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Can I safely wire this motion-sensor light?

1453 Views 2 Replies 2 Participants Last post by  KellyAL
I have track lighting in my walk-in closet and it is wired to an inconveniently-located switch outside the closet. I am wondering if I can connect a motion-activated switch right here at the connection box for the track light (near the ceiling).

This is the type of switch I will use: http://www.amazon.com/Cooper-Wiring...972&sr=8-3&keywords=motion+switch+fluorescent (the track lights are not incandescent). I would encase it in an external wall box so it looked neat.

Attached is a picture of how the track lighting is currently wired. It looks like I have hot, neutral and ground wires.

Questions: Can I do this safely? Would I need to connect the wall box to the track connection box pictured here (for grounding purposes)?

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You could, but it cannot be a switch leg. That means that power would have to enter at the switch. If you have a switch leg, you would need a neutral. That means 3 wires plus the ground.
Follow-up

Thanks, gregzoll! I had to do some research on switch legs before I could respond. A few questions:
1) What you're saying is that with the current configuration of wires, I could not do what I suggested without running an additional wire to where the new switch will be?
2) I will not need the existing switch (outside the closet) after I install the motion sensor switch (inside the closet). Does this change anything? If I deactivated the old switch, could the only switch leg would be to the new switch? How would I do that, and again, would that involve pulling more wire through the wall?
Pulling additional wire behind the wall is beyond my ability. It just seems like I should be able to capitalize on the shoddy outside-the-wall hardwiring job that the previous owner did here...
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