I am installing a outside light but have 3 wires coming to the light, red, black and white and only black white and green from the new light, How do I hook this up
Electrical – Installing out side light
electrical
Related Solutions
From the description provided for the existing old switch it sounds like that was wired as a simple switch loop. As such there is no NEUTRAL in the switch box. The HOT black lead is bringing the line into the box and the other black wire is connecting out to the load (light). That load black wire may actually be a white wire that has been sleeved with a black tubing, painted black or taped with black electrical tape.
From the installation sheet for the DW1KD the switch is a smart switch and will require a NEUTRAL in order for it to function.
You will not be able to get this to work with the existing wiring. Since the HOT is clearly off in the electrical box at the light you will have to work out running a new cable from the light box to the switch box that has a four conductors (HOT - Black; NEUTRAL - White; LOAD - Red; GND - bare wire).
From the above diagram note that the Red wire of the new switch goes to the load. The Black wire on the switch goes to the HOT entering your switch box. The White wire from your new switch has to be connected to the new NEUTRAL that will be provided by the new cable that you need to run.
I pulled out the box out with the white sticker on it by gently pulling both red wires and it revealed the white, black and ground I was looking for.
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Best Answer
Chances are pretty good that the red wire is just extra (or the black wire). The two most common types of wire for lighting and outlets come in 2 and 3 wire varieties, so sometimes you have an extra wire. Try to hook up just the white and black (green to ground), and see if it works. If not, swap the black for red.
Of course if you have a voltage tester, you can check the white/black and white/red pairs for voltage before hooking up the light.
There's a small chance that one of the red or black wires has constant voltage and the other is switched, so use a voltage detector and make sure all the power is off before splicing anything.