Is it possible

[Thickie Brickie]

Hi there this one is for all you sparks out there.
My landing in my home is "L" shaped and I would like to put an extra landing light switch at the end of the "L" to serve my bottom two bedrooms rather than having to travel all the way back on a dark landing after turning off my switch at the top of the stairs.
Can I do this and if so how? My switch at the bottom of the stairs appears to be fed from the top could I pull another cable from the switch at the bottom of my stairs and use the switch there like a junction box to feed and daisy chain my new switch onto the wall where I want it above, thus having three switches instead of two or would they only work in pairs?

 

[plugwash]

can you tell us what wires you have in each switch and which terminals they connect to?

 

[Thickie Brickie]

Sure Plugwas I'll try inside the switch at the top of my stairs is two cables one is a white outer shealthed cable containing two red wires and an earth wire connected to the metal box sunk into the wall the other is a grey outer shealthed cable containing three wires one Blue, one Red one Yellow. they are connected to the erminals in the switch as follows if you imagine a "Y" turned upside down this gives you the layout of inside my switch one of the red wires from the white outer sheathed cable goes into the top of the upside down "Y" shape the other red wire from the white outer sheathed cable is attached to the red wire from the grey outer sheathed cable the blue wire from this cable goes into the terminal on the right of your upside down "Y" shape and the Yellow to the left hand side.
The downstairs switch is wired the same as the upstairs switch minus the white outer sheathed cable.
I'm wondering if I can duplicate the same wiring method as the bottom switch onto a nother switch and form a daisy chain effect without fusing the lights?

 

[ban-all-sheds]

You need to install what's called an Intermediate Switch - if you look in the For Reference section you'll see how it is wired up.

You've had a bit of bad luck in that it needs to go, electrically, between the two 2-way switches you have - if the switch cable ran to the downstairs switch (there was never much chance of that), you could have simply swapped the landing 2-way for the intermediate, and put the 2-way where you want the new switch, wired to the intermediate with another run of 3C+E. You still need to do that, but you also need to re-route the switch cable (the one with the 2 reds) to the new location for the 2-way switch on the landing.

Hopefully access to all the cabling should be easy from the loft, and if at the new location you can manage to drill straight down inside the wall with a long SDS bit you won't even need to make good the decoration.

 

[plugwash]

You've had a bit of bad luck in that it needs to go, electrically, between the two 2-way switches you have - if the switch cable ran to the downstairs switch (there was never much chance of that), you could have simply swapped the landing 2-way for the intermediate, and put the 2-way where you want the new switch, wired to the intermediate with another run of 3C+E. You still need to do that, but you also need to re-route the switch cable (the one with the 2 reds) to the new location for the 2-way switch on the landing.

no you don't need to reroute the switch cable from the light to your new switch

change the wiring so it is like this

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Good man - that'll do it.

Sorry TB.

 

[Thickie Brickie]

Thanks for the wiring diagram Plugwash. I've bought a Intermediate Switch as recommended however I am only getting limited use from it, if it is in one position it renders the other two way switches useless whereas if it's switched over it will work as I want it to.
What I want to be able to do is operate one light fixture from three different positions whatever the positions of the switches i'm attatching to it.
It may be me and I am missing something basic on Plugwashes diagram if so I'd be grateful if someone or Plugwash could update it to show where the feed enters the curcuit where my switch cable attaches to it Etc. thanks.

 

[plugwash]

i expect you have wired the intermediate switch wrong

in that diagram it is drawn rotated 90 degrees from the way the temrinals on the switch will most likely be

 

[Thickie Brickie]

I've wired it up as per your diagram Plugwash and still all the switichs aren't working in the way I want it to.
What does the Intermediate switch actually do in relation to forming a working curcuit with the two way switches?
Does it allow me to use my two way switches regardless which way my Intermedeiate switch has been left (Up/Down)?

 

[plugwash]

it should

the sides of the intermediate switch in that diagram will probablly be top and bottom on the actuacl switch

look at my diagram 2 stright lines and a cross

in one position the straight lines should be connected
and in the other the cross should be connected

if you are unsure use a multimeter on the switch

 

[Thickie Brickie]

Have installed the Intermediate Switch and it does work as you stated Plugwash It was me who was reading/wiring the diagram the wrong way Many thanks for solving the problem for me