Two wire single pole light switch has 120 v on both wires all the time

Question

I have a single single gang light switch, (three in a 15 year old house) wired with a red wire on top and black wire on the bottom and a ground to ground. Both Red and Black wires are always live even when disconnected from the switch. I bought a LIVOLO touch light switch, single pole. It will not work. I bought another LIVOLO 3 way switch. It has a L connector for the LIVE WIRE, L1 for the lighting/outlet and a COMMON connector on the new switch. There is a white neutral wire tied to others inside the outlet box with a wire nut and not going to the switch. Should I wire the BLACK wire to the L connector and the RED wire to the L1 connector? Do I run a single white wire to the COMMON connector? This switch ONLY controls a single outlet in the bedroom!

Answer 1

SEND IT BACK!

LIVOLO is a "ships from Amazon, sold by LIVOLO" brand. That alone is a red flag. There is absolutely no mention of the required UL or ETL listing in any of the text on the Amazon product page. The images of the devices (I checked a few) do not show any indication of any meaningful certification/listing.

Absolutely against code to install anything like this in the US or Canada (black, red, white bundle indicates US/Canada wiring). If you install it and your house burns down then your insurance will very likely not pay.

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As to the underlying question of "what is going on with my wiring and how do I install a new switch":

• How are you measuring that black and red both have 120V?
• What kind of switch was in there previously and did it work?

Answer 2

So your original switch did not work. You measured it and there was always 120V to ground on both sides of the switch. So you appealed to the Chinese luck dragon? :)

The root problem is that the light switch is controlling receptacles which were split, one socket switched, one socket always-on. And someone in the past swapped out the receptacles, but did not know what they were doing. There were "tabs" on the hot side which should have been broken off and were not. This broke the switch. The switch never had a chance.

I recommend you rollback to a plain switch and work the receptacle problem. Once that is fixed and the plain switch works properly, ONLY then shop for a quality, UL listed smart switch.