Thank you for your help but as an electrician, this video would be more helpful had you spent more time on actually identifying a neutral wire. I’m sitting here seeking help because I have 2 purple wires and a red which Is why identification is important to me, I don’t care about a smart home wire when my house is newer. I care more about figuring out which one is neutral wire.
I have two white wires and one hot black. Voltage is same from black to both white wires. Seems like a hard video to find, I guess I will use an outlet testor (I use HT106B) which shows open neutral, open l1, l1-gnd reversed l1-neutral reversed or l1-gnd reversed, perhaps tone generator.
Are you working on a commercial light fixture? Normally purple is used as a dimmer control wire (24volts I think) and the red is a hot wire. What did you remove that you trying to replace?
@@Wavefront101 how old is the house? One wire might be a switch hit leg that was not correctly marked. Is there a light in the curling? I bet one white and one black wire goes to the light fixture but both are hot just one is used for power to fixture and one returns it to the switch
When wiring a smart switch in a box with more than one switch (usually looks like a gaggle of wires) does it matter which neutral wire you use? Are there separate neutral wires for each switch? I usually just locate a bundle of white wires. Half the time my switch I install gets power, half the time it doesn’t.
Thanks for your video, i am installing 2 way smart switch, one switch does not have neutral the other has wht and blk bundled together . I identified all wires and traveller wires but not sure about those 2 if they are neutral or not. My home is built in 98
This video is great if your wiring was done by a professional using the proper coloring cables to identify. I have some sockets home-wired by the previous homeowner done as cheaply as possible with the same color wire for everything. What kind of voltage should you be getting from a neutral wire? How to measure with a multimeter? Thanks!
You get no voltage from a neutral wire to ground, but approximately 120 volts from the hot wire. The hot (line) wire will be connected the switch. With power turn on (use caution) it will have the approx 120 volts to neutral and ground. Also you should have little to no resistance from the neutral to the ground (this may not be the case if wire is from a sub-panel).
This was invaluable advice to aid me in installing a smart light switch in my kitchen. I really didn't get the concept and importance of the nuetral connection for this application. I struggled to the point of giving up because of the three solid wires I'd need to join to the stranded wire of the light switch for the neutral connection. I used a Wago in place of the wirenut and finally finished the installation.
My 2 way switch has 1 red and 2 blue wires at top of stairs, and 1 brown and 2 blue in the switch at the bottom of the stairs. I don't know if one of the 3 is ground or neutral. How can I find out if the third wire is ground or neutral? Does it matter with switch of the 2 switches is master and which is slave?
I don’t have any problem finding white hot wire but I don’t get how you have two blacks for a single pole switch. My wire is one black one white and one green (hot neutral and ground). Is this enough to make feint work?
Hello. Great video's. I just purchased a brand new home. I open the switch box that has 3 switches (3 gang box). There is no white wire. I noticed there is a red, black, and copper. I noticed 2 wires (red and black has a white piece of tape groups them together) and other individual black wires. How do I determine which wire is White/Neutral? I've never seen this type of crap in my life. I've opened and replaced a lot of light switches. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thx
Neutral wire often enters the box where the fixture is located but years ago it did not always extend to the switch location. A black and white wire often went from the fixture to a switch box. One wire took the power to the switch and the other wire brought the power back to the fixture. The white wire was supposed to be painted black or marked with black tape indicating it was a hot wire. No neutral wire is needed for the switch to do its job BUT since 2011 a neutral wire is required by code to be present in the switch box even though it may not be used. It's there just in case someone wants to install a timer or smart switch in the future.
I replaced an existing light switch with the BN-LINK Heavy Duty 60-Minute in-Wall Spring Loaded Countdown Timer for my bathroom fan. My 1980s house in Massachusetts has neutrals and ground wires in each location however this mechanical dial timer wall switch only has two wires and no ground. Am I violating code or should I return it for a switch with a ground or perhaps a switch that has both ground AND neutral wires?
The Caseta as well as other switches that do not require a neutral, also do not work directly with Alexa. They require a separate automation hub for interconnectivity. Is this necessarily true for ALL switches that don't require a neutral?
I guess I don't have a neutral? I want to connect 2 gang wifi dimmer with 3 cables. The voltage between cables: 19,5 V between yellow and blue 172,5 V between brown and blue 226,3 V between brown and yellow
If I want to connect a neutral to the smart switch, do I unscrew the wire nut, and splice the wire from the smart switch with the two existing wires with the nut?
