Single Pole Switch Lighting Circuits - How to wire a light switch
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- čas přidán 21. 08. 2024
- How to wire a single pole light switch, in this video we look at how a single pole light switch works and the different ways to wire a light circuit. This is the most basic light circuit using just a single pole light switch.
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⚠️ *Found this video super useful?* Buy Paul a coffee to say thanks: ☕
PayPal: www.paypal.me/TheEngineerinMindset
how much? and can afford also the program so that i can used it on my demonstration.
Hey question about this video please! The very last example shows neutral being terminated inside of the switch box. Why is that? Is that because you would splice into the hot wire so you have both neutral and hot there in the box?
@@jecertinaliga6907 bb
@@misternormL It's a new electrical code requirement to future-proof for smart switches in the wall. I talked more about it in another comment here.
Why is it that you prefer to put the line wire or incoming power on the bottom terminal of the switch? Its strange because most electricians ik who have a preference will say to put it on the top terminal. If you answer, I will definitely buy you a coffee.
I’m a first year electrician and you have really helped me strive in my development electrical career!! Thank you!!! Keep up the great videos
yo what kinda car is on your profile pic ITS NICE 🔥🔥
Know if x
2 years later just curious what level your at now ?
Same here, just started second year and realized I didn't know how to wire a switch!
Same here broski! I hope yours gone well so far!
You finally allowed me to finish my diy lighting project in my garage that I've fumbled with for two years. Thank you very much!
Excuse the following "manplanation": I just bought a gutted house from the city of Detroit and it's over 100 years old. Needless to say, there's a lot of work to do. I ran some lights (once DTE Energy decided to come turn on the power) just so I could see, but I didn't include any switches. I've popped a circuit trying to install a switch AFTER the light and power source. Your video is so straightforward and easy to understand and follow. Thank you so much for making the content you do. You've definitely saved me a lot of headache.
Excellent instruction. I came across the second wiring setup today while trying to find a fault causing my light to flicker.
I was fairly sure I understood the proper wiring but fairly sure isn’t good enough when it comes to wiring.
Thanks to this video I am confident.
Did you find the cause of the flickering? I'm having the same issue with a bathroom light
I did. It was a loose connection in the light fixture - the wire nut was poorly installed.
I did not do the original installation.
Thank you for you simple explanation with minimal introduction along with clear diagrams. Extremely well done!! You've earned a subscriber for sure.
I'm wiring my kids bedroom this coming week and this will help a ton
Thank you!! First video I’ve seen about wiring a switch that explained the how of why a switch works. A light bulb finally went off in my head too!! You’re the best. I can now reword my switch and stop tripping the breaker!! My hero!
Excellent video. For those that have trouble understanding Loop switch connections, the second example spells it out perfectly.
THANK YOU Paul!!!! This video is exactly what I needed to wrap my head around this concept!
Excellent video. The diagrams make the concept crystal clear. Thank you.
Clearest and most instructional video tutorial yet among YT posts.
Thank you so much! Couldn't have fixed the switch away from neutral without this video- many thanks!!
I'm going around the house ensuring every room has a GFCI at the first outlet bringing electricity into the room since my house has no grounding and ran into a situation in which my GCFI would trip. Solved that, then my breaker would trip. Then came to this video rearranged the wiring according to this one of these setups and voila!!! Fixed! Thanks a lot for your videos!!
I watched many practical videos on wiring a single pole switch and light in preparation to expand a switch from a 1 gang box to a 2 gang box and wire 2 separate lights. This has helped me understand more clearly the 3 types of switch wiring I may run into. Thanks for the wonderful video and easy explanation!!!
After viewing many youtube videos your video made it clear how to fix my electrical problem. No more tripping of the circuit breaker when the wall switch is on. The ceiling fan is now installed, and it is working properly. Thanks for your info.🙂
Your expertise and video made it happen!!!!!!
Took me 15 minutes !!!!
You are AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!
Is there a reason why in the second illustration you are connecting the black and white wire together at the light instead of running both neutrals to the light and the black wires to the wire nut?
Thank you for making videos like this ; - ; I'm in Electrical Trades during quarantine, and I know virtually nothing wiring wise because it's the first few weeks and we had to go home for two of them already. Has me on wiring methods but I barely understand what the wires do and have been shooting in the dark ; - ; Nice teacher, thinks I'm really smart but I'm a huge "monkey see monkey do"
Best of luck buddy, how you doing now
@@takingitright Well, I’m a girl so I didn’t quite get first pick 😅 I’m at Walmart makin $13 tho so it’s not all bad lol
This video is exactly what I have been looking for. Excellent presentation. I felt like a middle school student who understood everything. haha.
