Brilliant Wiring A Light With 3 Switches

This drawing shows the wiring for multiple lights in a 4 way switch circuit with the source and fixtures coming before the switches.

Wiring a light with 3 switches. Attach the cable to the tape at the fixture and pull it back toward you. A simple ordinary on off light switch as in the first photo has two screws on it. The term is slightly confusing as the system will actually include three wires.

First let s take a look at the back of several different light switches. Step 5 run two wire cable from switch 3 to the light fixture using fish tape fed through the hole above switch 3 across the ceiling to the fixture hole. The simple explanation is that a 2 wire system does not include a neutral wire at the light switch the 3 wire system does include the neutral at the switch.

One of the screws is the common and when you flip the switch it either connects this wire to one or the other of the two. This is the most common lighting system in europe almost all homes use this system especially in the uk and nordic regions. Here 3 wire cable runs between l1 and l2 2 wire cable runs from the last light to sw1 and more 3 wire cable runs from sw1 to the 4 way switch and then to sw2.

However it can be done with a little patience and attention to detail. Wiring 3 switches and 2 lights. There are a number of configurations that can be used for wiring a 3 way.

Steps for wiring a 3 way light switch. Turn on the power and test the switch. The source is at the sw1 where the hot is connected to the common terminal and the neutral spliced through to the neutral on the outlet.

However the third wire which typically has a green yellow sleeve is the earth wire. 3 way switched outlet wiring. There will be an additional wire needed often red to connect the switches together to a dedicated screw or input on the switch that is specifically marked for this purpose.