It would be nice if wyze would add an optional wyze light switch that doesn’t require a neutral wire for those of us with older homes. They exist in other companies but I’d prefer not to add a new app to my phone if I don’t have to.
A no-neutral Wyze Switch was previously requested in the Wishlist topic linked below. The request was in the researching phase for some time and Wyze was in the process of testing the feasibility of hardware possibilities internally. Unfortunately, because Wyze has shifted their focus to only cams, and what appears to be AI improvements in the coming year, the No-Neutral Switch project was killed. Wyze posted about it in a recent AMA event:
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Unfortunately it’s almost an impossibility. If there is no neutral, and the switch is closed, there is no voltage potential across the switch - which is required to power the switch electronics. Same problem happens if there is no load device plugged into the switch.
This is the specific reason that the U.S. National Electrical Code now requires a neutral be available to switches in new construction.
NEC Section 404.2(C) is the requirement…
They could do a sort of relay switch. Aqara makes a relay that works pretty well. Basically, the main power keeps the relay on 24/7 then it lets you plug in the light switch into it, and it will turn the light on or off.
Example:
Wyze could totally do something like that, no neutral wire needed. Just make it a relay that has a switch on it. Problem solved. Not impossible at all, and no risk of the “battery” dying or power being disconnected.
I’m probably going to do something like that now that Wyze is canceling their project.
I have many of these installed. They are still widely available. It was my choice because it does not require a Hub and the switches will BT Link from another switch if it can’t get a good WiFi signal.
GE CYNC Smart Light Switch, No Neutral Wire Required, Bluetooth and 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi 3-Wire Smart Switch, On/Off Paddle Style, Works with Alexa and Google Home, White
https://a.co/d/4zevIPl
Leviton makes one:
https://a.co/d/gF4Xvhm
Amazon seems to not know about the impossibility.
https://a.co/d/jdNoTHj
https://a.co/d/7FnDX7v
https://a.co/d/bgZIL5U
My smart home runs under Hubitat Elevation. It was built in 1969 (no aluminum wiring thankfully) and has no neutrals in the electrical boxes or behind them. Every switch location has only one black wire and one white wire.
Tuya makes smart light switches that do not require a neutral. I have several of the Zigbee versions. They also make WiFi versions that do not need a neutral,
https://a.aliexpress.com/_mPgX8is
I like these because they don’t require a neutral and they are touch sensitive. I also have motion sensors that turn the light on before I get in the room.
My point is that there are smart switches that don’t require a neutral,
Heck, it’s better than knob and tube, which is what the house I grew up in had. I remember my father griping about having to work around the gas pipe in the light fixture.