Hi all, first post here. I appreciate any help in advance!

I'l attempting to change a switch for outdoor lighting into a timer that requires a Neutral wire. Before I go out and call an electrician, could anyone here look at this picture and let me know what should be done? The new timer has a black, red, white, and green ground wire.

Again, I appreciate your help as I look to learn how to do this type of thing myself.

-Mike

 

Welcome to the forums.

You will need a way to check for 120vac. One of those two black wires that was on the switch is your hot wire and goes to black of the timer.

The other black wire goes to the red wire of the timer.
The white of the timer goes to the connection where the two whites are connected.
The green of the timer connects to the bare ground wire in the box.

 

Thanks a lot for the incredibly quick response! This might be a dumb question, and I apologize in advance if it is, but is there a difference between which black wire goes to red vs the black on the timer?

 

One wire may be labeled line while the other is the switched hot labeled load.

 

Unfortunately, neither of the wires are labeled. I wish it was that easy...

 

Do you not have anything to measure power.... a neon test light, meter, non contact probe.

If you can't identify the incoming black hot wire then it'll just be a guess as to which is which.