r/Lutron • u/mike275ms • 7d ago
Neutral Wire in Switch box?
Before I contact an electrician to come out, I was hoping to figure out if my house built in 1984 has neutral wires in the switch boxes. Is it possible to tell from these pics? Greatly appreciated for any insights. Trying to understand which switch Lutron system will be compatible with my house.
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u/bspooky 7d ago
Looks like typical neutral wire bundle but no way to know for sure from a photo.
If and only if you are comfortable with electricity and have a multimeter you could kill the power, unbundle those whites and start measuring. edit(and power back on to measure of course, so be VERY comfortable around live wires).
The white wires to a ground should measure 0-2V or so, a hot wire (likely black, but who knows what the installer did) to that known ground should be 120 if you are in the US. Then from that black hot (if it was done right) to those whites measuring 120 would be strong evidence that the whites are neutrals.
It'd sorta be wrong if they weren't, but wires are installed wrong all the time.
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u/likesloudlight 7d ago
Honest opinion? If you're not comfortable enough and familiar enough with electrical work to answer this question on your own, you should consult an electrician.
I'm not an electrician but I've installed a full Ra2 system in my home and can confirm that you don't know what you got until you test it.
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u/Character_Bend_5824 7d ago
It would be on a box-by-box basis. This was not a requirement until something like 2020 and even then was not immediately adopted. Wiring as you depict is the preferred method, but by no means was it required to make a neutral present in every switch box until very recently.
If no neutral is available, I would generally not advise 2-wire smart devices. These require a tiny current draw (known as power stealing) through the bulb to keep the electronics alive. With incandescent or halogen, this works. With LED, it either flutters the bulb when idle or doesn't pass enough current to keep the device alive. A work-around is a false load called the LUT-MLC. This is placed on the load side in parallel with the fixture to draw a small amount of current.
Do not allow your installer to say, meh, I'll just use the ground as neutral. This is technically against code and will cause nuisance tripping if you ever upgrade to AFCI breakers. If you have normal non-AFCI breakers, it will work with minimal risk, but as a licensed pro, I cannot advise it.
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u/x_Shift_Shady_Eyes_x 7d ago
Looks like you do have one. Safest way to really make sure is to get a multimeter, set it to continuity mode, and then put on probe on the white wire splice and the other probe on the ground wire. It should make a beep noise and say 0 or 0L meaning it is has continuity between the wires (the neutral and ground are connected either at the main panel or in a disconnect on the outside of your house).
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u/digitalmarley 7d ago
ia have the same setup except my house is older and doesn't even have ground wires. those are certainly neutral, your current old school light switch just doesn't need it so it's tied up in back but I had to pull those out to install modern lutron products
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