Hot Vs Load Wire Light Switch

Kung fu maintenance shows an easy way to tell 3 way light switch common load hot wire wiring video.

Hot vs load wire light switch. I am able to accomplish this but it is time consuming. Load is the wire going from the switch to the device. The ground wires will be present in homes built within the past 30 years or so. Line is the wire going from a current source into a switch.

For example a conventional wall switch which is a single pole single throw switch works equally well whether you attach the live circuit wire line to the top brass terminal or the bottom because the switch has only two positions open or closed the terminal connections are directional on a double throw switch on the. Distinguishing between line and load isn t always necessary. The united states has strict codes relating to home wiring including clearly defined colors on the outer casing of the wires. However if you need to rewire a light switch or a plug socket you may occasionally come across two black wires.

Kung fu maintenance shows an easy way to tell 3 way light switch common load hot wire wiring. I assume here that the line cable enters in the switch box so you have a neutral in the switch box. Line is always hot. I really don t like using.

When doing so i need to know where the hot line wire is and where the most downstream load wire is. This is usually done by adding a short white wire from the white bundle to the new switch. It is easy when it is a simple switch but a 3 way 4 way or n way switch circuit is trickier. With the switch turned off you should see 120v on the line wire when testing to ground and 0v on the load wire when testing to ground.

The load wire will probably be black too and will run to the light fixture or outlet being switched. It s upstream of the switched device s. In either case the load wire is that wire to the light or fan the load which will be switched to hot when you turn on the switch and which will be automatically switched off at the end of the timed period. I am upgrading a lot of light switches in my home to z wave smart switches.

In some cases line wires are marked with line pwr or a lightning bolt symbol. You may not have had a good contact point when testing or way worse you ve got an outlet or switch that is grounding out reducing the potential between your line and ground. If the wire is coming from the top of the switch box it is likely your load wire. Load will only be hot if the switch is closed.

Black means hot white signifies neutral and green indicates ground. On regular switches it doesn t matter which black you connect to either terminal but i do know that dimmers are very specific. The other black wire is your load side what goes to the light itself. 1 black wire will be your hot or 120 volt line side.