switches on the circuit so to have a neutral at the switch. Sorry for ripping you mate but ... ya know.. prob best you talking facts. 👍
Yeah you could get a neutral from any centre or any neutral on the circuit and run it down to the switch although you'd have chase it out again..... Hmmm why not get a lightwave dimmer no neutral required...
1. The switch you tried to replace in your own home was a 2-gang 2-way switch (2-way being you can turn the same light on and off from 2 switches, 2-gang being there was 2 switches controlling different lights) you clearly have no idea what this is because you were confused by it. 2. there isnt a neutral at the switch (that type of smart switch requires a neutral) 3. your "electrician" is clearly not a good one because saying "your house is only a year old it wont have neutrals at the switches) is a load of rubbish, electricians tend to wire neutrals to switches now to allow for smart switching... 4. you then go to your parents house where the wiring is old... in older houses they definitely dont wire neutrals to the switches they are looped at light fittings. 5. you are slagging off a smart switch company about their switches when really it just comes down to you not knowing how to install it properly, there is nothing wrong with them switches at all its just your HUGE lack of knowledge. You really need to stop putting these videos up of you doing all this electrical work, most of the work you do is non compliant and rough af and will not pass any EICR ever, its a classic example of a "data guy" thinking he can be an electrician when really he is way in over his head and just makes things dangerous, what makes it even worse is you do these videos to show people how to do this sort of stuff but you really should because you dont even know how to do it your self!
Firstly, ALWAYS CHECK the supply to the switch with a meter, before you start taking wires out, switching off the trip switch and seeing the light go out, does not necessarily mean all connections in the switch are safe. Hardly any houses in the U.K. have a neutral in the light switches, even less chance in an older house, they just are not necessary (unless you need a smart switch), saves a lot of copper by not having it. Also in older houses you will possibly not even have an Earth in the light switch back box, Easiest option is to put something like a sonoff smart switch next to a ceiling rose as from their you can get the neutral feed. But even then would you trust a cheap device embedded out of sight in the ceiling connected to the mains? Based on this and a previous video of yours, I really do think you should avoid doing any videos that involve dealing with mains electricity (a little knowledge is a dangerous thing), you don’t need to be a qualified electrician to do this sort of thing, but you really should do your research first, even a basic DIY book on electrics should have made you realise, these do not work. Failing that and a simple Google search on smart switch in the U.K. would have flagged it up)
Alex I am a qualified electrician/engineer and also live in a Avant house. There should be a neutral at the light switch if not this is against the regulation. Also common = live into the switch / l1 & l2 = live out 1 & live out 2...
You need to be sure that there is a positive (L) and negative/neutral (N) circuit without any lights or something, so that the switch can get continuous power. So, the neutral wire is really necessary. This switch will not work like a regular switch just before the light.
These videos just get worse and worse. You clearly know very little about electrics so stop messing with things you don't understand. L1/L2 doesn't mean two lights it means the switch is 2 way (ie two switches on same light such as top and bottom of the stairs). As others suggested lack of nutral is a likely issue for device like these, some smart switches allow for a no nutral install but many require one. I'm not an electrician but understand and know more than you clearly, do everyone a favour and don't post a video showing you messing with electrics when you have no idea what your doing, your just going to encourage other idiots to fiddle and someone will get hurt.
i think your electrician has his wires crossed or he is quite young, the trend now is to provide a neutral at the switch, because of smart stuff, you are more likely to find a neutral in a new build rather than a house from the 80`s or older. All the new build i have ever worked on from the 90`s right upto this day have always had neutrals in the switch, and thats because its easier to put a light fitting up with just one cable, rather than the three cables there would normally be, or sometimes four or the odd occasion five.
Anthony charles depends who wired. Seen many hack jobs only running common wire (negative) at the switch and having neutral in gang box usually in different box because of multiple items on same circuit.
@@alexk77ae you will always see crap work especially in electrical installations, if you listen to people they are all electricians, and what makes it worse is that they can buy everything they need to kill themselves or worse still an unsuspecting person from your friendly diy chain or even electrical wholesalers. I have seen earth wires used as live conductors earth wires from metal pipes used as neutrals the list goes on and on, and yes there are some crap electricians out there as well that will cut corners for a quick buck.
Omg men do more research before uploading your vid, this model does work but you dit not install it right... maybe you should give the elktro guy a shot :P
Spot on Alex, from an electricians perspective this item won't work in most houses in the UK unless you want to rewire your house to include a neutral down from the ceiling rose. however, on the continent, they do have the neutral as do America and Canada. there is also a huge problem with these as there is a tendency to overheat due to inadequate components on the build they don't always have a UK Kitemark to fit the CPR and BS7671 standards. the better option is to go with a Sonof you can mount in the ceiling above the rose which will do the job or as you have done use controllable filament lamps.
The “electrician” you spoke to obviously “isn’t”...it is more common nowadays to wire with a neutral at switches (to limit the amount of cables at light fittings) but also not uncommon to wire the traditional way without the neutral at the switch, there’s no definitive from the age of the installation. Best to get an electrician however small a job appears
Quite a straightforward installation for an electrician really..... It's bizarre how people are quite comfortable to mess with electricity yet follow advice when it comes to gas....
