How to Install a Smart Home Light Switch | A DIY Electrical Guide
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- Опубліковано 3 сер 2024
- This week I show you how you can make your home a little smarter by upgrading your switches to new smart devices you can control from your phone, tablet, or smart home system like Google Home or Amazon Echo.
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"I rate these projects by how many f-bombs you're likely to drop while tackling the project"
And you get a like. 👍
This video was extremely helpful especially for a beginner who needed to add the neutral wire, many others skipped over showing this part! Thank you!
I'm related to six Electricians and have worked for not only the family business, but friendly competition. I am extremely impressed by the way you explained everything, your tips, and the safety tips! 👏
Good video. Unlike some, your info is straight to the point and terminology is accurate.
Thanks; great to learn of these devices. I was totally unaware that they existed. Well done video.
Am just a beginner from Nigeria the video his helpful am looking forward to see more of the video thanks 🙏🙏🙏
omg ty for making an instructional video. serisouly so many out there spend more time explaining whats screws are used than helping understand the various ways the wiring works.
Thanks for this video!! I was not 100% certain that I needed to add a jumper wire but now I know. Video helped a lot.
Thanks for the info about the "plug in" device and dimming ability.
Very well done video, and also a very cool product!
thank you so much, I finally installed my smart switch, you clarified me the neutral little piece of cable.
Same here I was like wtf it doesn't work lol, darn neutral.
Thanks man i was able to get it done . The white cable put me on hold for a day
Excellent instruction. thanks man!
Lots of Aussie Houses only have active wire and return on lights as Neutral and earth go directly to the light in the ceiling . Not the switch.
Exactly what I was looking for!!
When you gave Alexa a "turn off the light" command, mine responded with, "sorry, i didn't hear that" - chuckle....
I looked for an hour for an answer to how to hook up to my situation. I also had the neutral wire nut (actually 4 wires nutted together). Now I know to pigtail the neutral wires. Thanks:)
Very informative video. Will apply it soon.
I love this, easy to understand
I have almost the same wire setup in the wall box, but my smart switch has a red, black, white and green wire coming from it. With this video I was able to figure it out. This is the most coolest thing I've ever bought
this was great, mine came with chinese only instructions and it came with the a spare neutral pigtail line. i ended up jumping the hots together with the pigtail and wondering why the on position was about 3/4 brightness and the off position was about 1/4 brightness and flickering. With non-dimmable bulbs. Glad i didn't fry anything!
That's a great demonstration graphic at 0:55. Maybe I missed it but it would also be good to shwo how to use a DMM to tell which conductor is the switch leg and which one is from the panel in order to install the new swtich.
Thank you for the video you make me do the job 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
Great video. I was wondering about that neutral wire attachment
Very well done.
great video real accurate
awesome, thanks!
Very good video! starting with the "how it works" intro, keep it up
Well done thanks.
Great video
Nice job
My whole house was setup on smart WiFi. Lighting, thermostat, Alexa. I came home one night and Comcast shut down my internet for work. Even though I had power all my lights, Alexa and smart devices no longer worked. When you have power and you are sitting in the dark is a problem. All my ceiling fans were not on WiFi so they worked fine off of remotes.
Beautiful
Very well explained...Thanks for keeping us old timers in the loop
thank you
great
Thanks for the video! For 3-way, will I need to have two Leviton smart switches?
I'm nearly 100% sure that you do NOT need two shared switches for your 3-way switch. Just hook up a 3-way smart switch to the master switch, the one hooked most directly to the power source.
They're usual sold as a pair of switches, but you can use each separately. Basically gives you two for the price of one.
Mr Fix it, you sir are very knowledgeable! I think i am going to attempt this but i must say i'm nervous. I have a 3 gang box in which 1 of the switches controls the power of the ceiling fan.....i want to make that one the smart one and keep the other 2 as standard switches, i already purchased the face plate for this setup and i hope that the wires i see in the back of the box in the wire nuts are indeed neutral wires.
i'm happy to announce that I got it done!, i went to home depot and purchased a voltage tester and it made the job so much easier! the hardest part was removing the freaking wires from the standard switch....they had a push to release that was impossible for the wires to come out. I have a question .....there were 3 neutral wires in a wire nut....did i have to use the wire that came with my smart switch and tap into that or could i have untwisted one of those from within the nut and use it directly from there?
