On a light switch which hole is for neutral & which is for live? I have markings of 1, C, 2 & Loop on back.?

Question

I'm changing a light switch which has been disconnected by my electrician. The light switch I bought doesn't indicate which hole is live or neutral or earth and has no colour coding on it. Three holes are available. One says 'loop' next to it and is slightly different from the other two. The next one has '1' next to it. The other has a "C" above it, but the "C" is in the middle of the holes. There's a 4th s***w but the hole is closed & it has "2" marked on the plastic covering the hole. The switch is made in Australia. Thanks

Answer 1

I'm not sure want type of switch you have, but if you put the black wire in one of the hole's and the white wire into the other one  it's going to work.If you have those two wire in backwards , the only thing that's going to be different is that the switch will be on when it shows that it's off. If you don't see a place to put the bare ground wire, then just put it with the white ground wire.

Answer 2

On the light switch you should have a hot in, hot out. otherwise you could be in for a real SHOCK when you have to work on it later.  It don't matter which hole/s***w you hook the wires to.DO NOT put black and white into the switch it will short out.The black wire should be the hot one so, you want to interupt that with the switch. the white should run UNBROKEN from the light (load ) All the way back to the neutral bar in breaker box.

Answer 3

There is no neutral on a light switch.  One terminal connects to a normally hot wire, and the other connects to the fixture you want to turn on.  With a "C" on the switch I think that you have purchased a double through switch.  Flip it in one direction and turn on a lamp, and in the other direction turn on a different lamp.