New answers tagged switch
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The old smart switch is not capable of controlling a fan and light separately... and you never claimed it did. That means your 3 cables are
Supply (always-hot)
Onward (always-hot) power to something else
(Switched-hot) power to the fan/light
First, all grounds get nutted together with a pigtail that you'll need to buy, and get pushed into the back of the ...
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Assuming set of wires in the middle ( bottom right ) are hot and that you know the other 2 sets of wires go to the fan and light :
Your double switch has 4 terminals on it. Take note that on one side of it there is a jumper which connects 2 terminals together. Let's call that your "hot side".
The other side of that switch has 2 terminals on that AREN'T ...
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As you have now learned the hard way, always take a picture BEFORE disconnecting any wires. That way (a) you can put things back to the original configuration if necessary and (b) the original configuration can help others trying to figure out what is going on. That being said, the simple setup would be:
One set of wires = power in from panel. Presumably ...
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86 volts sounds like you might have an open neutral, and you're reading backfeed through a load somewhere. Time to call an electrician - usually this sort of thing happens because a white wire on 2 conductor cable had been used for a switch leg, but somebody went into a box and went color to color putting wires back together, which opens the normal return ...
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I have no personal experience with ETEKCITY. However, based on a quick, non-scientific, perusal of their web site, I get the sense of "pretty web page selling cheap junk". Not that I am against cheap junk per se - I often go that direction myself, for certain products. But for controlling 120V equipment, I tend to prefer the better stuff. The rules are a bit ...
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Electrical problems such as this, you're more than likely going to need an electrician..I will NEVER advise people to dig into wiring.
A bad sign:
You mentioned this circuit only works a couple times a year ? Oh boy, that is NOT good.
What it could be, and what a homeowner can do without digging into the wiring:
Post a person AT EACH SWITCH for ease of ...
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Unless you are planning to do some patching and painting I am afraid you are stuck with a 4G box. If you want to remove the switch because its just irritating you can use a switch blank shown below:
These can be found in most big box hardware stores and online. They come in different colors and can be found in decora style also.
Good luck.
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These new smart switches are active devices, and power themselves between supply (their black) and neutral (their white obviously). Therefore they care about the difference between supply (their black) and switched/lamp power (their red). Your old switches didn't care about that.
You need the smart-switch black (supply) to go to the bundle of black ...
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You need to reverse the line and load on the left switch
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Wires that are green, yellow/green stripe, or bare, are always and only Protective Earth aka Equipment Safety Ground*. They must only be connected to each other and never anything else. That makes the green-white splice WRONG, and it should be removed immediately and attached to real ground where it belongs.
Protective Earth is always a safety shield, ...
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You do not need the green wire that is going to the neutral(s) remove that. There is a ground connected to the box in the back so on your new switches remove the paper “nut” or screw retainers prior to installing the switch. The last part is put the single wire on 1 lug of your new switch then the 2 blacks pigtail to the other lug. You only need a standard ...
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It appears that this is a common situation where the switch is "tapping" a run of source 120V. The bundle of black wires includes the source, a connection to your switch, and a connection downstream to other items. Ditto for the bundle of white return wires.
The single pair of black wires is almost certainly the connection to the hot side of the light ...
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It sounds like the wire from your bathroom ended up in the wrong place, the good thing it won’t hurt to swap them around until you get the correct combination. The back stabs or quick connects are electrically connected to the screws so the hot and the line to the bath were connected, your job now is to move your wires. There should be at least 2 cables ...
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Stop. You can't just grab any old wire.
You need two specific wires: (always) hot, and neutral. And they need to come from the same cable. This point is very important for not setting up a current loop, causing wire vibration, eddy current heating, and arc failures.
Now, switches which have a white wire are no help. Normal switches don't take ...
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If you are sure that there is only 1 (one) always hot black wire, then follow these steps:
Turn off power at the breaker.
Connect all of the ground wires together with a wirenut and stuff them in to the box.