If electrical source originates at light fixture and you have a 3 wire switch loop at switch box,will this work?
Can you use any lightbulb for the light switch?
A quick question, can i use the switch to turn on and off a bulb without voice command and without app , like a traditional switch?
I have an old house with the light switch located on the frame of the doors. These products have plates that are too wide to substitute the existing switches in the same location. Are there miniature smart switches that cater for smaller (door frame located) old switches?
What model voltage tester were you using?
Warning: If you have an older house the wall box may be too small to fit a 3 times larger switch and the extra connector caps. Then you have to put the old switch back or tear up your wall for a new box.
great video and neat product. I was on Leviton website and there are several switches to choose from. Can you tell me which model switch you used in this video?
Hey 32DRGirl! In this video Mr Fix It used the Decora Smart Wi-Fi Switch, DW15S-1BZ. Hope this helps!
Can this switch be used to replace the switches that control an A/C swamp cooler?
Im looking for a wall plate to control my celing fan including dimmeble led? bulb?
Could you not just connect the twisted neutral wire to the socket itself to save with using extra piece of wire?
Ok I like the video, but my home has a red wire in addition to the two black and ground and white wires. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong?
very accurate plans for something like that I found on Avasva
this was extremely helpful!!!!
House was built in 97' and did have 4 neutrals twisted together hiding in the back! BUT I made the mistake of yanking one out of the 4 twisted neutrals and trying to hook it up to the smart switch. It would blink on for a second and then immediately turn off!
I re-watched and realized I had to include that "pig tail" TO ALL 4 neutrals together then BAM it worked!!
What gage wire did you use for pigtail?
Does this switch just work with one bulb or all the house
Wyze makes a smart plug device that’s probably way cheaper than Leviton. I’m looking for the smart switch that adds a switch location (you install a wireless switch that hooks to a switch that’s across the room so you can have 2 places to turn it on. What’s that called?? Idc about turning lights on with my phone I want a physical switch in a second location without having to run wires.
How about if the power supply is line to line like in the Philippines?
I'm in search of a smart switch solution that can help me remodel my den, the cabinets I bought come to the very edge of the door molding thereby putting the light switch un-accessible as I walk in the door now. Is it possible to replace the original switch with a smart switch and place a stick-on switch on the side of the cabinet? I have purchased the smart switch and the stick on switch but they came without instructions. Can you help me?
I don’t have a neutral wire. Without one, could I still use the switch with just the white, black and green?
My house was built in the mid 50's and I have no extra wires, like a neutral. Do you have any recommendations for a switch without a required neutral or can you tell me how to place a neutral.
You need to have your house re-wired. You have the old, unsafe 2-wire "floating ground;" not good!
I want to learn more about the smart switch
I have a question, how can you install a WiFi switch, when your switch only has 2 wires, two black, & that’s all. The WiFi switch requires a neutral, I do not have a neutral, what can I do?
I purchased a Honeywell Home RPLS740B1008 and it comes with Load, Line and Neutral. The current switch is connected to the Load, Line and Ground. I know i have to connect the Load to the Load, Line to Line and Neutral to Neutral, but what do i do with the Ground wire that was previously connected to the old switch?
What if you have a ceiling fan? 2 switches one for the light and the other for fan.
Not sure how likely you are to see this comment. But I recently tried to install a smart timer in my bathroom for the light, fan and heater in the ceiling. This took me 9 hours and the solution I found was to use the older style timer because my house, build in 1948 had 3 hot wires, 3 neutrals and a ground. Didn't appear to be load wires at all. Any solution for this? My first thought was to sacrifice the lights hot and neutral to then get the heater and fan working since there are other lights in the bathroom. But I couldn't seem to get that working either. After I finished, I did think about maybe having hooked my neutrals up to the load terminal and that might have worked? What are your thoughts?
Can these switches be turned off and on manually if you want to?
I’m a Plumber, the splicing a wire part?