That perfect pic at 1:29 is all I needed
Thank you! Just wired the switch in my room by myself
Great simple instructions. Thank you
I was re-wiring a light curcuit for weeks.
Your Vid Fixed it🎉🎉🎉
The third version of the switch wiring is often required in new installations in many jurisdictions as a neutral is required in all j boxes due to the increased prevalence of “smart” switches. Having this neutral is also nice should one want to add another light or receptacle to the circuit.
Thanks Paul, saved me an electrician consultation.
Thank you. I pulled apart a bunch of wiring from an electrical box when I was adding an outlet. I didn't pay close enough attention to the original wiring and couldn't get anything to work. I used the second configuration for the switch and everything is good now. It felt so *WRONG* connecting the neutral to the hot.
With your video, i was able to fix my wiring for my switch!
im switching out my old fashioned dumb light switches with smart light switches and this totally helped me understand how to do it. thanks
Thanks for the second schematic explanation. Saved my day.
Great video and information. The second method is not recommended since it leaves the hot wire exposed as neutral. This is a problem in the future of anyone not knowing what the previous homeowners did.
What do you mean "it leaves the hot wire exposed as neutral"?
I think anyone with some competency will notice when a black and white are together, they must BOTH be hot. If one is changing the wiring in the light box they will see a white and black wire nutted together. There is no way that would work, obviously, unless they were both "hot". Likewise, if you go into a light switch and you see two wires. One black, one wire, if someone doesn't understand that a switch requires 2 hot wires to break/make the connection, then they should hire an electrician right away. White and black DO not go together UNLESS they are both hot or both neutral, and there's very little reason to make a black/white both neutral, but there are plenty of reasons to hot/hot if the circuit comes to an end. It is just TOO much work to feed 14/3 - 12/3 through because that might not be what is on hand at the time, and it requires an extra nut. I don't know, I would hate to be doing a job and have to go all the way out of my way to bring in 14/3 just to feed some extra wire through, when it can be done the same way, with no extra wing nut or tape, and is self explanatory. I do mark them with electrical tape. Remember, this is a light switch. You are not going to be seeing white/black connected together at all, or if that was the case it wouldn't be an on/off switch it would be just an ON switch with power going TO the switch but not coming out.
@@jonburhan5478 What you're saying makes sense, yet it doesn't answer my question.
@@icevariable9600 He just meant that a neutral (white) wire has now been exposed as hot when someone opens up the switch or light fixture box, and removes the neutral (white) and potentially shocks themselves when they complete the circuit. It's not unusual to remove the neutral without cutting the power. If someone is messing with a switch or box with the power on and doesn't recognize the white and black on the same circuit, then they shouldn't be messing with electricity, unfortunately. I think his warning is a little strange because anyone getting shocked by this sort of reverse loop switch probably don't know enough about electrical work to even attempt a basic fixture change, so they are going to get hurt no matter what with ineptitude. Any one who knows electrical work will realize straight off the bat what's going on because this reverse switch method was extremely common in the 70s-90s and when we work on houses around that period we often see at least one switch that way.
@Raymond Ray There's nothing wrong with circuit #2 shown in the video. The reason it's now illegal is because of the pain of adding a neutral to the switch box if it's needed in the future.
@@jonburhan5478 Always turn off the power. It's sorta like looking both ways before crossing the street.
Good sir, you are the paragon of instruction excellence. Gratitude.
Thank you thank you thank you! I did not understand how the second scenario works. Your video was so clear in explaining it. 😊
Now that was the simple explanation w diagram I needed!
Excellent video. I followed this to wire up a light in our storage room. Before this video, I had NO IDEA how to do it. Much appreciated. Thanks for the help.
Thanks for the video, I was going crazy trying to get the light switch to work
Thank you... very clear and understandable
Found this quite helpful
I can’t tell you how helpful this was. Great video and new sub. Wow, installed a new light for wife and she is one happy camper.
The first example helped me. Thank you.
I used this first method and it saved me!! Thank you
Awesome video! It helps me understand the basic flow of electricity and how it works....You've provided clear and concise explanation. Thanks.
version 2 fixed my problem thank you.
