Un-Grounded Light Switches.

[Rhymingmechanic]

I bought a house about two years ago, built in 1994. I have replaced four switches in the last few weeks when they either quit working or started acting flaky. The gray plastic switch bodies are cracking and so connections--mostly the dreaded backstab--are failing.

The switches I replaced were all single pole on the same breaker, and had ground wires attached. (The boxes are plastic, and not grounded as far as I know here in the U.S.)

I started inspecting the other switches, and found four so far that do not have grounds connected, BUT there are ground wires tucked into the boxes. These are on a different breaker than the grounded ones I replaced. Two are 3-ways that both crackle a bit in operation, and the other two are single pole together in one box. I'm not sure if the grounds were left off by design or because of an oversight. I'm finding a lot of other things that look like they were done at 4:30 on a Friday.

Can I attach one of those loose grounds to each of my new switches? Or should I just wire them up as they originally were?

If I do attach grounds, is there a "right" wire for each switch in the boxes with multiple switches? I think multiple grounds are twisted or crimped together, but there's also paint overspray and I haven't pulled those switches out yet.

Thanks for any help with this.

 

[Astro_Guy]

A photo might help here but generally the safety ground should be connected to the green terminal on a switch. Now that being said, it seems that you may have larger issues. Under normal circumstances there should be no current flowing through the green terminal and bare copper wire of a 12 or 14/2 plus ground circuit.

 

[Hall]

Leave the grounded wires twisted, but add a pigtail or pigtails for your switches.

When you say some switches are done right (i.e. ground is connected) and others aren't, I've seen the same thing in our house. I've told my wife that I'm convinced a competent person did all the wiring downstairs but a trainee did the wiring upstairs. For example, multiple switches or outlets that had (2) wires under (1) screw terminal or wires hooked the wrong direction and so on. I did fix all these issues when I replaced everything with Decora devices too.

 

[Lubener]

Can I attach one of those loose grounds to each of my new switches? Or should I just wire them up as they originally were?

I would attach the ground wire to the switches. If the lines are daisy chained to another location , you still need to maintain the ground connection feeding to the other locations as well.

 

[Snagglefoot]

14/2 NMD wire comes with a ground wire. There are electricians out there too lazy to properly hook up the ground wire?

 

[dlundblad]

You can tie the switches ground tail to the crimped ground wires tucked in the back. It doesn’t matter what circuit they are on as they should all be tied together either in the box or at the panel. Just make certain the crimped grounds remain connected after you’re done otherwise the whole circuit could have an open ground.

The only thing grounding a light switch does is bonds the device straps and cover plate screws. Not the worse thing in the world to miss. Risk of electrocution is low, but never zero I suppose.

 

[repairman54]

They sell green wire nuts with a hole in the end to extend a ground wire out to a switch or outlet when multiple ground wires are bundled together in a box.

 

[Arc]

You will need to check voltage from hot to ground and see if they even go back to the panel. If they don't there is no point.

 

[TnT_M]

I bought a house about two years ago, built in 1994. I have replaced four switches in the last few weeks when they either quit working or started acting flaky. The gray plastic switch bodies are cracking and so connections--mostly the dreaded backstab--are failing.

The switches I replaced were all single pole on the same breaker, and had ground wires attached. (The boxes are plastic, and not grounded as far as I know here in the U.S.)

I started inspecting the other switches, and found four so far that do not have grounds connected, BUT there are ground wires tucked into the boxes. These are on a different breaker than the grounded ones I replaced. Two are 3-ways that both crackle a bit in operation, and the other two are single pole together in one box. I'm not sure if the grounds were left off by design or because of an oversight. I'm finding a lot of other things that look like they were done at 4:30 on a Friday.

Can I attach one of those loose grounds to each of my new switches? Or should I just wire them up as they originally were?

If I do attach grounds, is there a "right" wire for each switch in the boxes with multiple switches? I think multiple grounds are twisted or crimped together, but there's also paint overspray and I haven't pulled those switches out yet.

Thanks for any help with this.

Based on the research I've done about our house built in 1991 grounding light switches was not required and very commonly not done. I've been swapping out ivory switches and outlets with white panel switches for a few weekends now. I have not added grounds to the switches. Everything is working as expected and looks updated.

 

[Rhymingmechanic]

Thanks for the replies. Lots of helpful suggestions.

I just tested the two-switch box, and got 120V from hot to the ground bundle. Here are a few photos. Notice cracking in the upper right and lower left corners.

The photos with red wires show a 3-way and the unattached ground wire.

 

[Rhymingmechanic]

Based on the research I've done about our house built in 1991 grounding light switches was not required and very commonly not done. I've been swapping out ivory switches and outlets with white panel switches for a few weekends now. I have not added grounds to the switches. Everything is working as expected and looks updated.

I ran across some references to code being updated around 2000 to require switch grounding. Maybe one electrician was following code and the other was going above and beyond.

 

[Hall]

with white panel switches for a few weekends now. I have not added grounds to the switches. Everything is working as expected and looks updated.

Definitely wouldn't go back and re-do anything, but in our house, the kitchen has this (fake) metal sheeting backsplash and I used metal outlet and switch covers there instead of white Decora ones. If you had anything similar, I'd ground those switches at least.

 

[TnT_M]

Definitely wouldn't go back and re-do anything, but in our house, the kitchen has this (fake) metal sheeting backsplash and I used metal outlet and switch covers there instead of white Decora ones. If you had anything similar, I'd ground those switches at least.

Our kitchen is mostly GFCI outlets. FWIW, All outlets have been grounded so I reconnected the grounds. Just the switches have not been grounded.