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Hi all. I am replacing some old switches in my house (1964) and the outlets all have the standard white, black, and ground incoming lines. The grounds are just bare copper tied off with a wire nut. When I install the new switches, should I undo the wire nut and attach the bare ground to the green screw on the switch, or just leave it as is? As always, thanks!
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Yes, Install a pigtail ground wire that's 6" long between the new switch ground screw and the grounds that are wire nutted together. It's always good to ground your switches if possible. -
Thanks, this particular switch problem is weird..I have a 2 switch box with 4 sets of wire coming into it. There was originally a light fixture and a seperate fan wired into one switch, then the other 3 sets of wire were all wire nutted off, so that 1 switch operated both the fan and the light, the other switch did nothing. I repleaced the ceiling fan and it ran fine, but I also wanted to update the switches so I unwired everything and wanted to make the light on 1 switch and the fan on another. I wired just the fan and when I turned on the switch, it tripped the breaker. At this time, the switch had the black, white and ground attached to it. All the other 3 sets of wires were just hanging open. I'm lost on what I did wrong. When I used a multimeter, I got 120 volts on the set of wires I was working on and zero volts from the other 3 sets. Help!
quote:Originally posted by kactuskid
Yes, Install a pigtail ground wire that's 6" long between the new switch ground screw and the grounds that are wire nutted together. It's always good to ground your switches if possible.Comment
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What wires were originally connected to the switch? Having a white wire on one side of a switch and the black wire on the other side is called a switch loop, meaning that the power feed is comming from the fixture. So, how was it connected originally, what wires went to the switch that controlled both the fan and the light.Comment
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I don't remember how it was before. Stupid me...I think I'm going to have a pro look at this one. Thanks for your help though.
quote:Originally posted by kactuskid
What wires were originally connected to the switch? Having a white wire on one side of a switch and the black wire on the other side is called a switch loop, meaning that the power feed is comming from the fixture. So, how was it connected originally, what wires went to the switch that controlled both the fan and the light.Comment
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