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Author Topic: X10 and Ground  (Read 8119 times)

nklght

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X10 and Ground
« on: March 07, 2006, 02:25:34 AM »

How do I properly ground X10 switches,  I currently have plastiic boxes and non-metalic sheathed wire(Romex).
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stolzb

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Re: X10 and Ground
« Reply #1 on: March 08, 2006, 01:26:52 PM »

A friend of mine (who is a master electrician) told me that grounding normal light switches is not necessary even though they are made with a ground clamp on them.  They are made that way because most building codes require them to be grounded.  In the area's where they are not required to be grounded, the electricians will twist the ground wires coming into the box together and tuck them in the back of the box.  By twisting them together, that circuit is still grounded at the  electrical panel.  If you look in the box, there are probably 2 different, 3 conductor wires. The two black wires are the Line and Load wires, the two white wires are neutral and are connected together with a wire nut and are not connected to the switch and then two bare copper grounds.  One black wire is coming in hot (line) and one is going to whatever that switch operates (load). It doesn't matter how you hook them up on the switch.  The 2 bare wire grounds are probably already tied together with a pigtail coming out of them to ground the switch.  I AM NOT TELLING YOU NOT TO GROUND THE SWITCH.  This is for informational purposes only.  Proceed at your own risk if you want to tackle this.  However, I just made sure the 2 ground wires were twisted together with a wire nut and pushed them in the back of the box, then I connected the x10 switch to the two black wires.

FYI The same does not apply to receptacles. 

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