Reviewing a switch when he doesn't know what com and L1 are? Clearly knows nothing about switches. He does seem like a nice fella with a nice kitchen though.
There is nothing wrong with the product its you that’s the problem. You clearly have no idea what you are doing or have an understanding on how lighting circuits work.
So a so called electrician told you we don’t run neutral to the light switch now.....god give me strength...but yes biggest drawback with these typ7is you need a neutral at the switch...luckily the 4-5 hundred houses I have wired have the neutral at the switch
in UK houses the neutrals all run round the ceiling and that cable to the switch is only a switch line. we just use the same cable for the switches but you should have a red sleeve or tape around that black 'neutral' wire to show it's actually part of the live circuit when leaving the switch. red feeds power to the switch and when you switch the switch on the power continues out through that black and into the light bulb then out he bulb and through the real neutral.
I think when he said that he had "no idea" so many, many times, you know that he really, really has no idea what he is doing. I wonder if his parents were out? I can imagine the electrician friend of his watching the video saying "Please don't day my name" over and over again.
Please don't watch this, and if you do don't do what he does, and please young man....stop trying being a "presenter" or an electrician, both require more than enthusiasm
This is dangerous, obviously he hasn't got a scooby doo about electrics, so he shouldn't even be messing about with things that could potentially kill him! if he did 5 minutes of research he would of known about there not being neutral in UK light switches.
As others have mentioned, you need power at the switch,the house is looped at the fitting not looped at the switch. The 2 wires for each switch at your wall socket are simply just making a connection, you need to get 240 to the switch for it to operate. Important to know and understand electrical architecture otherwise you can have real trouble.
Alex you scare me. You're saying look nothing the light switch doesn't work and then you're taking the switch off!! and it would appear you haven't turned off the power??!! Most houses do not take neutral to the switch as you found out. They use loop in loop out of the ceiling roses. However it is more common with SMART tech being out there that neutrals will start to be seen in switches. There are SMART switches out there however that do not need a neutral.
Most houses dont have Neutral wires in light switches, i have been an electrician for over 30 years and in the uk we have never wired a neutral into the switch box, this is not too difficult in the upstairs of a house as you have access to the lights from the loft, if you get 1.5 mmm blur cable and run one from a light in the same room to the light switch your smart switch will work, the conversion from the old switch ports to the smart switch com = in L1 = out L2 = out if you are using a 2 way switch hope this helps, please be aware that you need to switch the power off completely as in the home the neautral is alkso live, if you don't know what you are doing don't do it, mains power can be leathal
You just take the nutual from the ceiling although downstairs would be somewhat more difficult if you already have carpet or a flooring laid upstairs.i fitted one to my office which is upstairs so I could climb into the attic and run the nutual from the light to the switch.
The Neutral which you assume is neutral in the switch is actually Switch Live and hence it should be sleeved Brown to indicate it is live wire so do not assume it as netural !
If you use phillips hue. You can get the dimmer switch, and a adaptor plate which fits over your normal light. This makes the phillips hue dimmer switch look like it's meant to be there and stops people turning off the power to the bulb...
Did you get the Permanent Live(s) and Switch Live the right way round? Permanent Live(s) in L and the Switch Live in L1? In normal switches you can get away with having them the wrong way round, but with this unit, it may be crucial for it to work.
Wrong information. You should skip this video then search youtube for a video on how to wire a light switch or Google search for a diagram. Every UK home has a live and neutral, modern homes all have earth wired into the box, You only need to wire in the live and the neutral is your switch. I am not an electrician!
First video of yours I saw and it's clearly for me that you have no idea of what you're talking about. Even with the professional electrician saying that you can't install, the minimum you should have done is check a better one to have a second opinion, or at least try to research about neutral wire to understand what it's, if you have done that, you would know that you could make a "simulated" one in your house switch hole. It's obviously that didn't worked because you made everything wrong for installation, for sure that's the first and last video I'll saw from you because you've too many bias and don't go deep in the reviews, looks like you just want to have some attention, I hope you can do better next time and explore more each feature and step of the process, specially when you get yourself in trouble, because a lot of people have it and show how to solve it is better than just show how something works.
I've just installed a week ago the Sonoff T1 US 2Gang..Installation was a breeze with the wiring as I have that neutral wire. The neutral wire is required to power the smart switch only, not the lights.. Setup pairing with Ewelink app was smooth and integration with Alexa painless. Alex try and get one to compare with this Amazon one you just failed at.
First thing you need to check when buying smart switch is the wiring you have in your house will suit your switch. Most of sellers these days do state if neutral is needed or not.
This was funny to watch (I'm an Electrician). At least you didn't try it yourself, fuck it up, then get and electrician in and say you haven't changed anything lol
(N = Neutral) (L = Power from the breaker) (L1 L2 L3 = feeds the light that has its own Neutral) Most likely your house has a neutral but some electricians will put it at the light and run a wire for the switch to open & close the L (Hot Wire) The way to tell is if you have it or not is open the breaker panel and look for three wire set. L on the breakers, G = Ground all bare copper wire (or green covered), the White or blue wire that will be your neutrals.
