When you're shopping for smart three-way light switches,
most switches you'll find only come in a two pack. Now, just to be clear,
the three-way light switches we're talking about is basically where you've got
one light or set of lights controlled by two separate switches. Just like these,
the two packs we see all over lead a lot of people to believe that you have to
replace both light switches,
your three-way configuration with a new smart switch,
hence two switches per pack.
The truth is you only need one smart three-way light switch for each pair of
three-way light switches. And yes,
just like you'd hope the other one works just fine.
And your smart light switch knows when the light is on or off at all times.
In the last couple of years,
companies have started selling individual smart three-way light switches,
but you can almost always get a better deal by buying a two pack or a four pack.
Look at this one, for example, it's actually four of them for only 50 bucks,
which is about as cheap as I've seen,
but there's even a $10 off coupon to make these switches only $10 each.
There are no single light switches out there that cost an anywhere near that
little. Now these prices will vary greatly,
but I'll put links in the description to some switches that are well rated at a
great price. Now, there is a little trick to making this work.
When you only use one smart light switch,
you can't just put it on either switch and expect that it's gonna work every
time.
So I'll show you how to do some testing and figure out which switch to put it
on. Now, every setup is a little bit different,
but I'm gonna describe what is a traditional modern electrical setup for a
three-way light switch. If yours is different,
be sure to consult a certified electrician for help.
Power is coming from your circuit breaker box to one switch or the other.
It then travels from traveler wires to the other switch. And from there,
the power goes from that switch to the light fixture itself.
We'll call the switch that receives the power, the main switch.
And the second switch, the secondary switch.
In order to install a smart three-way switch,
it has to be installed on the main switch,
and there are two different ways to find out which switch is the.
Main. Now the first method is really simple.
Doesn't require any special tools and it's really just trial and error.
Now in order to do this safely, just like anything with electricity,
you have to make sure the power is turned off at the circuit breaker box before
you make any changes to your switches.
So the first way is really just to try it on each switch, power it off,
and then install the switch on one side and you can check out my video right up
here on exactly how to do that.
And then once you power it back on you test it and see if it works okay,
but you have to be thorough in your testing because sometimes it will work in
certain configurations. But if this one, for example is off,
then that one won't work at all.
So make sure to test very thoroughly when you do that.
And then if that doesn't work,
you can turn your power back off and uninstall this one,
put it back on the other side and see if it works there and it should work that
way. For our second method,
we just need to determine which one is the main switch. And to do this,
you will need a multi meter. Now, if you're not familiar with these,
they're pretty inexpensive. They start at just over 20 bucks on Amazon,
or you can pick 'em up at the local home Depot or Lowe's.
Now these are both inexpensive and handy to have,
especially if you're a homeowner and are doing any of this sort of work in the
future. For this method,
we're gonna turn off the power at the circuit breaker box and then disconnect
and expose all of the black and red wires that are connected to the two switches
in question. From there, you'll need to test the currency of all wires.
Now to do this,
you do need to turn the power back on and make sure that everyone around knows
that there are live wires exposed here.
Connect one lead of the multi meter to a ground,
and then touch the other to the black wire in each of the two switches.
If one reads somewhere near 120 volts, then that's the line wire,
the one connected to the circuit breaker box.
I recommend using some tape to label this. This is your main switch. Now,
if neither of the black wires or the top wires read near 120 volts,
then you need to try the lower ones,
which are typically red or black since sometimes houses just aren't wired in a
traditional manner. Now, once you've identified the main switch,
turn the main power off again and connect all three wires of that switch
together,
turn the power back on and then check the other switch with a multi meter.
The two red travelers should have regular 120 volt current,
and the black should have no current at all.
That is the load wire that connects to the light fixture itself.
Now that you know which switch is the main switch,
you can simply replace that one with your smart three-way light switch,
and then the secondary light switch will actually work as if it were smart too.
Your smart app will recognize the state of the light,
regardless of which switch was used to control it.
Another thing that's handy to know is that if you have a not so smart dimmer
switch on one end and a smart light switch on the other,
you can actually just control the lights with that dimer manually,
or you can put a smart light switch with a dimmer on one end and then control
that with your voice or your phone. Either way will work just fine.
One is manual. One's a little bit smarter, but they'll both work. Now,
if you haven't seen it already,
you might wanna check out my video on how to install a smart threeway light
switch, which you can check out right here. Thanks for watching.