NOVEMBER 2019 PCWorld 109can use the wire
snippers or a
dedicated tool for
this step.
Smart switch
manufacturers use
different wiring
techniques. Some
have screw terminals
that you bend the
wire emerging from
your wall around,
others have pigtail
wires that you bind to your home’s wiring
using wire nuts, and still others have
backstabs that you push your home’s (solid)
wires into.
The C by GE switch we’re installing in this
example uses pigtails, so twist each of the
line, load, neutral, and ground wires to the
matching wires emerging from the junction
box, using a wire nut to hold them together.
If you’ve installed a switch that doesn’t
require a neutral wire (such as the Lutron
Caséta mentioned earlier), put a wire nut on
the end of that neutral wire coming out of
the wall, making sure that none of the bare
copper wire remains exposed (you can snip
off the excess, or wrap the wire and the wire
nut in electrical tape).
Push the excess lengths of wire back into
the junction box, and then do the same with
the switch and secure it to the box with
either the provided screws or the screws you
removed from the existing switch. Now
replace the cover plate. Note: It’s best
practice to use plastic cover plates with
smart switches. Metal plates are pretty, but
they can block the signals the smart switch’s
radio depends on to operate.
Finally, go to your breaker panel and
restore power to the switch.
Flip the switch to ensure it properly
controls the fixture. Don’t panic if the light
bulb doesn’t turn on, there’s always a chance
that the bulb is burned out even if it was
working before you changed switches. To
verify that it’s still operational, screw it into a
fixture you know is working and check that
before you do anything else.
Finally, once you have the switch working
correctly, install the mobile app you’ll need
to control it from your smartphone or tablet.
Congratulations! You’ve just replaced a
dumb switch with a smart one.If your smart switch has pigtails, like the one in our example, twist the like
wires together (neutral to neutral, load to load, and so on) and secure each of
them with a wire nut.