![]() And if you simply want to understand what's going on to satisfy your own curiosity, well, now you know!įor more information on three-way switches and related topics, check out the links below. The great thing is that, if you know the basic idea behind three-way switches and three-way wiring, it's really easy to figure it out. If you are trying to understand how a set of switches are wired in your house, using an ohmmeter or a continuity detector is the only way to reverse-engineer what the electrician has done ( make sure you turn the power off at the fuse panel before doing anything with electrical wiring). Or power can enter at the fixture and then two switches can be arranged in parallel from the light. How to Wire a Three-Way Switch Step 1: Turn the Power Off Step 2: Decide on the Location Step 3: Replace the Old Switch Step 4: Run the Cable Step 5. For example, the power from the fuse box could come in at the light fixture and there could be two switches in series running from there. There are several other ways to wire three-way switches to a light. It is actually a very simple arrangement once you see it all exposed like this! And if you flip either switch again, the light will turn off. You can also see that if you flip either switch, the light will turn on. You can see (if you trace through the wires and the switches) that in the previous figure, the light is off. If the switch is down, then terminals 2 and 3 are connected. Normal sheathed cable runs from the right switch to the light.Īssume that, with the switch up, terminals 1 and 3 are connected as shown above. Three-way wire(which includes red, black and white wires) runs from the switch on the left to the switch on the right, with the white wire carrying ground and the red and black wires carrying the output from terminals in the left switch. The black "hot" wire enters the switch on the left. In this diagram, a normal piece of wire comes from the fuse panel to the first three-way switch. If the power source is an electrical panel or fuse box, the cable should be cut at least long enough to reach the furthest termination point (breaker or fuse, ground and neutral bar) without the need of splicing.You use two three-way switches to control the light, and wire it up as shown below:.Never introduce ground wire(s) to a terminal bar with only white or gray insulated wires connected or vice versa.However, if all the existing ground wires connect to one bar and all the existing white wires connect to a different bar, maintaining separate ground and neutral connections is required. If equipped with a separate ground bar, rather than connecting to the neutral terminal bar, the ground wire can connect to the ground terminal bar.Finally, connect the black wire to the hot supply or the circuit breaker / fuse and the white to the neutral supply or neutral terminal bar in the electrical panel. The ground wire should be connected to the neutral terminal bar. Connect the ground wire to the circuit ground wire(s) with a wire nut or other approved connection (see How to Connect Electrical Wire). Leave 8–10 inches (20.3–25.4 cm) of wire inside both boxes (source and first switch) before cutting the cable to facilitate easy connection to the switch and power source. Install a 2 wire cable between the power source (outlet box, electric panel, etc) and the first switch box.
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