We have an older church building that we would like to put our parking lot lights on a timer. We purchased digital timers only to find out that there is not a neutral wire within the switch boxes. We would like to run a neutral wire from the breaker box to the switches, does the neutral wire have to continue out to the lights? The switches only have 2 wires into and out of them, no ground.
Wiring – Does a neutral wire need to be run from a switch to the light
neutraltimerwiring
Related Solutions
There are two main ways of wiring a lighting circuit:
The wiring for the circuit goes to the switch. From there a live and a neutral are teed-off. The teed-off live is switched, and teed-off neutral unswitched, and then run from the switch to its relevant light fitting.
The wiring for the circuit goes to the light fitting. From there a live and a neutral are teed-off. The teed-off live for that fitting is then run to the switch and back, the teed-off neutral connects directly into the fitting. - This is the setup you have
It sounds like the new switch you've bought requires setup 1. There is absolutely no problem mixing these two setups. You could run a new cable from the fitting, taking the live and neutral together to the switch, and get rid of the existing cable to the switch.
Running the new cable may or may not be easy. In my house I can access the light fitting from above, as its in the loft. I can then find where the cable drops down into the wall to reach the switch, and feed a new cable through there (or tie it to the existing cable and pull through).
I am assuming that there is a bundle of neutrals (the white wires) in the box. First determine which is the line side (hot) conductor and which is the load (switch leg) conductor on the existing switch. This is important since you are installing a time and the Hot must be on the correct lead. First connect the Ground (bare or green) conductor to the timer. Now you connect the Hot to the correct lead (probably the black) and then the Switch leg to the proper lead (probably the red). All that is left should be the connection of the neutral unscrew the wirenut attached to the bundle of white wires, add a pigtail and attached it to the proper location on the timer.
I am assuming you are using safe practices by never trying to connect or splice wires will the breaker is hot. First identify then kill the circuit then splice and connect.
I am not sure you know what a pigtail is so here is an illustration.
Godd luck and stay safe.
Related Topic
- Electrical – Is the plan to add a neutral wire to a switch box ok
- Wiring – How to Identify Neutral, Hot, and Traveller Wires in a 3-Way Switch
- Electrical – Legal/safe? Neutral in box goes to different panel than the one that provides the hot
- Electrical – Dual pole light switch w/ 2 live, 1 neutral-can I remove the tab
- Old house, no Neutral coming from APS pole. Neutral vs Ground
- Wiring – Is the neutral wire tied to the ground
Best Answer
A church is a commercial facility so use caution on advice received on this site most are not familiar with the unique requirements to commercial construction. Could you provide a photo of the wires entering the box? Also how many lights and the type?
there may be a contactor controlling multiple runs I use 3 phase contactors to control 3ea 20 amp strings on 120/240v services.
there are timers that need no neutral check out an intermatic STO1 they run in the mid 30$ range and the timer is battery powered so no neutral is needed and power bumps don’t affect it. The battery last about 2 years.
The nice thing about this timer is it is astrometric or you can turn on a feature to turn on at sunset and off at sun rise it updates itself based on your location. I use them at my plant to turn the yard lights on at 3am then off at sunset, on again at sun set then off at 1030 pm or the time they shut down for that day then they don’t turn on for a day that we never work would be great for a church where scheduled services and weekly Bible studies or choir practices. If you need it on when it’s not programmed tap it and it will stay on until tapped again or the next scheduled off time. I drive small (15 & 20 amp circuits) with this timer and if the loads are larger drive contactors (power relays).
Depending on the area and construction type you may have conduit that’s why I asked for a photo and a neutral could be pulled in conduit in commercial facilities. buildings with occupancy requirements are normally wired with conduit.