So all my switches are wired like this except like 4 in my house. Why would only 4 random switches have a neutral in the box? The wiring matches the house original in all.
Is theres an easy way to get a neutral to these switch boxes, or am I going to be running more wire?
>>963587
Built in late 60s, trying to get some Z wave switches installed. I can do the wiring myself if needed, but cannot figure out the whole 'neutral in half the switches' thing. Pic related, 120v from breaker, other end goes to light.
Switch phase and neutral in the junction box for that particular switch?
No idea why they'd be switched though. Maybe they're actually all connected randomly and it's just a coincidence?
I'm jealous though. As bad as american wiring is, I have to do with horribly shitty soviet wiring... White aluminum wiring, literally no markings and no ground.
Ask an electrician from the power company for and estimate on how much it'd cost to get the ground to at least the washing machine.
>don't bother with it, too much effort
>>963594
The reason some of your boxes look like that (2 wire romex, improperly using the white wire as hot instead of neutral) is because the switch was further from the source of electricity and your electrician was cheap/lazy. So they only ran the hot to the switch.
In the other cases the switch was between the light and the source of electricity. Since it was on the way anyhow they just ran all the wires through the box.
>>964544
Wouldn't that have been okay if he recolored the white as black or red?
>>964551
Yes, but they didn't. Twats in my current place did the same thing. We have a couple 3 way switches in my place too. Let me tell you it was fun working on that when each box had 2 black wires running out of it and you didn't know which one went to the next switch and which went to the lights. They also didn't run the ground from the boxes to the outlets. Just let the screws do the grounding. Which works but isn't best practice. Laziness. The attic is full or beer cans too. Old steel ones from the 1960s. Bunch fo fucking drunks build my house. Probably did yours too.
>>964554
All I found was rat skulls and bird remains. Lucky.
>cheap/lazy
>Laziness
nonsense. it's the electrician's job to use wire in the most efficient and cost-effective way he can. if not, the owner is gonna bitch, make a complaint, and tell everyone the guy is incompetent.
no one in 1960 can be expected to run extra cable to account for new technologies 50 years in the future.
>>964571
He didn't need to run extra cable, just have it color coded properly. But instead of running two black wires, or at the very least marking the white one AS IS REQUIRED BY CODE, he took a shortcut. Same as with my fuckwits that didn't use any of the ground screws.
You know whats double funny about that? Each box had a copper wired bonded to it from the manufacturer. They had to run a ground to the box regardless, and they did. It would have cost them zero extra dollars to simply connect that wire because it was already there. Why pay extra money for an electrical box with a built in ground wire and not use it? Laziness or incompetence, you pick. Whole subdivision was wired up like that.
>>964544
How fucking dumb are you? That's not a neutral on the switches. Switches don't have neutrals. The neutral only goes to the appliance(light). It perfectly fine to use a white conductor as a hot return to the light as long as you mark that wire with black electric tape...... Again, a switch(like that) has a constant hot running to it(usually the top terminal), and a switched hot traveller to the light. The neutral terminate at the light and never contacts the switch.
This is basic shit, yo!
>>964639
OP here, code says neutral gets run to switch box and tied together from there. That's my issue, it isn't. But this only changed in like 2008 or some shit.
>>964554
Carpenter here, have worked with multiple alcoholics who drink all day, every day at work.
Remember OP that you need a neutral, but you also need the black to be always-on for those little LED's to work. You need to think of your light also as just a junction box before your electric reaches the switch
Many houses with lazy wiring have the outlets on the same circuit as the lights. Pulling the circuit from the outlets might be helpful some of the time.
>>963594
>trying to get some Z wave switches installed
If you have access to attic space above that room, pulling new wire is easy. If not, perhaps the option is to find some Z wave relay modules that go above light fixture. Abandon run down to switch*. Put Z wave transmitter in switch box and have that control the fixture by RF.
*You could convert the black/white pair down to the switch to be hot/neutral power to the transmitter (eliminate battery). But there would be no switched leg back to the light. Since you are going to Z Wave control anyway, not a great loss.
>>964723
Z wave switch uses a relay to switch the hot leg on and off. Just having power won't help. Although because it's wireless, putting the whole thing in the Attic would work assuming the signal isn't shit. Ohh, btw, the signal strength is shit.
>>964544
there is nothing wrong with using the white in a romex for power in a switch loop. Theres a provision in the code for light switches. If you don't know that you shouldn't be fooling around.
>also, calling an identified conductor a neutral
its only a neutral if it carries unbalanced loads between all poles/phases in the system
>>964952
i don't get all autistic when you call NM-B cable Romex
why should you when anyone calls the white neutral?
>>964554
Oh I know. It's even more fun when you have two hots in each conduit.
>>964639
this isn't your grandpa's light switch, man.
It is an LED dimmer and communicates remotely with other switches in your house.
It needs a neutral to run the electronics inside the switch because it's its own appliance.
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Does anyone have a recommendation for stopping buzzing in my brand new super duper LED lights?
>>965040
OIC. My bad... My dumbass self thought he was going for the same switch... Golly, I can't do anything right.
