I am trying to figure out how to wire my 2-GANG box in the living room of my new house.
I am using the Fan+Light Switch (left) and the Red Series ON+OFF Switch (right).
The LZW36 controls the fan+light in my living room and the LZW30 controls the light just outside my front door.
Both have neutral and traveler wires and I’m not really sure what do do with them since no other switch in my house uses a red wire. I have the Fan+Light switch working, but I can’t seem to get the On+Off Switch working.
Here’s the thing, each light is controlled by ONE switch, I know the traveler wire usually means it’s 3-way, but I only have one switch that controls the outdoor light.
I attached some images on how I have it wired up but the issue is:
Even when the light is off there is still a small amount of power going to the light, and its very dim.
When I turn the switch on, it then jumps up to full brightness
This is not how it acted before and I’m wondering if I wired it wrong.
For the images, assume the yellow wires are my white wires.
The black leads on BOTH romex wires are hot, so I’m really not sure how to wire this correctly. The way I have it wired works fine, except even when it’s "off the light is still dim.
Before we get to your 3-wire scenario, are the fan/light and the outside light on the same branch circuit? In other words, are they on the same or different circuit breaker(s)?
While a 3-wire often suggests a 3-way lighting circuit, that is not always the case.
Newer electrical codes require a neutral in the switch box. So for example, if you have power starting at a light, in the old days you would run a 14/2 to the switch box, creating a switch loop. That works great, except you that doesn’t give you a neutral at the box. So the solution is to run a 14/3 to the switch box, sending the hot AND a neutral (usually over the black and white). The red is used to return the switched hot back to the light.
I’m thinking that is what you may have with your outdoor light. If that is the case, it also makes me think that you have two branch circuits in your switch box. That is fine, but if that is the case, those white neutrals should not be tied together.
Otherwise, how you wired it looks fine if what I’m suggesting is correct. There can be a number of reasons the light stays dimly lit. Post back regarding the same or different circuits. Also let us know what bulb you are using.
My guess would be that those are 2 independent switch loops and they use 3 wires instead of 2 wires so that the neutral is provided in the switch box since that is required by new electrical codes.
So, I believe you are correct except you should not connect the neutral wires together.
The leakage to the light is an issue caused by the switch. There is no good answer for this yet. I did some measurements and got 160uA of leakage into a resistor. It was asked what the circuit is but no answer.
No answer on the actual energy consumption of the devices or the readings when off either…
What you are describing may be the case.
I am pretty sure both Romex black cables coming into the box are hot as they set off my voltage detector.
Its also worth noting that I did have to but the red and black wires into the same terminal in the Fan+Light switch and then cap off the black inside the ceiling fan. I tried connecting to the black and that didn’t work. So the black wire coming from the Fan receiver is connected to the red from the house Romex.
I swapped back to a dumb switch for the outdoor light switch to make sure I had it wired right. And I had the right side Romex black connected to line and the right side Romex red connected to load and that does work fine–no light leakage. Is this an issue with the switch itself or how I wired it?
If the neutrals are from the same breaker, then they should be tied.
You didn’t specify the bulb but I’m guessing it is an LED. I would try a different brand of bulb. I don’t think there is anything incorrect with your wiring, based on what you have described.
There could be some phantom voltage at the light, the switch may be leaking a bit or a combination of both. Some LED bulbs will excite at very low thresholds, so that is what is likely going on. Another bulb may not exhibit the same issue.
Phantom voltage is sometime present where a switch or light is not grounded properly. So I’d check the grounds both at the switch and at the light.
You could also try installing a bypass at the light, although it’s easier to just swap in another bulb.
There is a bulb compatibility chart somewhere in here that you could check, but that’s more for bulb compatibility with dimmers. I don’t know if a dimmable or non-dimmable bulb makes a difference.
I would just grab a couple different types or brands of bulbs from your big box store so that they are returnable and try them. If you have problems with all of them then that might indicate something else is going on. But more than likely, my guess is that it’s a bulb compatibility problem.
Yes. If a connection is not required to pass the incoming neutral and power from that box to the next box then they should not be connected together. Since you say each black has power then the power doesn’t have to be passed from that box to the next box which means the neutral doesn’t need to get passed from that box to the next box either.
The leakage is definitely caused by the switch. I have one that leaks and does that too. I haven’t decided if I’m going to do anything about it or not. I can’t see the light is on during the day.
