How to know if you have a neutral wire for your smart switch

Short video on how to tell if your existing light switch has a neutral wire. Many homekit smart switches need a neutral wire. I show 3 examples of what what your light switch can look like.

[@decosse01]

Not an electrician either but I believe it is legal (but check your local code) to share Neutral as long as the breakers for both circuits are physically bonded. This might be easier to replace the breakers to achieve that vs running new Romex (you might need to move things around in the panel if they are not currently next to each other). The total Neutral current should not exceed the limit of course but this would not be an issue for adding a Smart Switch which likely has a load of only a few 10's of mA (it's not adding the load current from the Smart Switch, only its power supply current). The other way to go would just be to utilize the same incoming line voltage for both switches thus sharing the same line and neutral. The line voltage originally on the other switch (being replaced) would be isolated and only the load conductor used. In this case the circuit must have the load capability for both circuits (should not be an issue especially with LEDs replacing incandescent bulbs and we are not talking about Outlets here).

[@rediculousman]

I just get a smart light and tell the smart switch to control it.
To do this, you need to have constant power down to the switch and also constant power to the bulb. This is usually a 5 minute job by changing the wiring of the socket.

[@MarcusJKing]

Very great video! Now I know you’re not an electrician, but would you know if you could you use a 3 wire with a ground when the switch has no neutral? I have easy access where I could remove the wires and replace them, and I was thinking the black and red would be hot on the switch end, the neutral being for the smart switch. Thanks

[@ezwider4652]

What is the extra wire needed to splice the neutral wire to the wire on the back of the smart dimmer?

[@kibubkibub]

Greate vid, now I know my switch is the second scenario so I'm screwed, nothing I can do. Do you know smart light that works with no NEUTRAL ?

[@ajayw224]

Can you make a video for how to add a neutral wire?

[@KalElofKrypton]

I have no neutral wires in my home as it was built in the early 70's. The smart switches require a neutral wire to power the wifi chip in the switch. Couldn't I simply split the hot wire or load wire before it goes into the switch and use the new hot or load wire as a neutral to power the wifi portion of the switch? I am aware that there are no neutral switches on the market but they are 3 times as expensive and im broke so Im looking for a simple hack to bypass this without having to rewire the house or return all the switches and go back to the originals.

[@UltimateSG15]

So what did you do?

[@KalElofKrypton]

@@UltimateSG15 Because the house is ancient and rewireing the whole place would cost and arm and a leg, I went a less expensive route. Lutron makes plugs that don't require neutral wires. While they cost a little over double what a plug that uses neutrals does I ended up only replacing some rather than all. It was really my only option. For the ones I didn't replace I'm just using plug adapters that I can pair with Google home.

[@UltimateSG15]

@@KalElofKrypton Thanks for the answer guess i will do that too.

[@KalElofKrypton]

@@UltimateSG15 No prob. It's not ideal but it still beats a full rewire.

[@David-kj1vm]

audio too bad to watch

[@KShedTech]

horrible audio!!