dimmer-switchswitch
Recently purchased and installed a Z-Wave Dimmer switch which seemed to be an easy installation. However, the only way I can get the light to turn off is to enable the air gap on the switch. If the air gap isn't open, the light is on no matter what.
Neither the physical switch on the dimmer nor turning off the switch off via zwave turns off the light–only the air gap.
White bundle are neutrals.
Blacks are hot.
White/Red combo is to the light.
Green is ground.
If the switch has screw terminals as opposed to wire leads you DO have to pig-tail a piece of wire to the splice and then connect that tail to the switch. DO NOT place more than one wire under a binding screw terminal, unless of course it is designed for it. Even in that case it would only be designed for up to two wires.
Do you have a model number for this switch?
Regarding the neutral wires in the box, NO not every wire goes back to the breaker box. This is why you have several whites. One is a feed and the others are feed out to other items on the same circuit. If there is more than one circuit in the box then the neutrals from those different circuit should NOT be spliced. The only time this is not the case is if it is a multi-wire branch circuit (shared neutral).
Best Answer
From what you described and showed, and assuming that it was just a regular single pole switch you replaced that worked fine before, the wiring does look correct (though I'd skip the extra black pigtail wire that goes between the white and orange wire nuts).
Sounds like the switch itself is defective, and the best course of action would be to exchange it where you purchased it. Remember, these things have a fair bit of electronics in them, so it can happen. Sorry for your luck.