Smart Switch KS-602H

[JDRoberts]

Don’t try to use the ground wire and the neutral wire interchangeably. It’s a bad idea.

FAQ: Neutral and Ground Wires are not Interchangeable

Continuing the discussion from Current Device Deals & Best Prices: They are both wires, but they serve very different purposes in a residential home circuit. One is grounded and one is grounding. If most of your experience has been with battery operated devices, or in a physics lab, you are generally working with direct-current, and,the ground and the neutral may well work in a very similar way. In these environments you do sometimes hear the statement that the ground and neutral are interchangeable. However, in a house, the ground will often be connected to a metal appliance such as a washing machine or a toaster, and normally carries very little current. Its purpose is to be used when there is a fault in the normal live circuit so that the extra current has someplace to go. The ne…

It may be possible to fish up a neutral wire from a nearby outlet, but that’s a very different process.

Automated Switches: What should my wiring look like? (US Version)

So you want an automated hardwired light switch, but you’re not sure where to start. Well you’re in the right place. The most common requirement of any hardwired automated light switch is a neutral wire. Yes, there are a few…(read very, very, very few) switches that don’t require a neutral, but those will limit you to incandescent only. For those of us using LED, Fluorescent or some other energy efficient bulbs under 20w a neutral is REQUIRED! So what does this look like? [image] This is a diagram of a switch with the neutral run directly to the light. This is not good for automated hardwired light switchs and i would HIGHLY recommend that if you want to automate the light, contact an electrician and have them pull a neutral for you. It’s not as expensive as you think and will save you…