@UCvqjAVJzM1S97E2lmgYYlwg u looking at the wrong diagram, that's for another switch. Well Sorry to let you know that their installation book says otherwise. myphotojourney.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/DSC08632.jpg
Well don't play with electric if you don't have the right qualifications to do the job right as you cart see it but you can feel it and die from it ok sorry get a sparky to do ur work not till you got your qualifications
Very inaccurate video! You don't understand home electrics and so shouldn't recommend not buying or even installing this. I got this product working flawlessly in 20mins in a new-build. (one caveat is that you need Neutral to power the PCB for constant wifi connection. The neutral cable likely doesn't exist behind light switches in older houses but it is common in new-builds.
This isn't a new way of wiring at all. I am an apprentice electrician.Myself and my colleages still take a Neutral to the switch. This video is misleading and should of been installed and explained with a qualified electrician present.
Yes what I heard is that old houses typical have the neutral at the light, it's newer builds where they normally take it to the switch mainly because they know with smart home tech coming it's better to bring it there I have some no neutral switches that work great for on off but I think the disadvantages of them might be the load or the bulb compatibility or possibility of a no neutral dimmer version I assume? Could you claryfy if there is any benefit over neutral and no neutral smart switches other then compatibility?
Utter nonsense about neutral wires. All houses have neutral/return conductors or how would current flow! The issue here is that final circuit arrangements in the UK for lights involve running live only switch wires down to single pole switches. The neutral remains looped at the light fittings.
The problem is the normal switch is a break in the circuit to the ceiling rose. The netural goes to the bulb, the live goes to the switch first then from there back to the bulb. Press the switch and the circuit is complete.
I have tried a few in the UK the best one I have found is the snoff. Apps getting better over time and never had a issue with it also it’s Alexa compatible and has a flush front and back box definitely recommend
You blew the unit when you wired up without the neutral. Having a neutral at the light switch isn’t a old/new thing. Purely down to the installing electrician when doing the house. I personally wire the neutral into the switch as makes for easier wiring in the lights and also the amount of people that want smart lighting nowadays gives them flexibility if they want to add at a later date.
No, he won't have blown it up. All he's done is connected the switched live (blue but should be marked as brown) to the neutral thinking it is a neutral.
You need to buy one off Amazon that says no neutral wire needed, I've sent mine back and I'm going to order the right one, I had the same problem as you mate
@@jasonfiggis9508 yeah he could of got the right one and then made a video but instead he makes this video and fails and then he will make another video fixing the problem and getting more views
I just installed a bunch of GE Z-wave Smart Switch and I needed to have a neutral to. After talking to an electrician but I knew personally. He said you can jump off the ground wire. At least in the United States older homes the neutral and ground wire or wired all together but the newer homes are separated by a bar and ties all in at the meter. Now I don't if this is the same in the UK but it will work in the United States. He just said it's just not ideal but it will work and be just fine.
I don't recommend any lights like these they're actually quite dangerous I use LightwaveRF as they work really well in the UK yes the more expensive but you get what you pay for and when you're playing with electricity it's best not to go cheap
New builds really are shoddy these days aren't they, the mess they made of the plaster/paintwork around that switch is unforgivable. The silicone around the switch is the icing on the cake.
Here in the UK we in the main dont have neutral wires in our light switches, you therefore if you live in the UK need a smart switch that requires no Neutral there are some available
I'm finding that new-builds are coming with neutral behind switches albeit they are terminated to a junction box and not connected to the switch. Most likely future proofing for smart switches :)
flipping upstairs rcds off only does not make it safe ...turn main breaker off before doing anything like you did at your parents house as you may find neutral being live and get a bit of a shock i mean would be funny to watch probably wouldnt kill you but would teach you few bits for future :D
Some smart switches dont require a neutral wire also his last take when he ripped it out didnt show him turning off the breaker?............buzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
You need 2 natural wires one positive wires , , so in is com and out is l1 l2 , I believe that's how I wired them up at my home , but I know you need 2 naturals, because I believe com is positive which would be line in so line out would be l1 and l2 , I use tcp ones which have the back and that's an English based company
Depends on the electrician if neutrals are brought to the switch or direct to the lights. Your house was 2 gang 2 way and those smart switches won’t work on 2 way lighting circuits.
I think you're just being obnoxious. It needs a neutral and a live to Power the Wi-Fi in this switch , L1 goes to one light L2 goes to another light (L3 there's an extra outboard for the three gang switch)and they're both become Live outputs when individually switched on by Alexa /Google or manually switched. You can also buy neutral free switch's where L1 L2 remain Live and when the switch is activated to off position it works like a dimmer switch on the lights reducing the power to almost 0 but just enough to Power the Wi-Fi on the switch without Lighting up the bulbs but however some LED lights may not turn off completely (ghosting) and you may need a capacitor.
