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Household electrical for dummies!
- Thread starter Jayell
- Start date
The wire go to the same place as the old ones. The 2 wires with the purple marretts go to you switch.The dummy is me!
I'm replacing an old dimmer switch with a simple, single pole on/off switch.
The box is full of wires. I don't know what's what. I need to connect a white and a black and a ground. Which ones?
Sent from the future
Why is white being connected to your single pole switch? Normally you would connect two blacks to switch to interrupt hot as well as ground for safety. White would remain as it is now.
Edit:
My guess without testing anything (always dangerous to make assumptions) is you have hot coming in and hot going out to the next light/receptacle at the bottom and hot going out to light at the top.
Edit:
My guess without testing anything (always dangerous to make assumptions) is you have hot coming in and hot going out to the next light/receptacle at the bottom and hot going out to light at the top.
Doing electrical, while having no electrical knowledge is a recipe for disaster.
... the two black wires coming out of the box, in the purple wire nut, is line and goes to one side of the switch. The other single black wire coming out of the box is load and goes to the other side of the switch.
The box is grounded and when you screw the switch down, it connects to the ground.
... I think... could be wrong and this will burn your house down.
Turned the power off? Just keep one hand behind your back and you PROBABLY won't die.
... the two black wires coming out of the box, in the purple wire nut, is line and goes to one side of the switch. The other single black wire coming out of the box is load and goes to the other side of the switch.
The box is grounded and when you screw the switch down, it connects to the ground.
... I think... could be wrong and this will burn your house down.
Turned the power off? Just keep one hand behind your back and you PROBABLY won't die.
sburns
Well-known member
Hmm either this switch box is being used more like a junction box (powers other lights/switches), or it's a 3 way wire setup, meaning you might have 2 switches/dimmers at different locations to switch/on/off/or dim this light(s).
Just a guess.
This might help you solve this
or
maybe you can find a diagram to match what you have.
Just a guess.
This might help you solve this
or
maybe you can find a diagram to match what you have.
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The dimmer removed was not three way.
If the feed to the circuit went to the fixture first the neutral connection is made in the fixture box. The white is used for the switched live so a three wire cable isn't required to the switch.
A neighbour built a garage doing a basic wiring on switch, receptacle and single light bulb. Afterward he gave me the switch because he knew I liked taking broken things apart. The switch blew the fuse when he turned the light off. He felt he had wired it right, live wire to one terminal, switched wire to the other and the third terminal to ground.
RC-31
Well-known member
There are probably 3 cables coming into that box. If all the blacks are connected to each other and all the whites are connected to each other then it's probably connected like the picture I posted.
One cable is coming from the panel side and one cable is going to the next fixture down the line and the third cable is going to the light fixture that the switch controls.
Be careful. Unlike following bad advice on a 12V motorbike system, household power will kill and burn your house down and kill again.
In the diagram I used red for black and tan for white so you can see them over the black and white. I did not show the bare copper grounds. They should all be tied together and be bonded to the box.
The switch shown does not have a neutral connection.
One cable is coming from the panel side and one cable is going to the next fixture down the line and the third cable is going to the light fixture that the switch controls.
Be careful. Unlike following bad advice on a 12V motorbike system, household power will kill and burn your house down and kill again.
In the diagram I used red for black and tan for white so you can see them over the black and white. I did not show the bare copper grounds. They should all be tied together and be bonded to the box.
The switch shown does not have a neutral connection.
Attachments
I'm going to be a little more cavalier about this. You're not going to burn your house down, make some sparks or trip breakers, yes, but you won't burn your house down. The wiring the way it is indicates one of two scenarios. 1) one of the two black wires that are connected to each other are hot (line wire from panel) and the second wire just continues power on toward an outlet or some other light switch somewhere. The single black wire goes to the light fixture. 2) the single black wire is the the hot wire, the two that are connected to each other go to two separate light fixtures. The first scenario is the more likely, but in either case if you wire the new switch back to the way the dimmer was wired you'll be fine. This is most definitely not a 3 way switch setup.
Unless the switch is powered (sounds like no) it is very simple, the switch goes between the two purple marrettes/splices and connects only to the black wires (hot) just like the old dimmer. The black wire in the top splice one can (should) go directly to the switch (no need for that splice) you will need to make a pigtail for the lower splice. The neutral/white stay as is. The new switch may have a ground screw, no need to connect the ground to it in Canada, it will be grounded through the box.
Scenarios where white may be used by the switch device... (but not in this case)
-Smart switches and timers need power so they will have both hot and neutral connections to power the device.
-Some electricians like(d) to feed the power to the octagonal box at the light, the then run two (14/2) wire cable down from the light to the switch. The white wire is then used as a switched wire (hot to the switch on black, power back to the light on white), it should in this case have black tape on it. This (using two wire) is no longer permitted by new code (only applies to new wiring) and every switch box needs a neutral now, so if feeding this way now it is 14/3 and the red will be used as the switch wire--why, see first point (powered switches).
-Last in some three-way switch scenarios white may have been used as a switch wire. Same as the point above, must have a neutral in the box so pretty much not in new code.
Avoid the temptation to backstab the switch, wires properly under screws.
Scenarios where white may be used by the switch device... (but not in this case)
-Smart switches and timers need power so they will have both hot and neutral connections to power the device.
-Some electricians like(d) to feed the power to the octagonal box at the light, the then run two (14/2) wire cable down from the light to the switch. The white wire is then used as a switched wire (hot to the switch on black, power back to the light on white), it should in this case have black tape on it. This (using two wire) is no longer permitted by new code (only applies to new wiring) and every switch box needs a neutral now, so if feeding this way now it is 14/3 and the red will be used as the switch wire--why, see first point (powered switches).
-Last in some three-way switch scenarios white may have been used as a switch wire. Same as the point above, must have a neutral in the box so pretty much not in new code.
Avoid the temptation to backstab the switch, wires properly under screws.
Just curious as to why?
Bleeping terrible connection. Tiny contact point with minimal pressure. Lots of heat buildup there. There are some decent backstabs where you put the wire in straight and then tightening the screw closes a clamp but they are far less common than the tiny bent piece of metal.
EDIT:
Note the tiny shiny area where pressure is applied.
The second part of the suck is it's harder to release the backstabs so people end up cutting them off which wastes a bit of wire. Shouldn't be an issue but sometimes previous hacks have really limited the amount of wire you have to work with.
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The connections can become loose over time, worse on cheap outlets and switches. Will they for sure, no, but it is actually one of the most common "faults" that cause eventual nuisance arc-fault trips so it shows it is a "problem" in many cases.
This is for the "spring" backstab connections not screw down ones.
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