Dimmer Switch Help...

I'm no electrician... That will be appearent soon.

My bathroom dimmer switch has slowly quit on my and I bought a replacement and need help figuring out what wire goes where.

This top picture is the existing switch still wired in. Red and black wires and a third red wire off on its own.
The red wire on its own goes to a red wire in the box. The black wire goes to the red wire in the box. And the other red wire goes to a white wire.



This is my new dimmer switch which doesn't have any wires other than the green one which I assume is the ground. I'm not sure I have enough length with the wires in the box to extend to the switch or not. I also need to know which wire goes where?

Suggestions?

 

Green is ground

I believe white is hot and black is neutral
But I'd wait for someone with more knowledge to verify that.

Do the red wires come off of the switch and into the dimmer?

Seem like it has hot coming in on red, the neutral also connects to a red, and the other red is commented to return hot(white).

Very confusing to me.

Edit.. there's another wire nuts deep in the box with the white wire coming out.
Is there another white wire in that, which goes to the switch?

 

I was backwards on the black & white wires.

 

Are you saying that there is a black and a red wire on the same screw terminal on the switch and that there is another red wire on another screw terminal on the same switch?

 

Also, never trust wire coloring without verifying it with a meter if you plan to rearrange how things are wired. Not everyone knows the wiring color code and not even all electricians follow it.

 

The switch in the box is the fan switch and I can't see if any of the wires are connected to it or not.

Thanks everyone for your comments...

 

Ok dimmer switch is probably not a 3 way..
A 3 way is when 1 light is operated from 2 points. Think of a stairway and can turn light on or off from top or bottom of stairs..

 

How many screws does old switch have vs the new one? New one...
1 will be silver and 1 gold..

Edit these are not correct terms but trying to explain in laymen terms

 

Neutral (usually white) goes to silver screw
Hot (black or red) goes to brass.
Green to ground.. But re read Grizzly Adam post about verifying with meter..

 

Thanks everyone. I have a little more work to do on this one.

 

your new dimmer switch appears to be one of the new designs which can be used for either a 3 way or single pole application. You are going to need to figure out your hot, light and neutral in the box then follow the wiring diagram in the switch directions to determine which screws to use on the new switch.
I am not sure why you have red wires in the box if it is not a 3way switch., especially 2 red.
Normally black is hot. you might be dealing with the hot is in the light box and the reds were used as travelers down to the switch or possibly a red and white which the white should of had black tape wrapped on it if done correctly.
You are going to need to verify what all the wires in the box are first

 

My gut is telling me the red to red is hot and the others black and white are going to the light fixture

 

X2

 

My guess is the black to red wire is power into the switch,other red to white wire is your neutral or common and the red to red wire feeds the light when switched on. As others have said you need to determine what wires are what first. A voltage meter will tell you which wire is hot to the switch. Also pull the light fixture to see what wires are there. I'm guessing there will be a red wire coming in hooked to the black on the light fixture. It's really not too complicated, you're only dealing with three wires. Just need to know which one is which.

 

white in this case can not be a neutral, it would be an open circuit being not connected to the other whites in the box and a dead short when power switched on. the white is a "black, hot" going to or coming from the light.
Also II am basing this on the locations of the wiring exiting the back of the switch. red alone hot, black and red next to each other light.

But bottom line we are all making educated assumption and we know how that goes.

 

I heartily disagree..

Mine were mostly un-educated assumptions

 

I removed a bunch of dimmers from the shower rooms at work and converted back to standard switches. I measured for voltage across red and black and found none. I measured across black and white, none. I measured across red and white-- 11ov. So I jumped the red (hot) and black (to the light) together and the lights came on. So I capped the white (neutral) and hooked red to one side of switch and black to the other and all was good. But you never know until you check voltage.