First, I would like to thank all the contributors to this forum for sharing your vast knowledge. I read the forum daily and am learning a tremendous amount.

I have an overhead light and two wall sconces illuminating my front steps. The overhead light and the sconces are on separate, adjacent switches in the same receptacle. They are also on the same circuit. The wall sconces are controlled by a digital timer. I would like to add the overhead light to the same digital timer. Can I simply connect the switch wires controlling the overhead light to the leads (black and red) from the digital timer that are controlling the wall sconces?

I am not at all concerned about exceeding the wattage rating of the timer. All three fixtures have small LED's.

Thank you all in advance for your input.

 

Do you have a bundle of two or more white wires connected only to each other in the switch box? Does the switch you wish to remove have two black wires on it?

 

Ray, the switch, I wish to "piggyback" on the timer has two black wires. I will have to check this evening if there is a bundle of white wire in the box, but I do not recall seeing any.

Thanks

 

If you have two black wires on the switch it almost certainly is there. What those two things together mean is that the light is not on a switch loop but powered by power that comes in to the switch box. A good thing that makes this simple.

Look carefully at the two black wires on the switch? Is one of them a pigtail? If so that one will be completely removed and the other switch wire added to the power out side of your timer.

 

Ray, I do have a bundle of white wires in the back and one of the black wires obn the switch I want to add to the timer is pigtailed.

Thanks

 

I eliminated the pigtail and connected the other black to the power of the timer. The overhead light does not come on when the wall sconces are on

 

Nash has brought up a point I didn't consider. I assumed a lead on the timer not screw terminals. See Nash's post below. What my minds eye was seeing when I wrote my reply was a black lead to the sconces wire nutted to the wire from the switch. The overhead light would be added to that wire nut. If you have screws I can unstand I was not clear.

 

I hope you kept the pigtail. You need to splice the feed to the wall sconces and the feed to the overhead light together and connect both of those to the power-out terminal on the timer.

Id your timer came with lead wires instead of screw terminals you won't need the pigtail.