wiring a 3 way light switch

[swes]

Hi just a little bit of help please......

I have put in a new 3 way switch in my garage to accomodate a new o/s light front and back ,The problem is i dont seem to have a neutral back from the original wire .I can see that it it goes....
power from c/unit to j/box then to light switch back to a switch live in the j/box....i understand this but when i started to wire the to lights in to common and L1s i found that there was no return neutral its being used as switched live ......can i somehow move around these wires to 2return a neutral



Many thanks for your replys

 

[flameport]

The neutral is at the jb only.
There are various solutions, but all of them will require extra cables from the jb to the switch.

//www.diynot.com/wiki/electrics:lighting

 

[swes]

This is the problem i have just had it all boarded and skimmed is there no other way .....could i not somehow use the switched live at the juction box for a return if can wire the existing light feed direct rather than from the j/box?????

 

[ban-all-sheds]

I have put in a new 3 way switch in my garage

Do you mean 3-way, or 3-gang? //www.diynot.com/wiki/electrics:intermediate

to accomodate a new o/s light front and back ,The problem is i dont seem to have a neutral back from the original wire .

Which you would have known if it had occurred to you that perhaps you should have found out how lighting circuits work before you plunged in and started fiddling.

power from c/unit to j/box then to light switch back to a switch live in the j/box....i understand this

Do you?

but when i started to wire the to lights in to common and L1s i found that there was no return neutral

Why would someone take a neutral to a switch and then back again?

Stop and think for a minute about what's going to happen if you have both lives and neutrals connected to COMs & L1s in switches.

• //www.diynot.com/wiki/electrics
  
  
• //www.diynot.com/wiki/electrics:books
  
  
• http://web.archive.org/web/20080213151445/http://www.kevinboone.com/electricity.html
  
  
• http://web.archive.org/web/20080213151445/http://www.kevinboone.com/domesticinstallations.html
  
  
• //www.diynot.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=7553[/list]
  
  
  

  its being used as switched live ......can i somehow move around these wires to 2return a neutral

  "Return" implies it's got to get there first.
  
  How is it going to do that?
  
  
  

  This is the problem i have just had it all boarded and skimmed

  
  
  
  

  is there no other way .....could i not somehow use the switched live at the juction box for a return

  You already are - it's returning from the switch, carrying switched live.
  
  
  

  if can wire the existing light feed direct rather than from the j/box?????

  You can see what cables you have in place.
  
  You can see the diagrams of how lighting circuits are wired in the Wiki.
  
  As long as you don't use the earth for anything other than an earth you can use the conductors how you like.
  
  If you did not install the extra cables you'll need before you had it boarded and skimmed then you have the following options:
  
  1) Cut into the boarding, install the cables, repair and make good.
  
  2) Run the cables on the surface of the wall.
  
  3) Investigate wireless switches.
  
  4) Don't have the extra lights.
  
  
  But if you can extend the lighting loop to each new light position, install 4-way junction boxes and use the new cables as switch drops then you'll be OK.

 

[1john]

Have you currently got two twin and earth cables going from the switch to the junction box?? With a multi meter have you got two permanant lives at the switch?? are they both on the same lighting circuit?? Can you work out what I am getting at?

 

[sparkwright]

So at the switch you orginally only had one twin+earth cable?

Is it the walls and ceiling boarded and skimmed?

Is the junction box accessible? If so you could reconnect the old switch wire so it becomes permanent live and neutral (and earth). This could then supply a 2 gang switch for the new outside lights. Then fish a new switch cable from the junction box to a ceiling mounted pull switch, to control the garage light.

If the junction box is inaccessible, or you don't like pull switches, is there a socket near the existing switch that you can fish a cable from to feed a switched fused spur unit that will serve the outside lights?

 

[Risteard]

Do you mean 3-way, or 3-gang?

If it is the former then really it should be called two-way and intermediate switching as the switches still only switch two ways. They can't switch three ways, only from three or more positions.

 

[swes]

ok thanks for all your replies BAN ALL SHEDS I know you mean well but please not everybody is as good as you its just a question which im gratefull for decent UNPATRANISING replies .
Anyway its being sorted so thanks again every body ?


OH ITS A 3 GANG SWITCH ,

 

[ban-all-sheds]

If you don't learn that it is utter folly to try and do things when you KNOW that you don't understand them then you are doomed to a life of things going wrong for you over and over and over again.

This time your lights were a pain.

Next time you could die.