JR Touch Neon Switch - 4 Gang

The JR Touch Neon Switch 4 Gang is a four channel Z-Wave touch panel, made in India, in a 2M glass panel with a metal bezel. Four backlit icons sit on the face and you choose each one through the JR web portal, so the plate is labelled for the room rather than left blank.

• The JR Touch Neon Switch 4 Gang on a 2M plate
• Set the backlight colour to the room
• Every panel strengthens the network
• Five amps a channel, with surge protection
• What it needs

A Z-Wave controller is required and is not included.

The JR Touch Neon Switch 4 Gang on a 2M plate

The JR Touch Neon Switch 4 Gang fits four channels onto a 2M glass panel with a metal bezel, which is a smaller face than four conventional switches would occupy. In a bedroom with the ceiling light, the bedside circuit, the balcony and a fan, or in an office with four banks of lighting, that is the difference between one tidy plate and a row of plates that never quite line up.

Set the backlight colour to the room

The icons are RGB backlit and the colour is yours to choose, so the plate can be warm white in a bedroom and something cooler in an office. The brightness then manages itself, rising in daylight and falling at night, so a four icon plate does not become a nightlight in a bedroom or an unreadable grey square at noon.

Every panel strengthens the network

These are mains powered, so each one repeats for every other Z-Wave device around it. Fit four of them through a house and the sensors, locks and modules in between all get a better path back to the hub. Battery controllers cannot do this, which is why a house built on wired Z-Wave switches tends to be more reliable than one built on battery pads.

Five amps a channel, with surge protection

Each of the four channels is rated 5 A, and surge protection is built into the panel rather than assumed to be somewhere upstream. On a plate carrying four mains circuits in a place where the supply is not always well behaved, that is worth having as standard.

What it needs

A Z-Wave controller, not included. Z-Wave Plus on the 700 series with SmartStart inclusion, so you scan the code rather than hunting through a learn mode. Ours are the Fibaro Home Center Lite, the Fibaro Home Center 2 and the Homey Pro.

If the room also has a ceiling fan, the 4 gang with a fan controller covers both from one plate. Fewer circuits is the 2 gang, more is the 8 gang. It retrofits into a standard modular back box and an electrician fits it. There is a plain summary of Z-Wave on Wikipedia.