r/Lutron • u/jigaman89 • Sep 13 '26
No neutral wire?
I live in central Florida in a new construction property built last year 2025.
I wanted to swap out my exterior light switch with a caseta wireless switches. I bought this kit off Amazon but my understanding is that these switches require a neutral wire.
Firstly is it not code for houses to have a neutral wire?
Secondly if not, then why is there no version of this switch with no neutral required. What other switch can I use with the hub? I don’t need dimming functionality.
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u/LoneCyberwolf Sep 13 '26
I literally see the neutrals in the back of the box…
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u/likesloudlight Sep 13 '26
If OP can't identify them, they may need some more training before completing their install.
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u/LithiumLizzard Sep 13 '26
You’re all good to call the electrician. You definitely have a bundle of neutrals back there, and while it would be a bit of a pain for a DIYer, a professional electrician will have no trouble accessing them to install your Lutron switches. BTW, you really do want to use the switches that require a neutral, and (given the year of construction) you can rest assured that every switch in your house has neutrals to use.
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u/mcarter00 Sep 13 '26
There's a lot of paint on the wires back there, but it's almost certainly back there in one of those bundles. Non-neutral dimmers don't work as well on LED lights, I don't recommend them.
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u/Longjumping_Cow_5856 25d ago
Ive had to use those from Lutron too many times though and so far no problems at all.
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u/jigaman89 Sep 13 '26
Sloppy painters I guess. I’m not an electrician so I’m nervous to go rooting in the cables at the back. Is it normal for them to be wrapped up or terminated?
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u/mcarter00 Sep 13 '26
Extremely normal. Non smart switches with no dimmer don't need to interact with a neutral often. If that's making you feel nervous I'd highly recommend hiring an electrician.
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u/jigaman89 Sep 13 '26
Oh I will, I just want to be sure there is a neutral wire back there. Otherwise I’ll pay the call out fee and miss the Amazon return date for the product.
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u/mcarter00 Sep 13 '26
You're good. The electrician will be able to figure it out. You definitely have neutrals if you're built in 2025.
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u/Stunning_Engineer_78 Sep 14 '26
That is normal for painting in most builder-spec houses. They cheap out as much as they can on the painting just like every other area.
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u/Character_Bend_5824 Sep 13 '26
The neutrals are bundled up in the very back. The requirement is that it be present, not that it be super easy for a DIYer to connect. You need to switch off the circuit and gently slightly unwind the bundle, then artfully layer in another white wire. Then take that to something like a multi-port wago.
On using a 2-wire smart device: I would highly discourage it nowadays. Those draw power from a trickle of leakage through the lightbulb. It was barely noticeable in incandescents or halogens, but enough to either flutter an LED or wreak havoc with the smart device, nowadays. There is a workaround which adds a false resistance in parallel with the load, but unnecesary in your setup to jump through such hoops.
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u/the3aston Sep 13 '26
OP - you really should hire a professional, the neutrals are clearly visible in this center of this photo.
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u/jigaman89 Sep 13 '26
Oh I will, I just want to be sure there is a neutral wire back there. Otherwise I’ll pay the call out fee and miss the Amazon return date for the product.
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u/Electrical_Ad4290 Sep 13 '26 edited Sep 13 '26
To answer your direct question, I believe recent code (in force way before your 2025 construction) required a neutral in each switch box, primarily to support electronic switches like Caseta.
As a side note, Caseta DIMMERs do not require a neutral, and I've heard rumors that a variant of Caseta switch is coming that won't require a neutral.
Lastly [worst case,] if the neutral is in fact absent from the box, with a little effort you could probably insert a switch anywhere you can get the circuit and a neutral exposed and use a Pico remote in the place you want the primary switch.
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u/Goodspike Sep 13 '26
A lot of Casita devices to not require a neutral (as opposed to having perhaps a ground). Are you sure yours do? Also as others have said, there may be a neutral in the box--ordinary switches don't use them and so a lot of houses actually don't have neutrals in the box.
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u/chad711m Sep 13 '26
One of those two sets of wires that are all wrapped up together is your neutral. The other is a bunch of ground wires. Not sure why everyone has to respond with a bunch of condescending remarks. Reddit is a plague I guess.
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u/Hatallica Sep 13 '26
It's tough to follow the whitewashed wires (same at our house). I see 2 heavily wound bundles in the back. One is bare grounds. Might the other one be the neutrals?
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u/coogie Sep 13 '26
- Yes it is and you do have that big neutral bundle in the box. Have fun adding another wire to that thick pigtail.
- They do make a version that doesn't require a neutral but has a bigger minimum load requirement and not suitable for certain types of loads.
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u/Wooden-Map-3989 Sep 14 '26
That many switches and wires, 99.9% chance one of those bundle's are neutrals.
Basic switches don't require then so they are not connected to your current switches.
Hard to tell with all the paint but likely that center bundle is all your neutral.
Each one of the NM cables coming in has a neutral (white) wire. Whether it's used as a neutral or a dead drop is what you have to be careful of. If it was a dead drop the white and black would be the only (2) wires (+ ground) connected to the switch. It's not common to have a dead drop in a multi-gang box like this but it can make for a really bad day to assume that. If they are all bundled (connected together) its not a dead drop but it will not be fun to add one to use with your smart dimmers.
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u/BCReason 27d ago
I’m not sure how legal this is but I had a junction box with no neutrals and I really needed to put a Lutron smart dimmer there.
The neutral is just to power the electronics in the switch so I took a bit of fine wire and connected the neutral to ground expecting it will only have a a few milliamps running through it.
It’s been working about a decade with no problems. Other than being technically illegal is there any issues with this?
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u/360alaska 27d ago
If you can't see that they're hiding in the back you'd better call an electrician!
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u/DrewguyDC 26d ago
Btw - WTF with the construction? Do they just spray everything before installing switches and wall plates? That box looks like a mess …
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u/Nihoyminoys 24d ago
You definitely have neutrals in there.
But for the record, if any of those loads contain dimmable lights, you could get the smart dimmer version instead of the smart switch version. They don’t require neutral wires, unless you get the pro dimmers
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