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Posted to alt.home.repair
Joseph Meehan
 
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Default Replacing old light switch in bath.

wrote:
I'm replacing the light switch in my bath and bought a new switch, but
this one looks different than the old one I took out. It has three
screws two on the side and one green one on the top. THe old one only
had one on each side. Now I replaced the switch and hooked up the
green wire with the green (ground) screw on the top and the red wire
on one of the screws on the other side but its not working. I know
the old switch is broken cause when I hit the switch I can see that
there is a short in the switch when I wiggle it. But this new switch
should work right? What did I do wrong? Or should I just take it back
and get another?


Are you saying you have just two wires, one green and one red??? That
is scary as you should never have just those two. You can have red and
white, red and black and black and white. All three should have a green or
bare copper ground in a modern home. For a switch you can add two black to
the mix. With just two wires and one being green, you don't know which is
live because someone screwed up. If the green was hot then you now have a
death trap.

I would want to have someone with some experience check the mess out
before doing anything else.

--
Joseph Meehan

Dia duit