You'd want the Lutron Casetta smart light switch kit; just note that they are a bit more expensive than others, and do require the Lutron hub to function whereas some smart switches function without a hub over WiFi directly.
I have black, orange and yellow. Yellow is my hot wire.. the other 2 I do not know. How do I identify my black wire and orange wire. Note: the above pertains to a light switch that is located in my garage.
Hey, I love the board you're using there. I want to build one that has a socket on it also so i can preload my smart switches, sockets, and lights all from the same board without having to make multiple trips to my breaker panel. Have you made a video on how to do that? If not, can you show us how to build it?
Might have been nice to have explained that code now requires a neutral wire in a switch box and to cite the year of code that put this in effect. I have not looked up the year so I will not cite the year, however, if making such a video, I would gave researched and not left it out or quoted from memory.
It is NOT true that if you have a white wire that it has to be the neutral wire. Many homes have just a black Hot wire and a white Load wire with NO neutral wire.
Perfectly clear and concise, saved me a call to an electrician. Perfect!
Thank you for your help but as an electrician, this video would be more helpful had you spent more time on actually identifying a neutral wire. I’m sitting here seeking help because I have 2 purple wires and a red which Is why identification is important to me, I don’t care about a smart home wire when my house is newer. I care more about figuring out which one is neutral wire.
I have two white wires and one hot black. Voltage is same from black to both white wires. Seems like a hard video to find, I guess I will use an outlet testor (I use HT106B) which shows open neutral, open l1, l1-gnd reversed l1-neutral reversed or l1-gnd reversed, perhaps tone generator.
Are you working on a commercial light fixture? Normally purple is used as a dimmer control wire (24volts I think) and the red is a hot wire. What did you remove that you trying to replace?
This was for sherry
@@Wavefront101 how old is the house? One wire might be a switch hit leg that was not correctly marked. Is there a light in the curling? I bet one white and one black wire goes to the light fixture but both are hot just one is used for power to fixture and one returns it to the switch
Doesnt he say it's the white one? 2:34
Wow, very clear instructions. I was debating what type of switch to buy. Now I know exactly what I need. Thank You for the help.
When wiring a smart switch in a box with more than one switch (usually looks like a gaggle of wires) does it matter which neutral wire you use? Are there separate neutral wires for each switch? I usually just locate a bundle of white wires. Half the time my switch I install gets power, half the time it doesn’t.
Thanks for your video, i am installing 2 way smart switch, one switch does not have neutral the other has wht and blk bundled together . I identified all wires and traveller wires but not sure about those 2 if they are neutral or not. My home is built in 98
yeah so all 3 wires in my ceiling are black lol. i was hoping for a video on how to actually identify them, not what color they are
Me too. Video was not helpful
This video is great if your wiring was done by a professional using the proper coloring cables to identify. I have some sockets home-wired by the previous homeowner done as cheaply as possible with the same color wire for everything. What kind of voltage should you be getting from a neutral wire? How to measure with a multimeter? Thanks!
You get no voltage from a neutral wire to ground, but approximately 120 volts from the hot wire. The hot (line) wire will be connected the switch. With power turn on (use caution) it will have the approx 120 volts to neutral and ground.
Also you should have little to no resistance from the neutral to the ground (this may not be the case if wire is from a sub-panel).
This video was exactly what I was looking for. Thanks for making this video ❤
If I have three light switches in the same box, how do I identify each neutral wire connected to each switch?
Great video! I've got 3 black wires going into my current switch. Any thoughts on how to identify which wire is which?
Reddit 😂
very clear description thank-you.
This was invaluable advice to aid me in installing a smart light switch in my kitchen. I really didn't get the concept and importance of the nuetral connection for this application. I struggled to the point of giving up because of the three solid wires I'd need to join to the stranded wire of the light switch for the neutral connection. I used a Wago in place of the wirenut and finally finished the installation.
You also need one for the levitron humidity setector switch but I guess this would be considered smart?
My 2 way switch has 1 red and 2 blue wires at top of stairs, and 1 brown and 2 blue in the switch at the bottom of the stairs.
I don't know if one of the 3 is ground or neutral. How can I find out if the third wire is ground or neutral?
Does it matter with switch of the 2 switches is master and which is slave?
I don’t have any problem finding white hot wire but I don’t get how you have two blacks for a single pole switch. My wire is one black one white and one green (hot neutral and ground). Is this enough to make feint work?
Awesome video. This is exactly what I needed to identify my neutral wire for smart switch installation. Thank you so much!
Great to hear!
