How To Wire A 3 Way Switch To Multiple Lights

If you intend to add multiple lights with a 3 way switch use the 3 way switch for multiple lights diagram.

How to wire a 3 way switch to multiple lights. The electrical calc elite is designed to solve many of your common code based electrical calculations like wire sizes voltage drop conduit sizing etc. With a pair of 3 way switches either can make or break the connection that completes the circuit to the light. Two 2 wire cables c3 and c4 run between the fixtures and a 3 wire cable c2 runs from the second fixture f2 to the second 3 way switch sw2. These diagrams illustrate how to wire a pair of three way light switches in three different situations.

A three way switch is built and wired a little differently than a conventional single pole light switch. In this circuit two light fixtures are shown but more can be added by duplicating the wiring arrangement between the fixtures for each additional light. The hot source is connected to the common terminal of sw1. Wiring multiple lights on a 3 way switch.

Wiring a 3 way light switch is certainly more complicated than that of the more common single pole switch but you can figure it out if you follow our 3 way switch wiring diagram. The second option allows you to easily disconnect fixtures you no longer want to use but it becomes cumbersome when more than two fixtures are involved. In other words a 3 way switch is made up of one light that s controlled by two separate switches. Click the icons below to get our nec compliant electrical calc elite or electric toolkit available for android and ios.

The steps above describe installing a 3 way switch and provide a 3 way switch diagram utilizing one light fixture. The answer to how it works is to have an extra hot wire that runs between the two switch boxes. The most important rationale is that there are several ways that a three way switch can be wired. First run a 2 wire cable from the wall power to the black screw on 1 of the switches.

Three way light switches control a light from two locations such as from both ends of a staircase or hallway. 3 way switch diagram multiple light between switches 2 pdf 79kb back to wiring diagrams home. The other way to wire multiple lights to one switch is to connect all of them directly to the switch in a home run configuration. Wiring a 3 way light switch.

Here the source is at the first switch sw1 and 3 wire cable runs from there to the first light l1. In order to wire three way switch properly you will need to use one of the diagrams that we will post below and which one you use depends on whether electricity will be coming into your light fixture first into the light switch first or light will be in between switches. To wire a 3 way light switch you ll need 2 3 way light switches 2 2 wire non metallic cables 1 3 wire non metallic cable and 2 6 inch grounding wires.