Hi. Hopefully someone can help me with this. I have a dimmer switch that controls a ceiling fan with lights. I want just a regular on/off switch. When you run the fan it makes a noise unless the dimmer is jammed all the way up. It only controls the fan however there is a regular switch right next to it that controls a outlet.
It looks like this.
1 has a black wire connected to a piece of black wire which is connected to the switch. This seems pointless but what do I know. It also has a red wire connected to absolutely nothing.
2 and 3 have black wires connected together with a black wire coming out of that and going to the switch.
4s black wire is just connected to 2s white wire.
The remaining white wires are connected together.
Can someone please tell me how to wire this to a regular switch? And do I need a special switch? It seems like a awful lot of wires. The dimmer just says 600w120vac60hz5a
I was just going to shove it back in and deal with the ugly tan switch but I’m not sure about that red wire. Any help would be great.
Best Answer
Disregard wires that are not part of your project
And leave them alone. What those other wires are doing is scientifically interesting, but attempting to learn electrical wiring by disassembling ones house is out of the question. Much easier on everyone's nerves to get a "How To" book from the library and read it through.
The red wire is a spare, to allow switching of fan and fan-light separately. You are not using it today. That is a good sign, it means the builder actually intended that ceiling box for a fan, and presumably used fan-rated boxes.
Ground wires are very important, but they have a simple M.O. - every ground connects to every other ground. That's all they ever do. They don't need thinking about, so when trying to understand a circuit, you can disregard them. Just don't forget them.
So we ignore all the things we don't care about, what's left? I see 2 wires. Black and black. Looking at a common light switch, I see 2 screws. Easy as it gets.
Mechanically
Those extra wires are called "pigtails". For the supply black, you need a pigtail. For the other one, as you note it is redundant, and could just go direct to the switch. (Either way is acceptable, I broadly use pigtails even when I don't have to, because it lets me attach the pigtails at a workbench instead of up a ladder).
If those pigtails are permanently attached to the dimmer, don't use them. It will wreck a perfectly good dimmer to cut them, but they may be too small a wire size - often dimmers are provided with lighter wires, and UL allows that because they are pigtailed like this, but lightening up the wire is not allowed here. However, these wires look like the same wire stock already in the box, look for screws at the dimmer: if you can remove them, just do so, and attach them to the new switch.
When attaching to the switch, two methods are generally available: shape a J-hook to wrap them around the screw (clockwise) then tighten... or push them in a backstab hole which grabs them tight. The backstabs seem much easier, but are unreliable and cause a lot of weird problems later. If you have a better quality switch, the backwire holes may be directly under the screws, those you tighten the screw to clamp the wire. Those are OK.