The black wire is backward on your light switch. Line on top load on the bottom
I have a white and black connected to the switch and a bare wire. I don’t have to black wire
I just installed the same smart switch today for a front entry light. It is a single pole switch, I also followed the same installation as displayed in the video. After installation the entry light was on; I could not manually turn the light off nor would the app detect it. Please help; the troubleshooting was only for when the light wouldn't turn on, not turn off. Thank you.
Wish Leviton would include that piece of wire you need to wire the neutral!
Pff, why get a voltage tester when you have a voltage sister who you can force to touch it
These guys and their fancy voltage testers. I just slap a screwdriver against it. If it blows a chunk out of it, it's still hot. Lmao
if i want to make the whole home lighting smart, should I install the wifi switch for each individual switch?
Saeed yes you would have to do that
Jeez.. Even controlling the lights at home requires account these days.
Some smart switches can work without account. I know my tplink smart plug, I can just skip the account creation. But then I cannot use IFTTT of course
I tried installing a ce smart switch following the same steps. Got it to work but now other light switch on same circuit won't turn on. Anyone know the issue might be? Thx
Hi Aaron, if I turned off the lights via the smart switch, would I still be able to turn the lights on via the mobile app or would it tell me the lights are "offline"?
Yes, you can completely control the lights via the app or connect it to a smart home device like Google Home or Alexa and control the lights even if the switch is in the off position.
what if metal box some dimmers do not fit
How do you know which hot wire is which they are both black
In my hall way I have a 3 way I believe ..The light is controlled from two different switches ..My question is do i have to change both switches or just the one ?
Nobody answered. Have seen two of people ask this. I am the third. Anybody know
My current switch doesn’t have a neutral wire in the box in the wall but my new smart switch requires one... what do I do?
Travis Churich gotta run a new neutral wire from power source
It would be quite a bit of work to run a neutral wire from the source in my house. Is there a work around or is this device not usable in my house?
Alot of the old houses used a 2 wire system with no ground so you have a natural. And alot also share ground and neutral.
M Detlef uhhhh ok.........
how many hot wires?
How do you tell the difference between the black hot wire (from panel) and the black load wire (to bulb)?
It can be tricky in older homes. Typically the way I do it is to disconnect the wiring and use a voltage tester to see which one is live when the breaker is on. The one that beeps when the breaker is on is the line in from the panel. The load won't have any power to it when the switch is off or the wiring is disconnected. Just remember to turn the breaker back off when you've figured it out.
my outlet only has a white and a black wire
Hi how I do if my switch does not have ground wire
Hello, electricity is reaching the light when connecting the wires it gos on. but I can not control it from the switch. where would the problem?. I have bought a new switch and did the wiring still not working
Follow the wires from the switch and see where they go.
How can you tell which hot wire goes to the light and which comes from the breaker?
The best way is to turn the power off at the breaker, disconnect both and leave them hanging out of the box not contacting anything. Then turn the power back on at the breaker and use a voltage tester. Only one of the wires will have power to it and that is the line in from the breaker. Once you've identified it, turn the power back off to work on the box.
I so want to jump into the smart home life but there are too many damn "standards" - Z-Wave, ZigBee, Thread, WeMo, etc...and they dont all play nice with each other. Your thoughts on this?
I've been adopting the smart home mantra over the last year or so, and while the UK is slightly different than the US in some scenarios, the core concepts are the same. What I would suggest though is to thoroughly research the manufacturers of the devices you're looking at buying. Look at their entire product range, and overall reviews of the public who have previously purchased them. I had to look at half a dozen or so manufacturers of smart light switches in order to find one that seemed good enough to start spending money with. There's some that have a limited product range, and therefore a limited amount of usefulness, but others that have a wide range of products that all work with the same hub.
The catch with smart home, as Aaron has said in a few different comments, you have to pick and choose what's right for your needs and your existing setups. Multiple manufacturers will most often require multiple hubs, or multiple accounts on internet services if they're WiFi enabled. Sometimes these services work in harmony, other times they're very isolated from one another. Alexa, Google Assistant or IFTTT can sometimes bridge that gap, but you need to evaluate what your overall goal is before diving in. If you buy on a whim and find that you can't get the level of integration that you were hoping for, you'll be disappointed or at worst, need to replace the device with one from another manufacturer that supports what it is you want to do.