You need to add a capacitor to the bulb side connecting the neutral with the live over there. 400 volts, 0.47 uF, then it will work. You may also need to add another capacitor to the side with the switch if it turns off when you turn the lights on.
Erroneous, UK lighting circuits have have a chained neutral and protective earth and live system. I.e. the 3 conducters are chained from one light fitting to another, be it in the same room or the next room. The only branch off is the switched live circuit that takes a live feed to the switch and back from the switch direct to the bulb. No neutral is fed to the switch at all. A capacitor isn't going to do a thing.
Most houses DONT have a neutral at the switch since that's where most people's hands are. It's a shock hazard. You need to run a neutral from the ceiling rose or stick a sonoff into the ceiling rose and trigger it with a smart switch (through home assist or something like that). You can drop neuteals down the walls from your attic to the second floor switches but the problem is your ground floor, you need to rip up floor boards on the second floor which is a very nasty job. Without a neutral at the switch when you turn off the light the smart switch has no power supply. Only a live and a switched live. No neutral return path. You can't use the earth because that a building code violation. The only alternative I know of is to use Lutron switches in the house with dimmable LED's. Instead of switching the lights the lutrons dim the LED's so low they appear off but there is still enough power left in the switch to run the wireless connection. Lutron are expensive as fuck unfortunately.
Ross Erman Canpolat nothing to do with shock hazard, if you touch the live and are grounded you will get a shock anyway, the reason is before smart switches it was not necessary and considerably reduces the amount of copper needed to wire a house.
I've got a smart switch in my room and it uses the ground as the neutral, there is no neutral at my switch as it is not switched fed. You can get some houses which are switched fed (live, neutral and switch wire at the switch) or you can get houses which have just 1 cable (live, SW live) with no neutral and that cable is just a switch wire from a junction box in the room. Electrician from the UK
I’m afraid you really don’t know what you are doing. Neither does your electrician by the sound of it! Most products smart light switches require a neutral to the switch and state as such. Also sounds like your ‘neutral’ is actually switched live and is not marked correctly with brown sleeving. Regards the depth, of course they are deep. They require this for the electronics. Similar to mechanical dimmer switches in this respect. If you don’t know what you are doing, say so, please don’t write ‘don’t buy’ reviews if you don’t understand what is required.
Totally right.
I'm electrician. Only good thing you do well is switching electricity off before start messing with wires. All after that was dangerous. Please do not touch your circuits if you do not know what you doing. All the best. Ryszard
Sorry dude but you need to stop messing with lighting circuits that you obviously know nothing about and while your at is stop spreading false information like how things are wired in new houses.
How a lighting circuit is wired is completely down to the electrician that does the install. Not when it was done. I personally wire my loop L an N at each switch all the time.
It’s also worth noting that in general older installations are less likely to have a neutral at the switch than modern houses. This is because they were wired in singles taking the neutral loops to all the lights and the live loops to the switches. Or spider wiring where a 2 core cable was taken from a junction box to a switch. It’s also worth mentioning if ever you do future videos that just because a cable is black or blue doesn’t mean it’s a neutral. And also worth noting that even if there isn’t a neural at a switch it may stil possible rejig cables in other lights and switches on the circuit so to have a neutral at the switch.
Sorry for ripping you mate but ... ya know.. prob best you talking facts. 👍
Yeah you could get a neutral from any centre or any neutral on the circuit and run it down to the switch although you'd have chase it out again..... Hmmm why not get a lightwave dimmer no neutral required...
Best quote from Alex. "As you can now see it's been about two weeks". How??? Lol 5:10
Exactly!! I laugh when I saw that, and again when I saw your comment!
1. The switch you tried to replace in your own home was a 2-gang 2-way switch (2-way being you can turn the same light on and off from 2 switches, 2-gang being there was 2 switches controlling different lights) you clearly have no idea what this is because you were confused by it.
2. there isnt a neutral at the switch (that type of smart switch requires a neutral)
3. your "electrician" is clearly not a good one because saying "your house is only a year old it wont have neutrals at the switches) is a load of rubbish, electricians tend to wire neutrals to switches now to allow for smart switching...
4. you then go to your parents house where the wiring is old... in older houses they definitely dont wire neutrals to the switches they are looped at light fittings.
5. you are slagging off a smart switch company about their switches when really it just comes down to you not knowing how to install it properly, there is nothing wrong with them switches at all its just your HUGE lack of knowledge.
You really need to stop putting these videos up of you doing all this electrical work, most of the work you do is non compliant and rough af and will not pass any EICR ever, its a classic example of a "data guy" thinking he can be an electrician when really he is way in over his head and just makes things dangerous, what makes it even worse is you do these videos to show people how to do this sort of stuff but you really should because you dont even know how to do it your self!
I haven't even watched the video but I'm already guessing he just bought it without checking his house had a neutral wire?
Tools in the hands of fools. You clearly have no idea as to what you are doing.
