Occasionally your household wiring is completely different from what you’d expected. Each electrician can wire a wall box differently, which can make installing a Brilliant Control difficult.
We’ve put together some tips to help you identify your wires and clear up the mystery. If you are still unsure of your wiring after reading this article, please contact a certified electrician to help with your installation.
The best way to identify your wiring is to look at your existing wiring configuration.
- First, it is very important to turn off your circuit breaker and verify that the power is off by making sure that the light does not turn on when you use the light switch.
- Unscrew the existing switch from your wall.
- It is helpful to take a picture of the existing wires inserted into the existing switch BEFORE you remove the wires from the old switches.
For Single Pole Configurations
- Most non-smart-switches in a single-pole configuration are only wired to the “line”, “load”, and ground wires.
- The ground wire is almost always green or bare copper. You can label this with a small piece of electrical tape by writing a “Ground” or “G” on it and wrapping it around the wire.
- If you do not see a green or copper wire, your wall box likely does not have a ground wire and is incompatible with the Brilliant Control.
- The other two wires connected to your switch are likely your “line” and “load” wires. These wires are usually black or red. You can label these with electrical tape as well.
- Brilliant can automatically distinguish which wire is “line” and which is “load”. On the Brilliant base, these are called "L1" for load and "C" for common, which is another term for line.
- Many smart switches also use the “neutral” wire. This wire is usually white. If the existing switch is a smart switch, look for a neutral wire to be attached as well, and label it.
For Three-Way Configurations
- If you have a 3-way configuration, you will have an additional wire. This is typically red or black.
- Your ground wire is almost always green or bare copper. You can label this with a small piece of electrical tape by writing a “Ground” or “G” on it and wrapping it around the wire.
- If you do not see a green or copper wire, your wall box likely does not have a ground wire and is incompatible with the Brilliant Control.
- Your other three wires are likely red or black. You can identify which wire is which by looking at the screws they are wired to.
- Your common or line wire is likely black, and likely wired to a black screw.
- Your two traveler wires may be red and/or black, and are likely wired to gold screws.
Tips
- The neutral bundle is usually several white wires connected together using a wire nut. In rare cases, these wires may be a different color if your wiring is non-standard.
We also recommend checking out this article that shows how some common switches and dimmers are wired up to help you better identify your wires.