Hello. Great video's. I just purchased a brand new home. I open the switch box that has 3 switches (3 gang box). There is no white wire. I noticed there is a red, black, and copper. I noticed 2 wires (red and black has a white piece of tape groups them together) and other individual black wires. How do I determine which wire is White/Neutral? I've never seen this type of crap in my life. I've opened and replaced a lot of light switches. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thx
I too am in the same situation. Waiting for an answer.
Thank you, answered my question
Happy to help!
Neutral is always needed to bring electricity back, just some are ran straight to light fixture
Neutral wire often enters the box where the fixture is located but years ago it did not always extend to the switch location. A black and white wire often went from the fixture to a switch box. One wire took the power to the switch and the other wire brought the power back to the fixture. The white wire was supposed to be painted black or marked with black tape indicating it was a hot wire. No neutral wire is needed for the switch to do its job BUT since 2011 a neutral wire is required by code to be present in the switch box even though it may not be used. It's there just in case someone wants to install a timer or smart switch in the future.
I have 1 black/red/white all connected to my switch and ground wire in the back capped off on a metal box. Is the white wire still neutral?
Do you have a smart WiFi switch? He mentions this starting at 2:45.
This helped me out of a jam. Thank you!
I replaced an existing light switch with the BN-LINK Heavy Duty 60-Minute in-Wall Spring Loaded Countdown Timer for my bathroom fan. My 1980s house in Massachusetts has neutrals and ground wires in each location however this mechanical dial timer wall switch only has two wires and no ground. Am I violating code or should I return it for a switch with a ground or perhaps a switch that has both ground AND neutral wires?
I have a white and black and white. Is my white neural?
It would have been good for you to show the left side of the switch, to where the white wire is attached. You can't tell from looking at it directly.
The Caseta as well as other switches that do not require a neutral, also do not work directly with Alexa. They require a separate automation hub for interconnectivity. Is this necessarily true for ALL switches that don't require a neutral?
The cync by ge dimmer that says "no neutral" doesn't need a hub, and works with Alexa.
What if I dont have a neutral wire? Can I still install a smart switch? Thanks!
Can you wire the smart switch neutral wire to the hot and load wires?
I guess I don't have a neutral? I want to connect 2 gang wifi dimmer with 3 cables.
The voltage between cables:
19,5 V between yellow and blue
172,5 V between brown and blue
226,3 V between brown and yellow
Thanks. Was sweating balls because I was not sure about the white wire.
Why would my switch have one white one black and a ground? Does that mean I have a neutral even if there aren't 4 wires
Never assume white wires always are neutral. Do proper testing if you are not 100% sure.
If you turn all the breakers of I can’t see to install anything!
Thanks for this video man👍👍
Thanks, so helpful!!
If I want to connect a neutral to the smart switch, do I unscrew the wire nut, and splice the wire from the smart switch with the two existing wires with the nut?
Wonbo Shim I believe so,yes
Thanks! 👍👍👍
Now I get it. I think?
Which one should I buy if I do not have a neutral cable
You'd want the Lutron Casetta smart light switch kit; just note that they are a bit more expensive than others, and do require the Lutron hub to function whereas some smart switches function without a hub over WiFi directly.
I have black, orange and yellow. Yellow is my hot wire.. the other 2 I do not know. How do I identify my black wire and orange wire.
Note: the above pertains to a light switch that is located in my garage.
Hey, I love the board you're using there. I want to build one that has a socket on it also so i can preload my smart switches, sockets, and lights all from the same board without having to make multiple trips to my breaker panel. Have you made a video on how to do that? If not, can you show us how to build it?
Might have been nice to have explained that code now requires a neutral wire in a switch box and to cite the year of code that put this in effect. I have not looked up the year so I will not cite the year, however, if making such a video, I would gave researched and not left it out or quoted from memory.
Thank you
Well explained
What's the red wire?
Thank you! Very clear!
Great informative video. Answered all my questions!
Thank you !
You're welcome!
Great stuff, ty
Really usefull !
Neutral wire in a switch box was not required until 2011 from what I've been reading.
It is NOT true that if you have a white wire that it has to be the neutral wire. Many homes have just a black Hot wire and a white Load wire with NO neutral wire.
Show basically your common wire is the same as calling it a neutral wire.
What if all the wires in there were painted white from the builders?! Lol
Not that helpful. I need to know how to confirm that the white wire really is the neutral wire - with a DVM or test light.
6min video to say "white wire is neutral wire"...
Blue green brown connec't black green white
Thank you!