Very nicely explained.
Thanks from Victoria BC Canada.
I watched this video and was able to fix my mistake right away and finished the job correctly. Thanks for a great video.
A bit off topic....but have you done a video on how a reversible AC motor works? Have searched your website but can not find one. If you haven't done a video on reversible AC motor consider this a request for one. I find your videos both enjoyable and educational.....Thanks for making them and keep up the good work!
3-phase is easy, you just reverse 1 set of phases. On a single phase, I would assume it has to have some circuit tech built in to reverse the AC motor.
Thank you, I found this quite educational.
In the third example, it's better to use Black for sending power to the switch loop, and red for the switched hot after the switch.
I have a question. So I wired a ceiling fan just like the third version here. When I turn on the power the light and fan turn on but the switch does nothing to turn it off. It just stays on until I cut the power again. What am I doing wrong?? Lol
@@Air-buds You probably want to wire the fan's hot wire to the hot wire entering the box from the panel. It will also go out to the switch. Once it comes back from the switch, that wire can be connected to the "light" hot wire (which is often blue, but check the instructions). This wiring will cause the fan to be controlled only from the pull chain, and the light controlled from the switch.
Awesome video! Helped me quickly fix .y mistake when installing a new ceiling fan. I could figure out why it was working but the light in the next bedroom wasnt. Thank you!
Have a question, was your setup model 3? I fixed a light fixture today but now other in the same room ain't working?
Great video my friend, very useful, thank you very much for sharing, keep safe
I am a CZcams certified master electrician now! Thanks!
Ha ha ha
No you're not. The second example is no longer up to code!
@@jovetj What are you talking about? Recent code states YOU have to clearly mark the white wire.
@@jonburhan5478 You now have to run a neutral to the switch box, even if it's not currenetly used. Three-conductor cable is needed. The switch loop is carried on the black and red wires.
@@jovetj I haven't had any inspections failed here and I do lots of reverse switch loops with white/black, and mark my whites with black electrical tape. When did this change take place? I would think the guys checking my work would flag it if it was a problem.
Thank you.
Very clear tutorial, without the excess time consumed watching someone strip the wires.
you all saved the day for me!.
thank you for your videos!
Easy to understand for non for non-electrician like me. Thanks helped me a lot
Simple and very well explained. Good job and thank you.
I'm no expert, but I'm pretty sure in your 3rd example, the black wire in the 3 wire cable should hook to the black wire in the 2 wire cable, and the red should be the wire from the switch to the light. Red is 'secondary' power wire, so there may or may not be voltage, black is 'live' so if it doesn't have voltage, there 'might' be a problem. I donno if the code defines that specifically, at this point, it's just my opinion
Thanks for the video God continue to bless you
Your animations look very good.
Thank you, they take a while to make
@@EngineeringMindset *You're welcome!*
Thank you
Good explanation
This is the most helpful tips I’ve come across online. Be careful when searching for tips. There are a lot of idiotic suggestions out there.
Great explanation please do more explaining how to wire 240 volt 2 and 3 wires and why. Thank you.
240V circuits are just like 120V circuits, except there are "two hots". Either hot and the neutral make 120 volts. But the two hots connected to something without the neutral make 240V. You only need the two hots for a 240V device, like a water heater. You need the two hots and the neutral for a 240V/120V device (it uses both voltages), like a clothes dryer or an electric range.
Out of all I searched for this video was so great and understandable it saved my life!
Awesome! Thank you!
Amazing tutorial. Is it fair to assume that as you're running the line, you can have an outlet on the same line as well?
If you have an unswitched hot, and a neutral and ground, then yes you can stick an outlet there.
Great question, and this 1st method he offered is which one I used, and my power source was stemming from an plug 🔌 outlet. Then at the j-box where I split my power to the light switch,… that’s where my neutrals were tied together as mentioned in this video. That may be your point in question perhaps.
thanks
Life saver! Thanks
Very useful
Very nice job!
And thanks a lot for the great video. It really has helped me to understand the distribution of electricity.
Thanks!
Thank you
Thanks so much 😅
Thanks lad
Very good video. Question on the next version of wiring diagram, can you add outlet? Is that safe? Thank you
Thanks.
Many thanks with a question; In the second scenario where the lamp is first in the circuit; if I were to be running a series of lights on that circuit (ex: a series of 4 recessed lights in a room), would those three additional lights feed from the neutral and hot wires that are connected to the bulb in your example, or to the neutral attached to the bulb, and the hot that bypasses the bulb (connected to the white "hot" wire) traveling to the switch?