Firstly, ALWAYS CHECK the supply to the switch with a meter, before you start taking wires out, switching off the trip switch and seeing the light go out, does not necessarily mean all connections in the switch are safe. Hardly any houses in the U.K. have a neutral in the light switches, even less chance in an older house, they just are not necessary (unless you need a smart switch), saves a lot of copper by not having it. Also in older houses you will possibly not even have an Earth in the light switch back box, Easiest option is to put something like a sonoff smart switch next to a ceiling rose as from their you can get the neutral feed. But even then would you trust a cheap device embedded out of sight in the ceiling connected to the mains?
Based on this and a previous video of yours, I really do think you should avoid doing any videos that involve dealing with mains electricity (a little knowledge is a dangerous thing), you don’t need to be a qualified electrician to do this sort of thing, but you really should do your research first, even a basic DIY book on electrics should have made you realise, these do not work. Failing that and a simple Google search on smart switch in the U.K. would have flagged it up)
Why are you saying not to buy it just because you don't understand it? Capacitor bridging the lights live and neutral and you're away
Bizarre review. He has no idea what he's doing.
Alex I am a qualified electrician/engineer and also live in a Avant house. There should be a neutral at the light switch if not this is against the regulation.
Also common = live into the switch / l1 & l2 = live out 1 & live out 2...
why didn't you edit out the part where you pick your nose?
As an Electrician this is painful to watch
As a non electrician, this is painful to watch. Lordy!
@@gmo4250 😂😂😂
You need to be sure that there is a positive (L) and negative/neutral (N) circuit without any lights or something, so that the switch can get continuous power. So, the neutral wire is really necessary. This switch will not work like a regular switch just before the light.
That’s 8 minutes of my life I’m not Getting back
These videos just get worse and worse. You clearly know very little about electrics so stop messing with things you don't understand. L1/L2 doesn't mean two lights it means the switch is 2 way (ie two switches on same light such as top and bottom of the stairs). As others suggested lack of nutral is a likely issue for device like these, some smart switches allow for a no nutral install but many require one.
I'm not an electrician but understand and know more than you clearly, do everyone a favour and don't post a video showing you messing with electrics when you have no idea what your doing, your just going to encourage other idiots to fiddle and someone will get hurt.
i think your electrician has his wires crossed or he is quite young, the trend now is to provide a neutral at the switch, because of smart stuff, you are more likely to find a neutral in a new build rather than a house from the 80`s or older. All the new build i have ever worked on from the 90`s right upto this day have always had neutrals in the switch, and thats because its easier to put a light fitting up with just one cable, rather than the three cables there would normally be, or sometimes four or the odd occasion five.
Anthony charles depends who wired. Seen many hack jobs only running common wire (negative) at the switch and having neutral in gang box usually in different box because of multiple items on same circuit.
@@alexk77ae you will always see crap work especially in electrical installations, if you listen to people they are all electricians, and what makes it worse is that they can buy everything they need to kill themselves or worse still an unsuspecting person from your friendly diy chain or even electrical wholesalers. I have seen earth wires used as live conductors earth wires from metal pipes used as neutrals the list goes on and on, and yes there are some crap electricians out there as well that will cut corners for a quick buck.
Oh wow! If you cant work out a Live from a Neutral wire you shouldn't be messing. Stick to phone reviews and leave the mains power alone!
Omg men do more research before uploading your vid, this model does work but you dit not install it right... maybe you should give the elktro guy a shot :P
Pretty irresponsible giving out information about electrics that is incorrect and potentially life threatening.
Spot on Alex, from an electricians perspective this item won't work in most houses in the UK unless you want to rewire your house to include a neutral down from the ceiling rose. however, on the continent, they do have the neutral as do America and Canada. there is also a huge problem with these as there is a tendency to overheat due to inadequate components on the build they don't always have a UK Kitemark to fit the CPR and BS7671 standards. the better option is to go with a Sonof you can mount in the ceiling above the rose which will do the job or as you have done use controllable filament lamps.
The “electrician” you spoke to obviously “isn’t”...it is more common nowadays to wire with a neutral at switches (to limit the amount of cables at light fittings) but also not uncommon to wire the traditional way without the neutral at the switch, there’s no definitive from the age of the installation. Best to get an electrician however small a job appears
Making a video called "how to waste people's time and be happy about it !"
👎
I’ve just had a rewire done in a 1930s property and had these switches fitted throughout and have to say they are fantastic!! IGNORE this video! 😊😊
Quite a straightforward installation for an electrician really..... It's bizarre how people are quite comfortable to mess with electricity yet follow advice when it comes to gas....
Reviewing a switch when he doesn't know what com and L1 are? Clearly knows nothing about switches. He does seem like a nice fella with a nice kitchen though.
There is nothing wrong with the product its you that’s the problem. You clearly have no idea what you are doing or have an understanding on how lighting circuits work.
