At present we have a switched outlet for a floor lamp. I would like to replace this with a Kasa smart switch.
When I pulled the switch out I noticed it had 2 black wires and 1 red wire:
The red wire is back-stabbed into the switch, and one of the black wires is back-stabbed while the other is attached to the screw terminal.
Looking at some threads (e.g. Changing old light switch 2 black wires and 1 red) and some other research, it looks like for that use case the recommendation was to create a pigtail. But because this is a switch for an outlet I'm not sure if the same approach would apply.
The smart switch I have calls for 1 neutral (white), 1 green (ground), and two black wires. But I have 1 red, 2 blacks, a neutral (not shown), and a ground (not shown; wired to the box). What the approach for this be to cap the two blacks and create a pigtail, and connect that pigtail to one of the black wires for the smart switch? And then connect the red to the other black wire on the smart switch?
old switch new switch
================= =================
black --+
|---pigtail-----> black wire
black --+
white -------> white
red -------> black wire
copper (ground) -------> green (ground)
Thank you.
Best Answer
You're pretty much right on target. Wire nut the two black wires in the box to one black wire from the switch. Check to make sure the switch instructions don't specify "line" and "load" on the wires. One of your black wires in the box is your always hot and the other one is a tap off the hot to another location, probably the always hot on the outlet. The red wire in the box gets wire nutted to the remaining black wire from the switch and then the neutral, white, and grounds get hooked up.