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Can you connect hot wire from a dimmer switch and daisy chain it to a regular switch that controls a fan? and what happens when the dimmer is adjusted - does that mean less current is supplied to the fan switch as well since the 2 share hot wires using a wire nut?

the way I have it in my switch box is 2 switches having its own load(one controlling the light and another controlling the fan) and neutral and ground but share the hot wire with each other. Ideally I like to replace one with a smart dimmer switch and another with a smart switch.

I wasnt sure if we can take the hot from the dimmer switch and the regular switch and connect it using a wirenut

vardha
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  • Just to make sure the terminology used. The always hot can be split, the dimmer hot output to the load should not be split. Means you can not use dimmer to control the fan – Ruskes Nov 11 '22 at 18:32
  • hot wire [for] a dimmer, yes. Hot wire *from* a dimmer, feeding a fan? No. That dimmer has to be a fan switch or rated for motors. Fan switches begin at full power to get the motor spinning, a regular dimmer could leave it stalled. Arbitrarily though, switches can feed other switches. – Mazura Nov 12 '22 at 01:44

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The hot can be shared just fine between any 2 switches (simple, smart, dimmer, fan, etc.) The switched hot can't - both because it would then make one switch depend on the other (i.e., only able to turn fan on/off when light already on) and because of incompatibility between switching types (light dimming circuitry not being compatible with fan motors).

The key to keeping things straight in a multiple switch box is color coding. Except for ground (green or bare), color coding of wires in typical US cables is nearly useless. You get either black and white or black, red and white. But black and red can be used for anything except neutral, and white is usually neutral but not always. If you color code the wires with electrical tape to represent the functions then it will be much easier to add or change switches, receptacles, etc.

  • Black - Hot (i.e., always hot, not switched)
  • White - Neutral
  • Red - Switched Hot (i.e., output/"load" of switches)
  • Blue - Second Switched Hot (e.g., if you have a 3-wire cable going from a double switch to a fan/light combination with neutral and two switched hots)
  • Yellow - Travelers - the special sort-of-like-switched-hot pair of wires in a 3-way switch setup.

If your wires match their natural function (e.g., the typical black/white feed from a circuit breaker) then you don't need to mark anything.

Note that the one place this is required by code is a white wire that is used for something other than neutral (hot in an old 2-wire switch loop; anything but neutral in a 3-wire 3-way switch cable) must be marked with some color other than white or green.

manassehkatz-Moving 2 Codidact
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