But, if you pick the right devices and get the integration you want, at worst you'll have a bank of various manufacturer's hubs (that connect LAN/WiFi to Zigbee, ZWave, etc) but a perfectly functional smart home.
The key is plenty of research!
I think it is best to purchase the available chinese-made switches off Amazon. You can get them for essentially 2 switches for the price of 1 Leviton (or named-brand) switch. Most of them are controlled by a single app called Smart Life, which then syncs to google home or alexa depending on which you have.
@@swimupstreem703 And this makes you less reliant on using Alexa or google who log everything you do, and sell those patterns of electronics and anything they can track usage to others. Why do it when there is no need with the same convenience without them.
I needed to use my existing garage light to connect carriage lights not installed when built. I could not route the wiring to the front door and used the switch in the garage and made that a smart switch to activate with voice command. I agree with the pick and choose. Thanks again. @@MrFixItDIY
What happens if you don't have a neutral wire in the switch... Homes with older wiring may not have the neutral
@@MrFixItDIY where inside the fuse box do you attach the neutral wire?
Right! I DONT have the neutral! I don't see one, and I don't think it has it, as its a late 50's build....Any of these work without neutral?
What about rooms where there's multiple light switches that control the same bulbs?
That's called a 3 way switch and requires a specific type of switch.
WHAT specific type of switch will take care of turning a 3-way into a smart switch?
@@joemason8261 Yes, there are specifically typed "3 way switch", not to be confused with a "3 gang". Hope this helps.
I only have 3 wires black white and green
Where do I get the 4th wire from
Black is hot white is neutral and green is ground
Mr. Fix It i purchased the same switch And I see u hook up 3 whires plus a ground that’s why I said 4 wires
Even in ure video u show 2 black 1 white and a ground
And on the switch it says to hook up 3 plus a ground
Black hot , white neutral and ground I get this last wire is confusing
We dont have neutral wire. How do i put one?
You have to hire an electrician.
How about 220 volts it it's work?..line 1 is 220 and line 2 is zero volts
That's not how it works (in the US). In 220 volts, there are 2 (110v wires) that combine to create 220v.
3:18 hot load
What are you, 12 years old?
I have over 20 light switches in this 1982 house. All of them still work perfectly after a 6 person family grew here, one owner home. The light switches do NOT have gang boxes as they grab the dry wall themselves. I have already located Gang boxes to convert these to normal types of switches, so that is out of the way. However, I do not know what Smart switches to replace them with yet. NONE of the switches have more than 3 wires, they all have one White, One Black and one bare copper as pictured below. How do I wire a smart switch to these please? I assume this is called a non-neutral wiring setup?
i.imgur.com/5DTEd0Dl.jpg
2:42 i think you got your colours mixed up there, from what i see there is a silver,purple and turquoise screw
I made it by myself. I used Avasva solutions for that.
as an electrician please do not use a non contact volt tester as seen in this video, use a multimeter. it will tell you when something is hot and how many volt/amps youre pushing through that one line. ( the black line isnt always the HOT wire, depending on if it was done correctly or even sometimes the neutral is hot for different reasons} plus a volt tester wont always pick up lines that are hot, such as back fed lines. if youre not sure or not comfortable working on electrical stuff, just call an electrician. its way easier than trying to get a new home due to the fact that you burnt yours down by doing DIY electrical.
I only have a black wire and a white wire. What do I do?
The white wire in that case MAY be acting as a hot wire as well. That is common when someone pulls a single piece of romex to a box. Are there any markings on the white wire like a piece of black tape that would indicate it is a hot wire? Unfortunately if you don't have a neutral wire available you'll likely have to pull one which may be more hassle than you're willing to take on.
Just dont touch both wires at the same time and you dont have to worry about getting shocked
Pretty sure I wired mine correctly, but the light flickers like a strobe.
Might have loose connection on the switch?
Ground first bud that's the first thing any electrician learns
its costly