Basically like a valve.

Yeah. I didn't want to get too pedantic, but technically it's not positive and negative, it's grounded and ungrounded. The switch breaks the ungrounded wire, making it so there is no path from the electric company to your light

No, the box is plastic

I saw there were ground wires when I zoomed in. Take a pic of the inside of the box, please

Ok, will do.

I know that there is a third wire in all the outlet boxes in that room

How do I tell what size gage the old wires are. They look like two different sizes. I would guess 10 and 12 guage

But I want to know for sure before I get the wire.

It should say on the insulation. That sounds like a good guess. What size is the breaker?

@Deleted User Older wires tend to be a little bigger. It should typically be 14 or 12 gauge for a residential lighting circuit. And for your positive/ negative question. A switch doesn’t need a neutral, it just makes are breaks the current path. Only things that burn electricity (have wattage) needs a neutral. One wire will be always hot and the other will be your switch leg which sends power back to your lights.

The only type of switch that needs a neutral are some occupancy sensors or a switch/outlet combo

Wait, your branch circuits are aluminum?

Be very careful not to splice aluminum and copper together. They heat up and expand at different rates and the reason you seen goop on one of the terminals was to prevent the aluminum from oxidizing. You put something called nolox on aluminum when using it for electrical circuits.

They do sell special purple wire nuts to make copper to aluminum splices but I’ve even seen them burn off.

Yeah, I had some electricians come over and fix the stuff where the previous owner screwed up and tied that stuff in together.

I got the AlumiConn ALuminum to copper logs. They look way better than the pigtail tops and they have the anti-oxident gel inside for the copper

@Hessian Also, thanks for answering my questions.

@John O -

@Hessian

Sorry guys, just getting back to this. So this is a one-way aluminum light switch. I realized it did have aNeutral wire in the box. Do I need to hook it up? If so, how should I do it? Should I find a larger account and connect a third aluminum wire to the pigtail and then to the green screw?

@Deleted User yes, connect a third aluminum wire with the ones that don't have insulation and connect it to the ground. Don't touch the neutral

The power is off and I have checked the wires for electricity.

Thanks

One more question, if the wires in the outlets are 10 gage and I accidentally got 12 gage, will the slightly smaller wire effect the functionality of the power outlet?

@John O -

It's a ground. It's not normally current carrying. You really shouldn't, but you could probably get away with it

I wouldn't feel good about doing it

@Deleted User are you sure that's#10? Looks like 12

@Deleted User get a pair of wire cutters and slip the wire into the smallest hole that doesn't cut the wire. Then you'll know for sure what gauge it is.

If you already bought the #10, just use that. Bigger wire is always better than smaller

Do wires expand overtime?

Yeah, if they're normally current carrying

It expands and contracts. So over time the connections can come loose.

^^^^^

Thanks guys. Got it all figured out.

Good to hear

@John O - if you need a good laugh https://youtu.be/-WiN0vf4G9s

He's really crude but funny, "The Builder" on the same album is so funny.

Kek, nice

Yes the by product of electricity is amps, the by product of amps is heat. As a circuit is used it heats up (expansion) and when its not used it contracts. This is also a reason derating factors are used for counduit exposed to the sun