Connect all of the white wires together with a wirenut and stuff them in to the box.
Get yourself a 6 inch piece of black wire and strip the ends. You'...
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The garage door needs safety switches, as well as a reversing switch, a switch to detect end of travel (limit switch) and a switch to detect that correct force has been applied to keep the door closed. Simply turning the power to the whole door-opener on and off does nothing.
If you want to use the Gosund outlet to bypass the remote control terminals, you'...
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Like Mark Twain said, "it ain't what you don't know that gets ya... it's what you know that just ain't so!"
You're talking about travelers, well there are no 3-way switches here, so there are no travelers.
There is such a thing as a switched-hot wire, i.e. that is energized when the switch is on / the device is intended to be energized. But that is not ...
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You need to take one of the wires off of the load side of the fan switch and see what happens when you operate the fan switch. If the bathroom fixtures work as they are supposed to, then the remaining wire, which feeds the other lights, needs to be connected to a hot line. If, on the other hand, the switch operated the other lights, then remove that wire and ...
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You're really talking about a "Watts vs VA" issue.
Go back and look at Tester101's "triac dimmer" illustration.
Watts is the power you actually use (excluding the black area under the sine wave).
VA is the entire sinewave that the generator must generate to create the part you use.
"Power factor" is the difference between the watts you are actually ...
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Sounds like a DPST rotary switch. Basically it's "On/Off/On/Off" but for a 240v motor that only goes one direction (think big attic fan). When used in conjunction with a capacitor (aka "converter") you can use single phase power to run 3-phase motors. Simple, yet brilliant! I'll try to sketch out a schematic to clarify:
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To review the color codes:
Green, yellow/green, or bare are grounds.
white or gray are neutral, but if the wire is in a cable, it can be used as a hot if it is re-marked with paint or tape. Many people forget the marking, but don't do it.
every other native wire color can only be used for hot.
Your lamp needs genuine neutral. Attaching it’s white wire ...
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That didn't get that way by itself.
In multiple-switch situations, it is quite common for both switched devices to be powered from the same circuit. Hot wires are switched (neutrals aren't), so we are working with "hots".
A switch connects supply hot to a switched-hot wire (that is only energized when the switch is on).
Since both switches use the ...
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First things first. I am assuming this is US residential 120V AC.
Crimp sleeves are not an acceptable method of joining conductors. They should only be used on ground wires.
Your junction box is looking pretty full. Does the cover plate fit on that?
Now check how the switched outlet is wired. It will either be hot at the switch or hot at the outlet. Look ...
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The wire nut in the middle has three black wires going to it, so it's likely the feed in, that then gets daisy-chained out to other fixtures. Looks like all 4 neutrals (one in, one out to other fixtures, and the two to the fixtures switched here) are commoned in the wire nut at the back of the box.
From that live junction, it then feeds the switch on the ...
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It looks like your current switch is on a switch loop. The wires you've labeled A1 and A2 are not neutral and hot, they are always-hot and switched-hot.
That means that to convert this to a 3-way configuration, you need to wire it like this:
As @Harper pointed out in the comments, since A1 and B2 aren't acting as neutrals, you should mark them with black ...
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It would appear that was the location of the 4-way switch. Twist the red wires and wire nut. Twist the white wires and wire nut. Stuff them back into the box and use a blank cover. There will be 2 other switches that now control the light. Open both locations and the one with just one set of wires going to it is the dead end side. From that point you can ...
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This would be easier to answer had you shown us a picture of how the conductors were connected to the switch before you removed it. Since we don't have that, we have to guess, which is inherently dangerous. I will go ahead and guess, but that doesn't mean you should act on my guess, because it could be perilous if I have guessed incorrectly. Also, you should ...
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The picture with the wires showing where there are 2 red and 2 white wire look like you had a 4-way switch there meaning there is actually 3 locations where the switches shut off the lights. If you splice together the 2 whites under one wirenut and the 2 red under another wire nut that will take the switch out of the picture. Then you can go to the other ...
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