electricalwiring
Forgive this crude diagram
Is this allowed in the US?
Can I use the white and black wires of a ROMEX wire as the two ends of black wire to the switch and take the white (in red) wire to the terminal of the recessed light and in the metal junction box of the recessed light twist the black wires together using a wire twist on.
Otherwise, I would have to run 2 romex pairs to the switch and twist the white wires together there. This was would seem to save me some ROMEX.
This should allow the dimmer to control the recessed lights, and the remote to control the fan/light.
Of course this assumes that power comes to the switch first, and one of the wires in the cable is always hot.
Based on the info you've provided, it should look something like this.
According to the documentation for the dimmer, the black lead is LINE and the red lead is LOAD.
What happened is that the white from the top switch is a neutral, while the white from the bottom switch is a traveler. Hence, one of the travelers is connected directly to both the common wire and the light, and the other traveler coming from the second switch is shorted to the neutral -- which explains the weird behavior and tripped breakers.
Now that that's covered, lets fix this -- this is all at the light-junction-box:
Best Answer
Not any more. You are describing a two-wire switch loop that used to be allowed, but now is not.
First your diagram shows black and red wires. One of them should be white (neutral), the other black or red (hot).
Current code requires that switch boxes have a neutral wire, not just a hot and a switched hot. This is required, even if your switch doesn't currently need a neutral. The next device you put in that box might.
Standard practice now is to use 3-wire (black/red/white + ground) cable to the switch. Black and red are the active lines, and the white is capped off if not needed.