Calling all electricians

[Sunny]

Hello all

I am trying to install a smart switch which will replace one of my existing wall switches. The smart switch requires a neutral wire to work. I took off the existing switch and there are only 3 wires in it. Two live and one ground I believe. However, in the switch box I see 7 wires that are tied together and capped off. I am guessing these are neutral wires? What is confusing me is --

a) these are black in color and not white
b) there are 7 of them and there are 4 switches in this box.

Any ideas? If anyone who knows this stuff and lives closer to me want to come and take a look that would be great. I can always compensate with beer and frags .

Thanks
Sunny

 

[njtiger24 aquariums]

I could be wrong cause I am no electrician but I don't believe a switch would have the ground. I would assume two hot and two neutral. My understanding of a switch is it goes in line between the power source and the outlet so it should break up the hot line and I would assume the neutral as well. Now when I wired up my outlets to my pi controller/relay the relays broke up just the hot line and the neutral and ground went from power to outlet. Again I'm not electrician and I did tons of Google searching and you tubing on how to wire my pi up and even then I was 'scare' to flick the switch. (lucky I been going over a year without any issues)

 

[mikem]

can you post a pic?

 

[Sunny]

I can try to post a pic.

Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk

 

[Sunny]

You can see the capped wires here as well.

 

[Raffle King]

Them cap wires are grounds no ground on a switch

 

[Sunny]

So there is no neutral?

 

[Sunny]

Look at the first pic. The copper wire attached to the switch is ground. No?

 

[njtiger24 aquariums]

Look at the first pic. The copper wire attached to the switch is ground. No?

Looking at the first picture that copper wire is going to the green screw which normally is the ground screw I just not sure why a switch would have a ground

 

[njtiger24 aquariums]

Is there three wires on all of those switches?

 

[Sunny]

I really am not concerned about ground. I need a neutral. Can someone identify if there is one?

 

[Mark_C]

I dont know anything about this, so I'll offer an opinion.

Solid black is the hot wire.
White, is the neutral ('return'). If you do not have a solid white wire, and your hot wire is solid black, your neutral should be black with a white line.
Bare copper is always the ground. It will always attach to the green screw on the switch.
Red (if present, which seems it is) is the load bearing wire to the appliance. Leave this alone.
Be aware, contractors do not care about exposed wires when painting, so its best to scrape the wire to ensure there is no paint over them confusing their true colors.
Also, turn off the main fuse box totally. You may be working on a single switch, but there may still be other live wires in the box that are on other circuits. Better safe than (burned) Sunny.

Best I can offer. I advise ignoring me.

 

[kschweer]

Are the other switches wired? One way to tell maybe to look at the screws on the switch. The gold screw is (should be) the hot wire and the silver screw is (should be) your neutral.

 

[mikem]

In the second pic. The set of wires on the right. Scrape the paint off the wires. You will have white (neutral) wires wire nutted together. Someone spray painted your wires when they painted your house.

 

[mikem]

Are the other switches wired? One way to tell maybe to look at the screws on the switch. The gold screw is (should be) the hot wire and the silver screw is (should be) your neutral.

No neutral wires on a switch. A hot feed to switch. Other side of switch goes to light itself.

 

[mikem]

Most switches will have a ground. If circuit lost it's neutral, current will go back thru ground instead of going thru you.

 

[Sunny]

Thanks Mike and all. I do not feel comfortable playing with electric. If I do not find anyone here to help, I will make some calls to get this sorted.

 

[redfishbluefish]

Holy crap. A simple switch interrupts the "hot" wire.....that is, the black wire. Black wire in, black wire out. The "neutrals", that is the white wires, should be wire nutted together inside the box. If you need a "neutral" (white) wire to the switch, use a pig-tail from the wire nutted white wires to the switch. Done!!!


I can help you Sunny.

 

[Sunny]

Thanks Paul. Lmk if you are around tomorrow.

Sunny

 

[redfishbluefish]

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