DIY smart home: What’s a neutral wire and what to do if you don’t have one

DIY smart home: What's a neutral wire and what to do if y'all don't have one

(Image credit: Time to come)

DIY Smart Home

This story is part of an ongoing DIY smart domicile series. Be sure to check out the latest installments to follow the renovation process from start to finish.

Disclaimer: Consult a licensed electrician for questions regarding to your home's circuitry, and be sure to refer to building codes before doing electrical work, which vary by location.

My spiral downwards the rabbit pigsty of rewiring my DIY smart home started with a seemingly unproblematic question: "Does your business firm have a neutral wire?"

The folks from Brilliant Smart Home System wanted to know whether their aptly named smart control panel would work in my dwelling house. While I knew of electrical compatibility issues with older houses, I hadn't considered whether mine had the proper wiring in identify before ordering new smart switches.

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In terms of a home's ability menses, the neutral wire provides a return path for currents essential to most modern U.S. electric codes. Combined with a power source and ground wire, you have the makeup of a gimmicky light switch, just earlier switches operate without the neutral. So when it comes to designing a smart dwelling house, a neutral wire tin can cause headaches if you don't take i at your switch location. Or if y'all don't know whether y'all have 1, like me.

Virtually homes built after the 1980s have a neutral wire throughout the infinite, case closed. But my home was built right smack in the mid-1980s, meaning the wiring state of affairs behind the walls could've gone either way — a quandary the Jetsons never suffered, I'k sure. So to answer Brilliant's question and figure out if my decision to use smart switches instead of smart lights had backfired, we broke drywall.

We were met with a mess of wires I can only describe every bit a preschooler'due south fine art project. I was pretty sure the tangled yards of white wires meant we had a neutral wire running through our kitchen's switches, but we still consulted an electrician to codify a rewiring plan based on the devices we want in our soon-to-be 21st century smart dwelling.

neutral wire smart switches — I've got the ability: Here'southward a await behind our walls. Yous tin see four wires total. Main ability (black); secondary power (red); ground (green); and neutral (white). (Image credit: Future)

According to my Wiring 101 crash course — courtesy of a day spent shadowing said electrician — a lack of neutral wire in our switches wouldn't have been the terminate of the world. But if y'all're interested in whatsoever smart home devices that describe power directly from your electric network (a.grand.a not an outlet,) you lot'll need to know if a) you lot accept information technology and b) if the devices you lot want require it.

Neutral wire: How to tell if you have it, what to practice if you don't

The easiest way to determine whether you lot have neutral wires in your switches is to know when your business firm was built, or the last fourth dimension it underwent a major renovation. If that happened afterwards 1990, information technology'south most likely you lot have neutral wires running throughout your home. If that happened earlier 1980, it'due south well-nigh likely that you don't have the neutral wiring necessary for smart switches.

Things get less certain if your abode was built in the 1980s. Not simply an era of questionable hairstyles and John Hughes movies, the 80s were a transitional period for electrical standards. A New York Times article from 1985 titled "Dwelling Improvement" is very telling of the changes as they related to new building code norms.

To check if you have a neutral wire, you can pop open a switch box in your home, if y'all know how to do and then safely (you can also have an electrician come do information technology). If you see a white wire coming out of the gang box, yous likely have a neutral wire.

light switch wiring — (Prototype credit: GE Lighting)

If your switch box doesn't have a neutral wire, you accept 2 options. Outset, you tin have an electrician install i. Our electrician claimed information technology's not difficult work, but they'll demand to go behind your walls. Since we opened ours up for the renovation, it wouldn't have been an outcome to run a neutral wire for the devices I wanted.

The non-demolition selection is to use any of the best smart lite bulbs or utilize smart switches that work without a neutral wire. A few years agone, there weren't many companies addressing the wiring discrepancies of older homes. Only now you can find a fair selection of models that let y'all smarten up your space sans-neutral wire.

Neutral wire smart switch vs. no neutral wire smart switch

Several of the best smart switches still need a neutral wire to complete a given circuit and stay powered 24/vii. The Brilliant smart home controller, for example, demands abiding power to fulfill its role as a wall-mounted brandish to manage your collection of continued devices. A neutral wire also provides individual dimming functionality for the controller's switches.

In addition to their neutral wire-needing smart switches, some brands have tried to offer more than inclusive options to older homes. Cync (formerly C by GE) developed a three-wire switch last twelvemonth that works without the neutral wire, making it a good selection for anyone looking to limit the necessary electric piece of work for raising their home'southward IQ.

The Lutron Caseta Wireless In-Wall Dimmer is some other switch option for homes built in the pre-neutral wire era. However, to use its voice control capabilities with Alexa or Google Banana (hither's why I went Alexa over Google Assistant) yous'll need to set up a carve up Lutron bridge connected to your router similar you might for Philips Hue lights.

Before y'all buy any smart switches, be certain to read the fine impress. If you lot're taking the DIY road like I am, review the installation instructions that are bachelor from the retailers or product site ahead of time. The Brilliant team did me a solid by double-checking my dwelling house's compatibility, but consider this a lesson learned.

Relish solving these DIY smart home puzzles with me? Stay tuned for the next installment of this series. In the meantime, e-mail me at kate.kozuch@futurenet.com or leave a comment below with anything you'd like to come across me cover, whether it's a how-to or ownership conclusion y'all're struggling to make. Exist sure to bank check out my guides to the all-time smart home devices (and best cheap smart home devices ), too.

Kate Kozuch is a senior writer at Tom'south Guide covering wearables, TVs and everything smart-dwelling related. When she'south not in cyborg mode, y'all tin find her on an exercise bike or channeling her inner celebrity chef. She and her robot regular army will rule the world ane day, but until and then, reach her at kate.kozuch@futurenet.com.