In Control Posted July 10, 2009 Share Posted July 10, 2009 Just spent an hour or so digging around my C4 gear which was delivered today ahead of my install. Unfortunately my builder is running behind so not quite ready to stick it all in yet - but it is getting so close I can taste it!!One question - I have a whole bunch of inline dimmers in my install but only a couple of keypads. Am I right in guessing that I would keep all of my normal "non C4" switch plates and the in line dimmers run the lighting by, in a sense, overriding those switches.I know that's got to be the wrong description - but I guess what I am asking is whether the in line dimmer will be able to completely control the lighting (via the remote or GUI) regardless as to whether the switch is on or off?Also - Could the switch the lights turn off via the swtiches even though they were turned on via C4?Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jberger Posted July 10, 2009 Share Posted July 10, 2009 Not quite sure what you are asking, but here's an off the cuff response. On c4 lighting legs, all of the switches, dimmers and keypads will be c4. There will be no intermediate, in line, standard switches or dimmers as that would prevent any automated lighting. On a standard light switch location, you will simply use a c4 switch or dimmer instead. On a 3 way light switch location, the c4 switch/dimmer will be placed closest to the actual load (fixture) and a keypad is used in the alternate location. If your builder wired the house for standard lighting and you are upgrading to C4, then the elec or contractor will just swap the switches for the c4 units in the appropriate locations and you can choose to reuse the switchplates or use c4 switchplates instead. So are you going to be installing this yourself, or did the dealer deliver ahead of your install? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
In Control Posted July 10, 2009 Author Share Posted July 10, 2009 Dealer delivered ahead of the install.. As you can tell from my question, I can spell C4 but that is about it.Very keen to learn though, so hence my questions.you said ..."then the elec or contractor will just swap the switches for the c4 units in the appropriate locations and you can choose to reuse the switchplates or use c4 switchplates instead." . If I used the old switchplates, would they have to be always "on" to allow the C4 to control the lighting?Sorry for the newbie question but thanks for your help Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akg4y Posted July 10, 2009 Share Posted July 10, 2009 I think I understand your question... it was something I was unclear about as well and ended up spending more money as a result. Basically in any single-pole situation (one switch controlling the light) you just replace the standard switch with either a C4 dimmer or C4 switch. In the 3-way and 4-way setups (more than one switch controlling the same light) you replace one of the standard switches with a C4 dimmer or C4 switch and replace all of the other standard switches controlling that light with keypads. For example, there are 5 switches controlling my upstairs hallway lights. I picked the one we used the most and told them to replace that one with the C4 dimmer, and the remaining 4 switches were replaced with 2 button or 3 button keypads. As long as your electrician has installed the C4 dimmers/switches before it will be no problem for them to do this and put the C4 dimmer in any of the locations, but if your electrician is new at this or hasnt done it before then they may not understand exactly what needs to be done if you want the dimmer location to be somewhere along the 4-way chain other than at the very end. The rest of what I write here may be TMI and beyond what you need, but just in case Ill explain it to save you the headache of trying to figure it out. Essentially lets consider a 4 way setup with 3 switches and a light as the load:Breaker box HOT --> 1 --> 2 --> 3 --> LightSwitch #1 will have a hot coming in and two travelers going out to switch #2.Switch #2 will have those two travelers coming in and 2 travelers going out to Switch #3.Switch #3 will have the two travelers coming in and one 'leg' going out to the light.If you want your dimmer in the Switch #3 position it is easy, just connect hot to black, ground to green, neutral to white, and red to the leg (light). The blue traveler on the C4 dimmer can be used to send power over one of the traveler wires back to the other switch location if you want, but in our house we just left it unconnected. Then at each of the other switch locations you just connect the black of the keypads to a hot, ground to ground, and white to neutral and leave the travelers unconnected.If you want your dimmer in either Switch 1 or Switch 2 location then you have to take the leg wire from the switch 3 location and connect it to one of the travelers and then connect the traveler to the red on the dimmer. The rest of the wiring stays basically the same. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
In Control Posted July 10, 2009 Author Share Posted July 10, 2009 Thanks akg4y. That's excellent - amazing the know how that is tapped into this forum.I'll try and digest this and run by my dealer before the install. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akg4y Posted July 10, 2009 Share Posted July 10, 2009 Oh I should also mention that the way I described above is the most common wiring situation for 4 way switches, but there are other ways to do it including having the line at the light fixture... I dont think that is common anymore though.Edit: Corrected for post below Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RyanE Posted July 10, 2009 Share Posted July 10, 2009 Ahem...I think you mean the *line* at the light fixture... The load *is* the light fixture, kind of hard to separate them...RyanE Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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