How To Wire A Switch Leg For A Light

Level beginner description power a hot and a neutral is fed to the switch with 1 switch leg run from the switch to 1 light.

How to wire a switch leg for a light. The switch leg is still made up of two wires but the hot wire connects directly to the switch and the two wires connect directly to the outlet. As shown in the diagrams below you can paint a couple of inches of the end of the white wire black or wrap it with black electrical tape to. Either 14 2 with ground wg for 15 amp circuits or 12 2wg for 20 amp circuits. A 2 wire feed is pulled from the nearest source of power like a receptacle or the panel to the switch.

I m not going to get into the details of how that s wired. If you want to install a light fixture or switched outlet you will need to know how to properly wire a two conductor switched leg. When using the white wire as a hot or line it must be re identified with a different color other than white gray or green. This entry was posted in indoor wiring diagrams and tagged do it yourself handyman handywoman home electrical home improvement home renovations home wiring house wiring how to wire a light switch light light switch power switch switch leg wiring wiring diagram.

A switch interrupts the hot leg of the circuit so it has terminals only for black wires and ground. A lot of older homes have light fixtures that must be switched on by means of a pull chord or pull chain hanging from the light fixture itself. The most simple and common method of wiring a single pole switch. The terminals are brass.

Installing a switch leg for a light fixture is a medium diy job that can. With this configuration the wire from the power source comes into the junction box where the light is installed and then a switch leg goes from the light to the light switch. A three conductor cable is used to bring the hot wire the switch leg and the neutral conductor to the outlet on the right. You connect the black wire from the power source to one of these brass terminals the line terminal and the black wire going to the light fixture to the other which is the load terminal.

When wiring switches this type of cable may be used as a switch leg where you need two black wires to go from the switch to black wires located at the light or at an intermediate electrical box. This other and more complicated way of doing things uses what s called a switch leg. The switched leg of a switch simply refers to the wire that is supplied electricity when the switch is turned on. The second wire completes the circuit by connecting to the house neutral wire in the switch wiring box instead of in the outlet wiring box.