What are the four wires on a dimmer switch?

The new switch has 4 wires: black, red, red/white striped, and green. Can I attach the new switch somehow?

Why do some light switches have 4 wires?

2 Answers. Vivek, as you said in your answer, the other black wire feeds the remaining devices on the circuit. When you switched the connections around, you changed it so the additional devices in the circuit would be interrupted.

How do you know which is line and which is load?

The easiest way of identifying the line/hot and load wires is to check the colors of the insulation. White and grey wires are neutral; green with yellow stripes, green and copper are ground wires, black can be line/upstream wire, red or black are load/downstream. The white or black are travelers.

Does a 4-way dimmer switch exist?

You can have several 4-way switches in a circuit, so long as you have two 3-ways at either end. I think you can always substitute one 3-way dimmer for one of the 3-way regular switches. When wired right, every switch can turn on or off the lights, but usually only at the level the dimmer is set to.

Do they make 4-way dimmer switches?

What happens if you switch the load and line wires?

Here’s what happens when somebody wires a GFCI receptacle with the load and line wires reversed: The GFCI will work, in the sense that you can plug in a hair dryer and the hair dryer will blow hot air. If the load and line wiring gets messed up, a ground fault (radio in the tub) won’t trip the GFCI.

What happens if you wire a dimmer switch backwards?

But here’s the catch: If you connect the circuit wires to the wrong terminals on an outlet, the outlet will still work but the polarity will be backward. When this happens, a lamp, for example, will have its bulb socket sleeve energized rather than the little tab inside the socket.

Can you put a dimmer switch on a 4 way switch?

Anyway, in a 4-way circuit (or more-way), you can replace either 3-way on/off switch (which will either be the first or last switch) with a 3-way dimmer. But it must be a 3-way dimmer, not a basic dimmer.

How do you know if a dimmer switch is neutral?

At this point, you need to make sure the wire is neutral. The only way to do this is by checking the voltage (110V/120V) between the white wire and the hot wire in the box. The hot wire is normally black. In a standard switch or dimmer, the hot wire is using one of the 2 wires connected to the switch.

Do Insteon switches and dimmers require a neutral wire?

It’s not just Insteon switches and dimmers but most smart lighting in general that call for this neutral wire. There are a few hardwired automated switches that don’t need a neutral wire, but these are in the minority. Also, you’ll be limited to incandescent lights.

Do dimmable Smart switches need a neutral wire?

As we mentioned, though, your options will be more limited. Some dimmable smart switches can be fitted with no neutral wire. What’s crucial here is the dimming functionality. This reduces the flow of power from your light to your switch to a trickle.

Do I need a switch loop to bring neutral wire down?

Power (hot and neutral) from source into the lamp. The switch loop wires do exactly what you found, and there (was) no reason for neutral to make the trek down to the switch. As of 2011, switch loops are required to bring neutral, typically using a /3 cable (black red white).