My old switch has 3 wires: 2 black on one side and a red on the other. My new dimmer switch has 4 wires: a brown, black, red and a green. How do I connect 3 wires from the box to 4 wires on the dimmer switch?
Cookrobert- you have to determine wich wire is the common wire in the box (house). Look in the box and see wich two wires ore in the same sleave. (These will be your travelers, (more than likely a black and a red) the wire that is in its own sleave (black)with a white tied to other whites is the common. Now the dimmer will tell you wich wire is commom. Tie the tow commons together. The green wire is ground if your house does not have ground , cap it and forget the green, if your house does have a ground (bare copper wire) then connect the green to the bare wires is the house box. Now your to travelers on the house side will tie to the two travelers on the dimmer side. Once you have found the traveller's on the house side and dimmer travelers they can be flip flopped. It dosnt matter. Just as long as they are the traveller's it will work. It sounds complicated but I'm sure you got this. I'm a 30 year electrician. (master).. I'll be looking for your update my friend. Good luck
SOURCE: 1 way and 3 way dimmer switches
The answer to your question depends on the manufacturer and type of 3 way dimmer you are using... generally you can use a 3 way switch as a single pole switch, but whether or not this holds true with the dimmer you are using depends. Let me know what you are trying to acomplish and model numbers mfgs of what you have and I'll try and help
SOURCE: Trimatron 3 way push on off dimmer switch
One wire is the common and the other two are the travelers.The trick is to find which one is which.... If you can see into the electrical box check to see if one of the red wires and the black wire are from the same cable, if they are then more than likely those two wires are the travelers; you can also look at the other switch and see which two wires are on the brass colored screws, those would also be travelers. The common is usually the wire that is on the black colored screw. Once you figure out which wire is your common, I'm thinking that it is one of your red wires, you would attach that wire to the black wire on the dimmer and the other two wires to the 2 red wires on your dimmer.
SOURCE: how to install a dimmer switch
This is a 3-way switch, made to control a light fixture that is also controlled by another switch in a different location. A typical example is a ceiling light fixture installed in an upstairs hallway, which could be controlled by switches at both top and bottom of the staircase.
The green wire in your switch is the ground connection, and joins to the green insulated or bare copper ground wire in the switch box. The red wire is the common connection. It connects either to the incoming AC hot wire from the electric panel, or to the hot terminal of the light fixture, depending on the switch location. The two black wires are traveller connections. They connect to the traveller terminals of the other 3-way switch.
If you purchased this switch as a replacement for a regular single-pole toggle switch or dimmer switch - one that controls a light from a single location only - then this isn't what you need and you can't use it. You'll know if you have a single-pole switch because it will have only three wires or screw connections. Return it and get a single-pole.
To install this as a replacement for a 3-way toggle switch or dimmer, connect the red wire to the wire going to the common terminal of the original switch. This will be a black- or brass-colored screw on a toggle switch, or the different-colored (not green, that's ground) wire on a dimmer. The black wires connect to the wires that go to the traveller screws (copper-colored) on a toggle switch, or the same-colored wires on a dimmer. It doesn't matter which traveller wire connects to which.
Note that if you're using a 3-way dimmer, only one of the switches can be a dimmer. The other switch has to be a plain old 3-way toggle.
SOURCE: Replace 3 way dimmer but different color wires how to connect?
you will want to make the following connections
existing-black wall to black dimmer now connects to red dimmer
existing black wall to red dimmer now connects to black dimmer
existing red wall to black dimmer now connects to red dimmer
Green wire connects to bare copper wires in wall
SOURCE: I have cooper dimmer switch
I would connect the black wire to black wire that is the "Hot" black. You can determine this with a voltmeter. Have the one voltmeter lead on the ground of the box and the other on one of the black wires. The one that indicates the 120 volts is the hot black. The other is the lamp feed. Connect either the red or the yellow to this lamp feed. Put a twist on connector on the wire not connected to the lamp feed. It should function as a lamp dimmer connected this way. If it does not dim, change the yellow and red wires on the lamp feed.
I hope this helps.
Joe
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