Hi. I'm replacing an old switch for a ceiling fan that only had 2 wires; a black and a white. The new switch has 3 wires, a black, white and a green grounding wire. The wire coming into the receptacle box area through the wall has 3 wires, a black, a white and a bare copper wire and the bare copper wire is just connected to a screw on the metal receptacle box. My question is when I install the new switch that now has a green grounding wire, what do I do with it or how do I connect the new green grounding wire to the receptacle box. Can I just wrap it around the screw that the bare copper grounding wire is wrapped around and have 2 wires connected to that one screw? If not, where does that green grounding wire on the new switch go and how do I do it? Right now everything is connected and the ceiling fan & light works fine except that I don't have that green grounding wire on the new switch attached to anything (just wrapped it in electrical tape for the time being) and I want to make sure it's safe. Many thanks to all. Very much appreciated.
- posted
13 years ago