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. 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.
Electrical Basics Wiring A Basic Single Pole Light Switch
How to ground a light switch. A neutral wire a hot wire and a neutral wire. Screw on a wire cap to hold them together and insulate the ends. Do this to the ground wire bef. 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. In many cases especially in older houses with metal boxes the metal box may be grounded even if you dont have a ground wire. This wire is sometimes red.
How to add a ground wire to a light switch. Dont rely on metal sheathing or an exposed ground wire. Alternatively you might consider connecting the ground terminal to a water pipe by means of an exposed ground wire. 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. Splice the white wires together by twisting the ends together clockwise using pliers. If your electrical cables have metal sheathing that runs all the way to the panel the sheathing can serve as a ground path.
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. I need to install an automatic light switch that requires three wires. We also need a ground wire connecting the light switch to the other ground wires. When i took apart the light switch i notice i only had a neutral wire and a hot wire. Crimp the bare ground wires together with a. 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.
The ground wire will be either green or bare copper wire. Locate the ground wire coming from your homes electrical box where the light fixture is to be installed.
Gallery of How To Ground A Light Switch
