I recently become a home owner and have been looking forward to start working on making it “smart”, however, it seems like I’ve ran into a blocker just as I was getting started.
I’m replacing standard “dumb switches” and got off to a good start with my first attempt. Pretty simple, black, red, white and ground all wired to the smart switch (Kasa Smart Light Switch HS200P3).
Upon starting to swap out the next switch, I found it odd that although there were “ground” wires in the box, none of them were actually connected to the dumb switch. I figured it might have been an oversight. I removed a handful of other switches throughout the house and came across the same scenario.
The ground wires would typically be ~4 for a 3 switch hookup but they were all twisted together. I did find another ~4 white, neutral, cables bundles together & thought okay - maybe they were lasy to get the ground wires but at least I have the neutral wires to use for my smart switch and the ground wires to get those connected.
I got load, line, neutral and ground hooked up to the smart switch. The smart switch does show signs of power as it lights up a wifi symbol, however, the switch when on/off simply don’t result in the lights powering on or off.
I disconnected neutral and reconnected dumb switch back to line, load, & now ground - works just as it was. Figured I might have missed something when wiring the smart switch so got it rewired - same behavior.
I’m not sure if it’s a neutral wire that may be causing the issue or anything else I may be doing wrong. I’ve wired various of the switches at my previous residence and it was a breeze…
I thought I might have a defective smart switch so tried another one - same issue.
I’m new to the home improvement community but eager to learn more even if it requires trial and error but I’m stuck on what I should check for next, attempt to determine root cause, or if there’s something I’m simply doing incorrectly.
Any feedback, whether criticizing my lack of knowledge or providing resources/tips on how to get this working would be greatly appreciated!