So a so called electrician told you we don’t run neutral to the light switch now.....god give me strength...but yes biggest drawback with these typ7is you need a neutral at the switch...luckily the 4-5 hundred houses I have wired have the neutral at the switch
Literally was thinking this. From day 1 I was told wire from the switch
Aussie sparky here:
Most Aussie houses are wired with neutrals at the switch as well
Apparently cheap shotty contractors don't, especially on a new build, it must be too difficult.
in UK houses the neutrals all run round the ceiling and that cable to the switch is only a switch line. we just use the same cable for the switches but you should have a red sleeve or tape around that black 'neutral' wire to show it's actually part of the live circuit when leaving the switch. red feeds power to the switch and when you switch the switch on the power continues out through that black and into the light bulb then out he bulb and through the real neutral.
I think when he said that he had "no idea" so many, many times, you know that he really, really has no idea what he is doing. I wonder if his parents were out? I can imagine the electrician friend of his watching the video saying "Please don't day my name" over and over again.
Got this one at home, had for months now and not a single problem. Works better than ones like LightWave etc.
Please don't watch this, and if you do don't do what he does, and please young man....stop trying being a "presenter" or an electrician, both require more than enthusiasm
This is dangerous, obviously he hasn't got a scooby doo about electrics, so he shouldn't even be messing about with things that could potentially kill him! if he did 5 minutes of research he would of known about there not being neutral in UK light switches.
It sounds like a UK problem, I have tons of these in my house and have had no problems in the USA
As others have mentioned, you need power at the switch,the house is looped at the fitting not looped at the switch. The 2 wires for each switch at your wall socket are simply just making a connection, you need to get 240 to the switch for it to operate. Important to know and understand electrical architecture otherwise you can have real trouble.
Alex you scare me. You're saying look nothing the light switch doesn't work and then you're taking the switch off!! and it would appear you haven't turned off the power??!! Most houses do not take neutral to the switch as you found out. They use loop in loop out of the ceiling roses. However it is more common with SMART tech being out there that neutrals will start to be seen in switches. There are SMART switches out there however that do not need a neutral.
Most houses dont have Neutral wires in light switches, i have been an electrician for over 30 years and in the uk we have never wired a neutral into the switch box, this is not too difficult in the upstairs of a house as you have access to the lights from the loft, if you get 1.5 mmm blur cable and run one from a light in the same room to the light switch your smart switch will work, the conversion from the old switch ports to the smart switch com = in L1 = out L2 = out if you are using a 2 way switch hope this helps, please be aware that you need to switch the power off completely as in the home the neautral is alkso live, if you don't know what you are doing don't do it, mains power can be leathal
Could you give me some help?
@@jamiewill2394 yes if you need help it may be difficult through youtube but you can ask me anything you want to know
@@jamiewill2394 were in the world are you?
You just take the nutual from the ceiling although downstairs would be somewhat more difficult if you already have carpet or a flooring laid upstairs.i fitted one to my office which is upstairs so I could climb into the attic and run the nutual from the light to the switch.
The Neutral which you assume is neutral in the switch is actually Switch Live and hence it should be sleeved Brown to indicate it is live wire so do not assume it as netural !
If you use phillips hue. You can get the dimmer switch, and a adaptor plate which fits over your normal light. This makes the phillips hue dimmer switch look like it's meant to be there and stops people turning off the power to the bulb...
Did you get the Permanent Live(s) and Switch Live the right way round? Permanent Live(s) in L and the Switch Live in L1? In normal switches you can get away with having them the wrong way round, but with this unit, it may be crucial for it to work.
Wrong information. You should skip this video then search youtube for a video on how to wire a light switch or Google search for a diagram. Every UK home has a live and neutral, modern homes all have earth wired into the box, You only need to wire in the live and the neutral is your switch. I am not an electrician!
leave it alone mate you have not a clue.Your light up on anything screwdriver says it all.
First video of yours I saw and it's clearly for me that you have no idea of what you're talking about.
Even with the professional electrician saying that you can't install, the minimum you should have done is check a better one to have a second opinion, or at least try to research about neutral wire to understand what it's, if you have done that, you would know that you could make a "simulated" one in your house switch hole.
It's obviously that didn't worked because you made everything wrong for installation, for sure that's the first and last video I'll saw from you because you've too many bias and don't go deep in the reviews, looks like you just want to have some attention, I hope you can do better next time and explore more each feature and step of the process, specially when you get yourself in trouble, because a lot of people have it and show how to solve it is better than just show how something works.
Agree
Don't do this if you don't know electricity or aren't qualified enough.
That was painful to watch.
I've just installed a week ago the Sonoff T1 US 2Gang..Installation was a breeze with the wiring as I have that neutral wire. The neutral wire is required to power the smart switch only, not the lights..
Setup pairing with Ewelink app was smooth and integration with Alexa painless. Alex try and get one to compare with this Amazon one you just failed at.
so the reason why I should not buy it is because you don't know have to connect it 👏
How to prove your a muppet on youtube in one easy video
First thing you need to check when buying smart switch is the wiring you have in your house will suit your switch. Most of sellers these days do state if neutral is needed or not.
