Wiring concern

Hello, I just got my Caseta from the mail, and I opened the light switch in one of the bedrooms that I want to use it on, and found a strange form of wiring. I have a 2 gang light switch where the left switch seems to have no function. It doesn't even control the closest outlets in the lower half of the same wall. It seems like the electrician that wired this house originally intended to install a ceiling fan and have the lights wired to it, but had a change of heart. Inspecting it, I noticed that the switches share the same ground wire on each of it's respective terminal screw on the bottom left. The hot wires seems to have their own separate wiring on the bottom right terminal screws, and from what I can tell, the load has it's own wiring as well. This brings a few questions: First, should I install the caseta switch to just control the light? Or is there a specific product for this? Second, would it be a good idea to remove the light switch intended for the (what I think may have been) ceiling fan, then reinstall it as before with the caseta switch in place of the original switch? Third, should I just treat the left light switch like a 3 way switch, and rewire the left switch to a wire nut and call it a day? Sorry for the convoluted description. I am not a professional electrician, so I am not sure if the way I describe it is of any use to anyone. I am willing to provide pictures if it helps. Thanks for the advice.

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Originally Posted by Fookington

Hello, I just got my Caseta from the mail, and I opened the light switch in one of the bedrooms that I want to use it on, and found a strange form of wiring. I have a 2 gang light switch where the left switch seems to have no function. It doesn't even control the closest outlets in the lower half of the same wall. It seems like the electrician that wired this house originally intended to install a ceiling fan and have the lights wired to it, but had a change of heart.

Inspecting it, I noticed that the switches share the same ground wire on each of it's respective terminal screw on the bottom left. The hot wires seems to have their own separate wiring on the bottom right terminal screws, and from what I can tell, the load has it's own wiring as well.

This brings a few questions:

First, should I install the caseta switch to just control the light? Or is there a specific product for this?

Second, would it be a good idea to remove the light switch intended for the (what I think may have been) ceiling fan, then reinstall it as before with the caseta switch in place of the original switch?

Third, should I just treat the left light switch like a 3 way switch, and rewire the left switch to a wire nut and call it a day?

Sorry for the convoluted description. I am not a professional electrician, so I am not sure if the way I describe it is of any use to anyone. I am willing to provide pictures if it helps. Thanks for the advice.

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It's common practice to prewire bedrooms and some other areas for ceiling fans. This includes using a box rated for fans and running 2 switch-legs to the box.

1) If you have a ceiling fan that has anything other than a pull-chain to control the fan and/or light the Caseta won't work. Otherwise, I would install the Caseta dimmer on the switch controlling the light.

2) I would leave the other switch in place.

3) Ignore the 2nd switch.

If there is only one load set of wires in the electrical jacket (White for neutral, Bare Copper for Ground, Black for Hot, and then another wire, usually red, which is also a second hot wire-and this goes from the switch box up to the ceiling fan) then they set it up so one switch can control the light and one switch can control a ceiling fan. You can use a Caseta Dimmer switch for the light and a Caseta Fan switch for the ceiling fan. You will just need to determine which wire (black/red) goes to the light and then the other one will be for the fan. As long as your ceiling fan doesn't use a remote, it has a pull chain, then this setup will work. If your ceiling fan has a remote control wired into the fan, then you will have to use the remote control to control the speed of the fan and the light. Most of these types of ceiling fans have controls that will fit into the wall box to control the fan/light. You will need to look at how the ceiling fan is wired to determine which way to go. A ceiling fan that will have two hots wires in it. One controls power to the light and one controls power to the fan. If there is only one wall switch, then they would have combine the two hot wires at the ceiling with one of the hot wire from the wall switch.If you can provide some pictures, we can give you a more definitive answer.