Old Home Wiring Question

I have an older house and am not sure about replacing a switch. I removed my old switch and found out that there are only 2 wires, White and Black. I got a Lutron PD-8WCL and see that it has 3 wires. I tried connecting the Green from the Lutron to the Black wire from the wall and the White from the wall to one of the Black on the Lutron but no luck. Any help would be greatly appreciated..

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Originally Posted by LADodgerJeff

I have an older house and am not sure about replacing a switch. I removed my old switch and found out that there are only 2 wires, White and Black. I got a Lutron PD-8WCL and see that it has 3 wires. I tried connecting the Green from the Lutron to the Black wire from the wall and the White from the wall to one of the Black on the Lutron but no luck. Any help would be greatly appreciated..

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There is a blast from the past. Power typically runs from the panel to the wallbox, through a switch and up to the light. In older homes they ran power from the panel to the light and ran a wire down to the switch. They would send power down on the black an up on the white or vice-versa. They gave that up because troubleshooting required a ladder and removing and rehanging the fixture.

Green is ground. Your system may not have a ground. If so just cap it off. The other 2 wires shouldn't matter. Check the breaker. You may have tripped it.