Bought a Lutron CL dimmer after googling around and seeing how easy it is to install a dimmer, but when I got home and took a look at my light switch I'm not sure its compatible?
The dimmer has 4 wires, but my light switch only has 2.
Here is the dimmer and the instructions:
But my light switch has only two wires which are both black. And one of the wire connects to a thumb screw, but the other one looks like it connects to that drilled in metal piece.
What do you guys think? Do I need an electrician, can I do it myself or is it just not compatible?
She works! I installed it upside down but hey it still works I'm happy. Special thanks to someguy obviously couldn't have done it without you. I was going to take a picture of it wired up but I forgot.
The wires were very thick copper so it was a little tricky to wrap the wires around them. For the green wire I had to completely remove the screw from the fixture, wrap the wire around it and screw it back in.
Thanks again:
Best Answer
This will work, or at least you can connect it.
Right now we will trust that it is the right dimmer for the lamps.
You have all you need, and if you have made it this far, you will be fine.
Adding to the confusion in this project is that the dimmer can be used for either a single pole switch, or a 3 way switch. (Kinda clever for sales, but frustrating where the directions are concerned.
Your switch has 2 wires, one to the light and one to power. 2 wires are the sign of a single pole switch. 3 wires are a sign of a 3 way switch.
The White wires, twisted together and tucked off to the left side in the pictures stay as they are, you will not do anything with them.
The Black wire, that right now goes to the lighting fixture, this is the wire that goes into the metal cable and is not connected to anything else.
This will get twisted together, clockwise fiwith the Red/White stripe wire, that came with the blue wire nut on it.
The other Black wire, the one that currently goes to the power/hot wires, these are the 4 Black wires that are twisted together under the red wire nut.
This will be combined with the Black wire, and the Red wire from the dimmer switch.
Remove the red wire nut from the black wires.
Untwist and remove the Black wire from the switch. This leaves 3 Black wires twisted together. The short piece of Black wire that you removed will not be used. It is now trash.
Twist the Black and Red wires, come from the dimmer together.
Take the wires you just twisted together, from the dimmer with the 3 Black wires, that are already twisted together. This does not have to hold together well, they can sit beside each other.
Take the red wire nut, that you removed earlier, and twist together the 5 wires. 2 from the dimmer and 3 that were already twisted together. The important things, the bare wires all touch, and you can not see any bare wire outside of the wire nut.
There is 1 wire left not connected.
The green wire on the dimmer is ground. The switch box you are showing has, 'bx' type wire, it is metal and sprials around the copper wires. I am sure someone will kick my ass for saying this but here goes.
Bend the bare end of the green wire into a hook. Loosen up the screw at the top of the box that holds the metal cables in place. The put the ground wire hook around it, clockwise, so the end of the wire will be on your right. And tighten the screw back, keeping all the fiddly bits that were also being held down, as they were.
You have:
4 White wires, topped with a red wire nut that you have not touched.
A Blue wire nut, with 1 Black and 1 Red/White stripe wire.
A Red wire nut, connecting 4 Black and one Red wire.
A Green wire screwed under a metal clamp, in the metal box.
A short bit of Black wire, that you removed and trashed.
Turn the power on - try your dimmer and please let me know what happens.
Thanks
Great job on the posting, nice pictures, lots of details, makes it easy to answer :)