Locate the ground wire coming from your homes electrical box where the light fixture is to be installed. When i took apart the light switch i notice i only had a neutral wire and a hot wire.
How To Replace A Light Switch Dummies
How to ground a light switch. How to add a ground wire to a light switch. Do this to the ground wire bef. In many cases especially in older houses with metal boxes the metal box may be grounded even if you dont have a ground wire. If the light switch has a screw for a bare ground wire but your electrical box doesnt have one youre ok just leaving that screw empty and connecting your other wires to the hot screws. We also need a ground wire connecting the light switch to the other ground wires. This wire is sometimes red.
If the wire is covered with green insulation you will need to strip 12 inch of the green insulation off of the tip of the wire. Screw on a wire cap to hold them together and insulate the ends. If your electrical cables have metal sheathing that runs all the way to the panel the sheathing can serve as a ground path. The black hot wire goes to the brass screw or into the hole in the back of the device on the same side as the brass screw. If you dont have a grounding wire running to your light switches theres not much you can do about it because you probably live in a home that didnt require grounding wires to be connected to. A neutral wire a hot wire and a neutral wire.
Crimp the bare ground wires together with a. To achieve this i cut two pigtails which are simply short lengths of conductors six inches that connect one thing to another inside a junction box. The ground wire will be either green or bare copper wire. Splice the white wires together by twisting the ends together clockwise using pliers. The green or bare copper ground wire if the device has one attaches to the green screw terminal on the switch or to the electrical box. Alternatively you might consider connecting the ground terminal to a water pipe by means of an exposed ground wire.
I need to install an automatic light switch that requires three wires. Dont rely on metal sheathing or an exposed ground wire.
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