Quick question. In my bathroom I have a 2 switch electrical box. One switch is a dimmer and the other controls the fan. I need to replace the dimmer switch with another dimmer switch. I connected the black wires and everything works fine but there is a ground wire on the new dimmer switch (no ground wire from the old dimmer) and I don't know where to hook the new ground wire up to? Do I hook it up to the ground screw part on the fan switch (that would have the fan ground wire and the dimmer ground wire). Do I not need the ground wire for the new dimmer?
Thanks!
Wiring – Bathroom light switch
wiring
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No way from here to know which wire fed the light or fan, but you have a continuous hot feed into the box that fed the receptacle, light and fan. The third wire, maybe it fed the fan or maybe something something else farther down the line, if the latter that needs to be tied in 100 percent to the hot feed. All whites still tied together, blacks to the dimmer from the light and hot. All grounds tied together set with a screw to the metal box. Securing the ground to the box is not needed if the box is plastic.
Before I got too wordy, here is a sketch
Still have to learn to format better
The sketch is a little rough, it should get the idea across I hope
- Turn off the power, and verify that it's off.
- Remove the twist-on wire connectors that are connecting the motion sensor leads to the black wires.
- Connect the black wires directly to the new single pole switch.
- Install grounding conductors to the switches.
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Best Answer
Some dimmers use the ground to trickle a small amount of current for normal operation. If yours is working without it connected, I would say it doesn't fall into this category (although you could provide the model name/number to be certain).
Most likely the ground connection is there simply because all residential switches, receptacles, etc. require a ground these days.
It sounds like a ground wire is available in your switch box, but it is going to your fan's switch. No, you cannot double-tap the ground screw on your other switch. You need to use some form of wire connector to make what is called a pigtail to connect the ground from each switch to your ground wire in your switch box.
Illustration of the pigtailing concept