Note that some Z-wave vendors seem to be listening to you. GE is advertising “QuickFit” on their newer switches that are 20% less deep: https://ezzwave.com/ge-enbrighten-z-wave-plus-wall-smart-dimmer-quickfit-and-simplewire
I have a couple of these and they are a bit better, but I’d like to see more reduction in both depth and width to make them easier to install.
What I keep wondering is why no one makes a double switch that fits in a 2-gang box. Rather than jamming two separate units in, you could have one slightly larger unit with a single radio to control both relays. It would also help 3-gang and 4-gang boxes.
That didn’t even occur to me. I could rewire an outlet to be switchable. I guess the wireless advocates would say you don’t need to rewire an outlet to be switchable, you just need to put in a Z-wave receptacle. But I like the idea of flexibility. I guess I wouldn’t necessarily need conduit on those. That means home runs for every individual light and receptacle, and conduit to every switch box. I wonder if it will be a challenge to figure out how to run all that wire and conduit back to one basement room without the benefit of a drop ceiling.
I think you will find that even zwave fans will tell you if you can do it with wires you should do it with wires. It’s just that if you can’t do it with wires, it’s almost always going to be too expensive to run wires to make it possible unless you are already renovating the house and have the walls down to the studs. And there will be always some new use case that crops up that wasn’t considered when you ran the wires and resorting to wirless is required.
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