How To Replace Electrical Switches - The Home Depot

Replacing a switch is a project almost anyone can tackle. In this video, discover the right questions to ask to ensure you purchase the right switch for your needs. Then, learn the simple steps to installing your electrical switch or dimmer.

For more DIY information, visit http://www.homedepot.com/knowhow

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• dimmer
• electrical
• ground
• install
• single pole
• replace
• pole
• switch

[jay7sa]

great info.

will a dimmer switch work with track lighting?

[homedepot]

Glad you found it helpful!

To answer your specific question, in most situations you can use a dimmer with track lighting. However, if you have questions about specific makes and models, don't hesitate to ask an electrical associate at The Home Depot nearest you.

[hatsgoods]

the safest way to conect the wires are first your ground wire so if something goes wrong it will groundthough that sytem them your neutral(wite) then your your hot (black)

[sgtgrooover]

What if you have a broken grounding wire? If you only check from ground to hot, you may very well still have current . How about checking the neutral to hot as well as ground to neutral, just in case, I mean you only live once!

P.S> never use the back-stab connectors, they are notorious for bad connections.

[lacuzon39000]

please home depot , stop before someone get hurt .

[jmack619]

@spanky8477 what about the toaster? I gotta have my toast in the morning. If I'm in a hurry' I combine the toast with the shower, and this little glitch "sometimes" is an issue.

[spanky8477]

@jmack619 Well after examination the copper piping I used still seems fine, but as a precaution I have switched it out for a larger piece of copper. I had a bath today and didn't get any shocks, and my hair dryer worked perfectly so fingers crossed this has fixed the problem

[jmack619]

@spanky8477 you should have used a bigger pipe

[spanky8477]

It all worked well for about 2 weeks, so i just assumed I had done everything correctly. then one day as I was washing my dog I recieved a big electrical shock, luckily i survived but my dog was killed. I have decided to post this here to warn others off of attempting to do there own wiring, and to notify home depot that my lawyer intends to serve you with a several million dollar claim in the coming days/weeks.

[spanky8477]

After watching this video and being assured that I am capable to perform modifcations to my houses electricity, I decided to try my hand it installing a 2 outlet general power outlet just above my bathtub. When I tested it, the circuit breaker kept tripping out for some reason, so I did what any sensible person would do and cut a piece of copper plumbing pipe and replaced the faulty circuit breaker with the piece of copper pipe.

[MrGingerDrummer]

@ddgg2009 The wires in the device are stranded, meaning they are made of numerous strands of copper or aluminum twisted together. The wires in your box are solid, meaning they are one solid piece of extruded copper. You can splice them, the difference is size is for allowable ampacity. The larger the wire, the more current that can be run through it. If you have any questions or need further explanation leave me a comment/message on my channel!

[MrGingerDrummer]

@kaliaisgay that black wire is for switched receptacles, usually used for lamps. take that black wire and splice it to the box's feed or splice it to the load side of the motion switch to allow it to turn on with whatever the motion switch is controlling