This should be easy... and I think I've got it, but I also know I'm overthinking it.

Replacing old double ganged light switches with fancy new "smart" switches (Lutron Caseta).

Breakers are appropriately dead. This is what I've got:







In case it's not clear, Neutral and Ground are coming from all three wires. There's an extra hot (red) in the one on the left.

Only instructions that came with the new switch are here:

https://www.casetawireless.com/Documents/0301799.pdf

I'm fairly handy with basic home wiring, but for some reason, I'm not braining well on this one. Don't trust myself.

Thanks in advance.

-Rob

What's the question?

Do you know what a pig tail is and how to make one?

Pigtails are no problem.

Since the Caseta switches are pre-wired (no screw terminals) and both have a pair of hot leads (red and black), I guess I’m mostly concerned about connecting the hots right.

Connect all the grounds. Connect all the neutrals.
Connect the red wire in the left side of the box to the red wire on switch #1,
Connect the red wire on switch #2 to the single hot wire on the right side of the box,

But between the switches, there’s the existing pigtail which connects to both switches in series. Now I have two separate wires on the two switches that need to connect there. Can I just run them all into a larger nut, or do I pigtail the two wires from the switches and replace the old pigtail with that? Seems like a lot of wire nuts and a bad idea - like daisy chaining power strips together or something.

Does that make any sense? As a question?

-Rob

If they have leads you don't even need to pigtail.

Two greens to group of bare grounds.

Two blacks to the black that jumps between switches. Snip wire at the point it goes to first switch.

Two whites to whites.

LH red wire to red.

RH single black wire (not wire jumping between switches) to second switch red.

Okay. That’s exactly what I was thinking, so that’s good.

Only question remaining is what I was asking above - the black that jumps between the switches IS a pigtail itself, so if I nut the two leads to that, I’ll have the two leads nutted with the pigtail, nutted to the hots from the box. It will look like this:

>-<

Can I just get rid of the pigtail and nut the two leads directly to an (appropriately sized) nut with the wires that the pigtail is coming off of now?

Is one way better than than the other? (I’d like to economize on the wire nuts in the hope that I can use the existing box.)

It doesn't appear to be a pigtail currently. From what I can see it's feed in on one switch with feed out on second, with a jumper between the two. If it's as I think it is based on cellphone pics, then you splice two blacks together, then wire nut with the black/hot from the switches.

quote:

Originally posted by Skins2881:
It doesn't appear to be a pigtail currently. From what I can see it's feed in on one switch with feed out on second, with a jumper between the two. If it's as I think it is based on cellphone pics, then you splice two blacks together, then wire nut with the black/hot from the switches.

Nope. Hard to see in the pics, but it sure is.

If the cables coming into the box are 1, 2, and 3 from left to right, the black from cable 1 and cable 2 are wire nutted to a black pigtail that went to switch 1 and jumps to switch 2.

I’ll triple check tomorrow, but I’m 99% sure that’s what it is.

Does that change anything (See my previous question)?

-Rob

(I definitely owe you a beer next time you’re over this way!)

quote:

Originally posted by BurtonRW:

LMAO!

I saw the orientation of that first photo and said.. "What the fuck are the switches doing on the ceiling!?"

Oh man, I think I need to go to sleep.

quote:

Does that change anything (See my previous question)?

Nope. Works the same either way.

Wired it all up and the switches work perfectly, including the Caseta smart/remote functionality.

There's no way these are going in that old box, though. Isn't going to happen - even if I crammed everything in there in a really bad way.

Given that I doubt there's any slack in the lines coming in, replacing the box is not a job I'm going to tackle myself, so ironically, I get to call my go-to electrician anyway. (Sigh)

Hopefully, most of the single-ganged switches I'm going to be replacing will be easier fits.

Thanks again for the help.

-Rob