Thanks.
My rudimentary electric connection knowledge didn't include the "fixture first" model. Assuming the switch is always first would allow you to make a mistake in assuming that if you turn the switch off, the light goes off, there's no power on the fixture and you can work on the fixture. It would be wrong if the current is getting to the fixture first. The wire would be hot!
Yup!
Paul, we understand new NEC code says have a neutral in the switch box (for future use) even thought not used now? The first wiring method shown.
Thank you.
The first scenario provides a neutral in the switch box by default. That isn't what the Code change was designed to address. The Code change addresses the second scenario, where no neutral is sent to the switch box because the black and white wires are a _switch loop_ to control the light. The third scenario shows how it shall now be done, according to Code, with a neutral wire in the switch box even if it is not used at installation.
Thank you so much. So what I am realizing is to add a nuetral to my lightswitch I can simply take the 2 wire cable and use that to pull a 3 wire cable through the wall and to the box then wire it up in the last configuration and now I have a neutral and power for my smart switch. I was previously think I had to run another wire which would have been a bit more work. Thanks!!!!!
If the two-wire cable was installed when the building was built, it will be anchored in too many places and will be impossible to do what you are suggesting. But, it is possible to run a new 3-wire cable and remove the 2-wire cable from service.
Jovet is right. Unless it's new construction which it doesn't sound like it.
Here in the United States you can no longer wire light switches in this fashion in new construction, must be a 14/3 with a present neutral in the box. This was updated when the nfpa updated national code to 2024 standards.
2014 sorry**
Don't you mean 2020 nec standards?
Do you mean similar to the last example where you need a neutral in the box?
Good to know
In the first method, "switch first," hot, neutral, and ground are present in the switch box while using 14/2. This would meet code, then?
Great video! Very helpful
The last circuit described
in this video allows a ceiling fan to operate whether the light is turned on or off.
My first encounter with this type of circuit came as quite a shock.
I would advise everyone to test any circuit before working on it to make sure it is actually off.
Electricity can be sneaky.
Wow awesome vid thanka
I as well found this video to be very helpful n best one out there that explains it in details n simple to follow terms. U help me out off this issue that i have been in for a week thank u very much from a new subscriber.
Thank you your video is well explained!
Thank you this saved our house
Excellent explanation, thank you
Thanks for this video thumps up
Thanks for the video and the great explanation. 👏👏👏👍
Awesome video thanks
Awesome videos!!! Great explanations and visuals!!!
Can option two, work also for a ceiling fan with a light??
Yes. The fan is generally wired directly to the incoming hot so that it's controlled by its pull chain only. The hot also goes to the switch and back and is wired to the light only so that the light can be switched from the wall.
Amazing video I am dancing now solved my problems
Very good 👍🏻 thank you
In the second example I’m not sure of the point of the extra white line with tape acting as a hot, other than to differentiate from the black in general, but in that case why not just advise to use red or another black with red tape, I think that would be less confusing right?
Also in the 3rd example I also don’t understand leaving the extra white neutral line tied into the main neutral feed but then cap it off in the box, wouldn’t it be better to just eliminate that line, less space and one less route in the path? I’m assuming the video is showing what it would look like if it were romex and all the wires were already together, but still I don’t think the dead end neutral is necessary
I usually love the videos but this one just confused me a little. Will these setups work? Yes. But are they best practice? That I’m not sure of.
The second example uses a white neutral because most wiring is done with 14.2, which has black/white/ground in it. So it doesn't make sense to switch out for a red or another black because the white is already there
@@1231mrworldwide that makes sense, thanks for the explanation!
When I took the cover off my panel here at home there is a white line being used as a hot, going into my circuit breaker. When I asked about it to another professional ,that is when I learned it should’ve been marked with black tape or another indicator that it’s being used as a hot. He told me it was probably the only color they had left when doing some work at my house before I moved in lol
For the third example with the use of the red wire and capping off the neutral wire in the box: If I remember correctly, some areas require by code to have the neutral in the switch box, even if it is not being used. Also, if you plan to install a smart switch, a lot of them require the neutral wire to that they can be powered even when the light is off.
great video
Fantastic
what a great video!!
Was able to wire my 4 switches from the last slide in the video. Thanks!
very good
Thank you so much. You helped me out of a jam👍