This was funny to watch (I'm an Electrician). At least you didn't try it yourself, fuck it up, then get and electrician in and say you haven't changed anything lol
Thats a horrendous DIY paint job
So, because you don’t know how to install this switch, you advice not to buy this switch. Pathetic.
(N = Neutral) (L = Power from the breaker) (L1 L2 L3 = feeds the light that has its own Neutral) Most likely your house has a neutral but some electricians will put it at the light and run a wire for the switch to open & close the L (Hot Wire) The way to tell is if you have it or not is open the breaker panel and look for three wire set. L on the breakers, G = Ground all bare copper wire (or green covered), the White or blue wire that will be your neutrals.
@UCvqjAVJzM1S97E2lmgYYlwg u looking at the wrong diagram, that's for another switch. Well Sorry to let you know that their installation book says otherwise. myphotojourney.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/DSC08632.jpg
Bloody seppos, neutral is black! 😂 Jokes, Aussie sparky here taking the piss
Well don't play with electric if you don't have the right qualifications to do the job right as you cart see it but you can feel it and die from it ok sorry get a sparky to do ur work not till you got your qualifications
Very inaccurate video! You don't understand home electrics and so shouldn't recommend not buying or even installing this.
I got this product working flawlessly in 20mins in a new-build. (one caveat is that you need Neutral to power the PCB for constant wifi connection. The neutral cable likely doesn't exist behind light switches in older houses but it is common in new-builds.
If you don't know what your doing then don't do it!
0:17 did he like start digging up his nose wow
mike parker 😂 yep
This isn't a new way of wiring at all. I am an apprentice electrician.Myself and my colleages still take a Neutral to the switch. This video is misleading and should of been installed and explained with a qualified electrician present.
Yes what I heard is that old houses typical have the neutral at the light, it's newer builds where they normally take it to the switch mainly because they know with smart home tech coming it's better to bring it there
I have some no neutral switches that work great for on off but I think the disadvantages of them might be the load or the bulb compatibility or possibility of a no neutral dimmer version I assume?
Could you claryfy if there is any benefit over neutral and no neutral smart switches other then compatibility?
You need to do something else, not review.
Utter nonsense about neutral wires. All houses have neutral/return conductors or how would current flow! The issue here is that final circuit arrangements in the UK for lights involve running live only switch wires down to single pole switches. The neutral remains looped at the light fittings.
The problem is the normal switch is a break in the circuit to the ceiling rose. The netural goes to the bulb, the live goes to the switch first then from there back to the bulb. Press the switch and the circuit is complete.
Im a electrician in the uk, 9 times out of 10 we have a neutral in a house in the uk! I guarantee you havent wired it up right!
I have tried a few in the UK the best one I have found is the snoff. Apps getting better over time and never had a issue with it also it’s Alexa compatible and has a flush front and back box definitely recommend
This video is no use at all. You obvisouly don't understand how this switch works...
What’s the electrician on about? There is never been a neutral on lighting circuits at the switch ever!
Agreed years ago but there is on new builds now due to preference for smart switches which nearly always require a neutral.
Just because the cable is blue doesnt mean its Neutral is sometimes switched live
You blew the unit when you wired up without the neutral.
Having a neutral at the light switch isn’t a old/new thing. Purely down to the installing electrician when doing the house. I personally wire the neutral into the switch as makes for easier wiring in the lights and also the amount of people that want smart lighting nowadays gives them flexibility if they want to add at a later date.
No, he won't have blown it up. All he's done is connected the switched live (blue but should be marked as brown) to the neutral thinking it is a neutral.
You need to buy one off Amazon that says no neutral wire needed, I've sent mine back and I'm going to order the right one, I had the same problem as you mate
Carlton Lee But instead of doing the research and doing the same he just gives a shitty review..what an absolute muppet....hilarious.
Carlton Lee did you find one that doesn’t need the neutral?
@@jasonfiggis9508 yeah he could of got the right one and then made a video but instead he makes this video and fails and then he will make another video fixing the problem and getting more views
@@jakefox3869 yes there is more than one but one I saw is called " yoswit smart light switch no neutral required " its sold by yoswit
I just installed a bunch of GE Z-wave Smart Switch and I needed to have a neutral to. After talking to an electrician but I knew personally. He said you can jump off the ground wire. At least in the United States older homes the neutral and ground wire or wired all together but the newer homes are separated by a bar and ties all in at the meter. Now I don't if this is the same in the UK but it will work in the United States. He just said it's just not ideal but it will work and be just fine.
1:55 what is that paint finish quality on the wall?
Ikr shocking
I don't recommend any lights like these they're actually quite dangerous I use LightwaveRF as they work really well in the UK yes the more expensive but you get what you pay for and when you're playing with electricity it's best not to go cheap
Obviously not a qualified electrician
New builds really are shoddy these days aren't they, the mess they made of the plaster/paintwork around that switch is unforgivable. The silicone around the switch is the icing on the cake.
What a dope.
Did he unscrew that from the wall when the circuit was live?
It looked like it.
