Hey guys, I would like to know, for our light switches in Malaysian homes, does it have a neutral wire?

must have live and neutral

Great, thanks!

Neutral is on the ceiling or where the light point at. On the switch will not have.

If you need, ask electrician to tap from nearest plug point.

This post has been edited by weikee: Nov 20 2016, 01:58 PM

There is no neutral in the light switch.

if you are lucky and there's an aircond/water heater switch next to it then you can tap the neutral wire.
else you are out of luck. need to pull from the top.

planning to use smart switch?

Haha, yeah. Now doing my research.

You have one installed ?

Thanks for clarifying.

Thanks for clarifying.

My wiring man managed to pull the neutral wire from the top and charging about rm60 per 'set' of switches at one location. (Well he did other wiring works so not sure whether this rm60 is part of discounted prices or normal or expensive price).

Which type you intend to buy??

I'm looking at TP Link Light Switch.
But I just found out that their switch is much bigger in size than what we have locally.
Which is a bummer.

You're using one at the moment? Which brand?

I have bought a few China brand Orvibo smart switches.
The wiring man has just installed a few switches and am supposed to test out the switches in the coming week.

Ohh, ok. Mind showing some pics of the light switch? It fits our standard size?

Installed but not tested yet lol. Ya it pretty much fits into the existing socket.

nah, lazy to change all switches and configure them 1 by 1
just got light sensor for back yard to turn on when dark
timer for front porch to turn on in the evenings
and a remote control switch for master bedroom so no need to walk to the wall switch


my home automation is done!

oh, still looking for a reliable motion sensor to turn on upstairs hall lights.

Recommend to get lifesmart or xiaomi smarthome. As these 2 company are currently working for Apple HOME compatible.

Thanks for the recommendation.

But currently I'm only looking specifically at smart light switches.
LifeSmart does look interesting but it doesn't have Amazon Echo compatibility.

Lutron caseta switches might be a good choice

thanks, i'll take a look.

thanks i'll do more research.

which ones are amazon echo compatible?

From my research, the ones that are Amazon Echo compatible are:

1. Belkin Wemo Light Switch
2. TP Link Smart Light Switch

I was considering both, but the size of the switch and fitting is bigger than our normal light switches (at least in my house).
And also they require a neutral wire for it to work.

too expensive and not very nice looking.

i've been using wiwo switches just for turning off/on. would have been nice if they are echo integrated

I know this is super old post but hopefully TS still on lowyat. Did you eventually pull neutral wire for your switches? How much did it cost?

See the home automation thread.. nowadays u can get smart switch w a capacitor inside that works without neutral.

Pulling neutral from 13A socket or Aircon swirch nearby still OK, but don't ever pull from water heater switch because WH circuit is sacred (it operates with very tight leakage tolerance to protect against faults when you are in the shower).

oooo, so the non-neutral works on capacitor? I read online somewhere that it works on variable resistance, so there might be flickering issue. Would the capacitor reduce the chances of flickering?

If you choose the wrong type of capacitor, it will flicker. That is what happened to me recently.

Recently I bought ZigBee smart switch that works with both neutral or no neutral. No need to install any capacitor at all even though my setup is no neutral. Just replace the switch and done. It's a 3 gang switch connected to fan, led downlights and t5 L box light. No flickering so far 😁

If your lights are of higher than 5W, then high chance you won't see it flicker.

Not necessarily, some switch specs says minimum 10w. Read alot of shopee comments saying having flickering issue. Better confirm the specs before buy to avoid disappointment

The switch I bought specs says minimum 3w to avoid flickering issue. The best part is no neutral and no capacitor needed 😁

Update us in 6/12months see got issues or not

Sure, if I remember la 😂

Dunno how reliable are these smart switches. I read in the unified thread, those expensive terncy with neutral also died within a year 🤦‍♂️

Now you see it flicker cuz it's still outputing more than 5w. Over time it will degrade and you will see it flickering... It's all about time...

so I'm assuming this is using the variable resistance method?

Sorry, this switch not for is not dimmer switch
So far I see ZigBee dimmer switch does require neutral.

no no, I meant the way non neutral smart switch work. I read somewhere that the way they keep the smart switch "on" in non-neutral connection is by using a variable resistor. So when it is physically turned off, the switch will have high enough resistance to prevent the bulb from lighting up but still enough current to keep the chip powered.

Oic, not sure about that though.

Here's the link, maybe you can read up what the spec mentioned or you can contact the seller. Seller quite responsive with questions.

https://shopee.com.my/product/372243380/996...45-1633274766.9

alright, thanks for the link!

Hi sifus, for aircons do you need a switch with neutral or without a neutral? Recommended to have the switch on its own or can be group together in a 2/3 gang with other appliances?

In general, what appliances will need a switch with neutral?

Thank you.

This post has been edited by keit: Oct 7 2021, 04:25 PM

For AC it is not required neutral, but if you have a neutral then u can get that little red LED to work.

For WH water heater mandated 20A double pole switch by law.

Lain lain (13A SSO, lights) switch no neutral.

This post has been edited by ceo684: Oct 7 2021, 08:26 PM

Thank you sis!

Bought additional switches since quite happy with the initial switch performance 😁

The dimmer switch looks and feels nice