I am trying to install z-wave lighting switches into my apartment. What I have discovered is that every light switch in my apartment that I have taken apart (4) is wired differently. The switches I am trying to install are the GE/Jasco 45637 z-wave switches, which require a neutral wire, line wire, and load wire. Most of the switches I have encountered have neutral wires but also have other wires that I am not sure what to do with.
All switches to my knowledge are single pole.
Here are my light wiring configurations:
Light 1 – 1 line, 1 load, neutrals capped together. Would I pigtail a white wire to the neutral for this connection?
Light 2 – 1 line, 1 load – this config won't work with the switch.
Light 3 – This one is interesting. It has a red wire to the bottom screw and 2 black wires to the top screw, both coming out of the top of the box. There are also neutral wires capped together and a ground. Could I cap the two blacks and run a pigtail as well as pigtail the neutral and run the red into the bottom screw? Why would a red be there?
Light 4 – Interesting as well. This one has 3 neutral wires capped together, 1 black wire in the top push down connection and 1 black wire in the top screw and 1 black wire in the bottom, as well as ground. Any ideas here?
My main concern is to be safe, whether I install new switches or not.
Any help here would be so great.
Best Answer
Light 1. Yes, you will pigtail and put the 3 neutral wires together in 1 wire nut.
Light 2. Correct, it will not work. You will need to add the control at the junction box with the light or receptacle.
Light 3. I would put a pigtail in with the black wires, and put under the top screw. Add the pigtail and put the 3 neutrals together. The red wire to the bottom screw. Are the wires in conduit, or do they come from a cable? I would expect that the red is a 2nd hot wire, but that would lead one to expect a black wire to be somewhere close.
Light 4. Pigtail into neutrals for the switch. Another pigtail with the 2 upper black. And put the single black back in the lower terminal.
2 wires under 1 screw is a no-no, and using a screw and a push-in is just poor form.