![]() Using this ground wire at the smart switch for your neutral would be sending electricity 24\7 thru that ground network to potentially every ground receptacle (that third hole on the plug), appliance, light fixture, and switch in the house. ![]() Ground wires are commonly uninsulated naked copper wires, especially in light fixtures, and tied together through the ground network in the house. If there have been upgrades, add ons, renovations, and do it yourself work done, there is no telling what you might find. Older homes, before recent regulation, can be found to be direct grounded to pipes and conduits or multiple grounding stakes. If your ground goes to the buss bar in the box, this is possibly why the switch worked. The neutral carries a current 24\7 unlike a dumb switch that physically opens the circuit and stops the flow at the switch when it is flipped off. In the case of a smart switch, which is powered 24\7 and is never switched off, the circuit is always live, always closed, always powered. Neutral wires carry a live current after the load appliance has used what it needs. Neutral wires carry the electric current back to the service panel thus completing the closed loop circuit. In the junction box in the attic, the white from the switch will be connected to the hot lead supplying power to normally a light.īTW, as is commonly done and seen here, the white wire is SUPPOSED to be marked with color - usually color marking tape.įor confirmation, I am talking about the two photos is the first post.Ĭomplicated answer… Only your specific wiring topology will determine what will actually happen if you continue to use it this way depending on how, when, and what materials were used during installation. The black is hot, and the white is used as switched hot. Typically with house wiring mostly in the attic, there will be a junction box in the attic that has a single piece of romex that has three wires (Black, White, and uninsulated or green) that goes down the wall to the switchbox. The switch you described in the picture appears to be wired correctly with a neutral. Two choices: 1: Fish a neutral to the box 2: Install a no neutral smart switch. Dumb switches can’t tell the difference, they only really need line and load to operate (note I didn’t say operate safely). I would say the first switch you posted was not wired properly when installed and they used 3 wire instead of 4 wire… Which is cheaper. Without that neutral, the switch will not function. It allows the switch to return that power back and completes the circuit to keep the switch’s tiny little brain powered at all times, even when the load circuit is broken by the switch being turned off. The line hot wire provides the power, but with nowhere for that power to go when the circuit is broken with the switch turned off, it would be useless because power won’t flow. The Wyze Smart Switch must have a constant circuit to operate. My guess is that the red wire seen there in the pic is the load wire leading to whatever fixture that switch controlled prior to the smart switch install. The white is the neutral returning to the panel. The black “line” wire is your hot power supply from the breaker. But it looks like it is there if you want to do that in the future. There is no load to power so it isn’t needed. The switch you described in the 2nd picture (existing smart switch WiFi only no load) appears to be wired correctly with a neutral.īecause you do not use that switch to control any electrical device downstream (load), there is no load wire connected to the switch.
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