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jkh77 t1_j5fay61 wrote

Making a splice for all your neutrals together is common. You'll also see it happen at a switch where your hot wire forks to feed both a switch and then leaves the box to feed a plug with constant hot. Keep in mind that electricity doesn't care what color the wire is and sometimes the original electrician doesn't care either.

If you really want to know more, study parallel circuits and series-parallel circuits. This is the science behind electrical work. The pigtails coming off a spliced connection is an example of power feeding along "parallel lines."

The switch being "in front" of the lights in a similar circuit is an example of a series-parallel circuit if I recall correctly.

I also recommend you study the difference between single pole switches, 3-way switches, and electronic switches if you can afford the 20 minutes.

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Inarus06 OP t1_j5gbri7 wrote

Okay - after some testing I got it working. Smart switch and all.

Here's how it's wired.

It's not done 100% correct. The 3-way switch did not have a neutral. It seems the wiring went from the circuit box to the outside switch, with runners and a load line sent to the indoor switch (the one pictured). So to get around that I used the neutral wire for the inside single throw switch.

This is not 100% correct because those two switches are on two circuits. So I have added a note in my circuit box that if you're working on one of those circuits to flip the second and vice versa.

But they are connected and working!

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