Here in the UK we in the main dont have neutral wires in our light switches, you therefore if you live in the UK need a smart switch that requires no Neutral there are some available
I'm finding that new-builds are coming with neutral behind switches albeit they are terminated to a junction box and not connected to the switch. Most likely future proofing for smart switches :)
I wonder if his insurance company has seen this
Why
flipping upstairs rcds off only does not make it safe ...turn main breaker off before doing anything like you did at your parents house as you may find neutral being live and get a bit of a shock i mean would be funny to watch probably wouldnt kill you but would teach you few bits for future :D
Some smart switches dont require a neutral wire also his last take when he ripped it out didnt show him turning off the breaker?............buzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
You need 2 natural wires one positive wires , , so in is com and out is l1 l2 , I believe that's how I wired them up at my home , but I know you need 2 naturals, because I believe com is positive which would be line in so line out would be l1 and l2 , I use tcp ones which have the back and that's an English based company
"I have no idea"....Yep, about right
the black wire in a light switch isn't the neutral wire but it is the switch live wire
Depends on the electrician if neutrals are brought to the switch or direct to the lights. Your house was 2 gang 2 way and those smart switches won’t work on 2 way lighting circuits.
Someone in the comments actually understands it.
OMG, that was pathetic. Do you have the slightest idea of how a normal light switch works?
I think you're just being obnoxious. It needs a neutral and a live to Power the Wi-Fi in this switch , L1 goes to one light L2 goes to another light (L3 there's an extra outboard for the three gang switch)and they're both become Live outputs when individually switched on by Alexa /Google or manually switched. You can also buy neutral free switch's where L1 L2 remain Live and when the switch is activated to off position it works like a dimmer switch on the lights reducing the power to almost 0 but just enough to Power the Wi-Fi on the switch without Lighting up the bulbs but however some LED lights may not turn off completely (ghosting) and you may need a capacitor.
You need to add a capacitor to the bulb side connecting the neutral with the live over there. 400 volts, 0.47 uF, then it will work. You may also need to add another capacitor to the side with the switch if it turns off when you turn the lights on.
Erroneous, UK lighting circuits have have a chained neutral and protective earth and live system. I.e. the 3 conducters are chained from one light fitting to another, be it in the same room or the next room. The only branch off is the switched live circuit that takes a live feed to the switch and back from the switch direct to the bulb. No neutral is fed to the switch at all. A capacitor isn't going to do a thing.
@@stiggyness1976 Right, sorry forgot you guys are in the U.K.
230v here
Alex, try Den sockets and switches, they’re a U.K. compatible products.
If you pause the video at 4:13, you can see N, L1, L2, L3, on the bottom of the new light switch, but nothing marked "COM".
Xavier Zymantas I'm pretty sure that L is the common
L is com, neutral in N, L1 first light live, L2 second light live, connect neutrals together and earth
This is because your existing light switches do not have neutral wires at all.
All you need is a 1 gang 1 way switch and it’ll work fine
Most houses DONT have a neutral at the switch since that's where most people's hands are. It's a shock hazard. You need to run a neutral from the ceiling rose or stick a sonoff into the ceiling rose and trigger it with a smart switch (through home assist or something like that). You can drop neuteals down the walls from your attic to the second floor switches but the problem is your ground floor, you need to rip up floor boards on the second floor which is a very nasty job. Without a neutral at the switch when you turn off the light the smart switch has no power supply. Only a live and a switched live. No neutral return path. You can't use the earth because that a building code violation.
The only alternative I know of is to use Lutron switches in the house with dimmable LED's. Instead of switching the lights the lutrons dim the LED's so low they appear off but there is still enough power left in the switch to run the wireless connection. Lutron are expensive as fuck unfortunately.
Ross Erman Canpolat nothing to do with shock hazard, if you touch the live and are grounded you will get a shock anyway, the reason is before smart switches it was not necessary and considerably reduces the amount of copper needed to wire a house.
Bro miss the daily vlogs so bad. Feels like something is missing in my life. Keep up the good work tho 👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽
Have you tried LightWave RF products? They don’t require a neutral wire.
I've got a smart switch in my room and it uses the ground as the neutral, there is no neutral at my switch as it is not switched fed. You can get some houses which are switched fed (live, neutral and switch wire at the switch) or you can get houses which have just 1 cable (live, SW live) with no neutral and that cable is just a switch wire from a junction box in the room. Electrician from the UK
Naughty not meant to use ground as neutral
Mathew Summers that’s what the instructions said and it had a cable attached to the lug to attach it to the back box.
Wouldn't it trip the RCD if you use earth as a neutral? Aussie sparky here! No idea how you poms and your ring main works 😂
I bought a Broadlink TC2 switch and it works flawlessly. (It does need an hub though)
That's werid that newer houses in the UK don't have neutral wire because in Canada now all newer houses have to have neutral and older houses do not
Maybe if you don’t touch the buttons under the glass that will help lol
I'm not even an electrician but understand that there is a Common and two Live outs dependant on the switch position. You're just thick.
You could've got the one that doesn't require a neutral wire. But requires a capacitor
Oh is this one of those things you bought and will send back after giving it a shitty review lol