Need to hook up three carriage lights on the garage. What I’ve done:
Run 14-2 from power into first box – used wire nuts to connect the 14-2 coming in to a 14-2 going out and jumper leads inside first box – jumper leads to go to lamp – all blacks together and all whites together.
Repeat in second and third box – run last 14-2 out of last box onto 2 way switch. It’s late, dark and starting to rain, does this sound right?
Next step will be to convert the 2 way switch currently at end of lights into a three way and locate second three way inside the house, feasible?
Let’s not confuse the issue with facts!
Replies
NO
You can't have power into on end of string of lights and the switch at the other end.
You can do that if you run 14-3 between the lights.
Or connect the power and switch at the first light.
Or run power to the switch and then to the lights.
And here are the possible ways to wire a 3-way.
http://www.selfhelpandmore.com/switchoutlet/3way/index.htm
Edited 11/7/2006 6:56 pm by BillHartmann
Did you forget to include a link?I am the dioscoverer of all the wrong ways to wire a three way
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No I wrote it in invisible electrons so that people that don't know what they are doing can't get it wrong.But just for you I went back and made it visiable.
Thanks.
I'm about as good as an electrician as CRXPaul is at driving nails with a hammer
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This is pretty basic wiring.
Electricity kills....Call an electrician
Yea call an electrician. But don't call him sparky.
Pardon my fat fingers.
http://www.hay98.com/
I was gonna say DUCK, but Gunner already saw it. Apparantely, electricicans are more sensitive about being called Sparky than we carpenters are about being called Wood Butchers
;)
Welcome to the
Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime.
where ...
Excellence is its own reward!
Certainly don't mean to dis anybody. Just trying to make the wife happy.
Figure this shouldn't be all that hard, just a stubborn streak to do it myself.What if I run the feed white into the first light, and then come off the first light to a black leaving the first lightrun the feed black straight into the white leaving the first lightrun the last two lights in parallelthis gives me a 'hot' white, black neutral and ground coming into the first 3 way switch at the end then connect the second 3 way.?Let's not confuse the issue with facts!
Honestly, I'm in over my head on electrical questions. Remember I'm the guy who doesn't use a cordless drill upside down or fear of spilling the electrons out.But the part that seemed wrong to me was the switch at the end of the run. The switch should be at the beginning where power is feeding to the line, at least in my mind.Three ways are one of the great mysteries of life. I can understand time travel better than them. Fourways? If I understood them I could be president of GE.It was only last year that I learned ( from Gunner) that sparkies prefer to be called electricians
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
In this post, you're saying that you want to wire these with the white being hot (normally neutral) and the black being the neutral (normally hot). If someone else has to do any subsequent work on this circuit, do you see any chance of them encountering a problem? The switch goes before the fixture, the fuse or breaker goes before the switch. Always!Don't try to wire three way switches in any way other than what is correct. People die all the time from mis-wired electrical service. Don't be one of them (or cause anyone in your family to be one of them). I posted in another thread about the electrical engineer who mis-wired my parent's garage and the three-way switch caused the aluminum siding to be hot when the switches were in certain positions. I got a couple of good jolts and the ground wasn't particularly wet. If it had been, I wouldn't be here, responding to your thread.
"I cut this piece four times and it's still too short."
I've had the unfortunate opportunity to unwittingly work on wireing that somebody installed like this. The effects were, er, shocking! What you have built is a trap waiting to zap some happless fool (like me) in the future who assumes turning off the switch will kill the power to the fixtures. (Which it will NOT do the way you have done it.)
This is not a hard job, even with the 3-way. I suggest a trip to HD, Lowes, the local library or bookstore to pick up a book on basic wiring. You'll see this project detailed in glorious color, step-by-step pictures with "circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one" somewhere around page 14.
Mike Hennessy
Pittsburgh, PA
Ah, the notorious alices restaurant dump massacreeeee.A great place for Information, Comraderie, and a sucker punch.
Remodeling Contractor just outside the Glass City.
http://www.quittintime.com/
"Ah, the notorious alices restaurant dump massacreeeee."
Yep. Complete with Officer Obie, Blind Justice and three-part harmony!
Mike HennessyPittsburgh, PA
In days gone by when the wife and I drove to Cleveland for Thanksgiving with the parents, we'd always catch the long version of the song-on the road. What a good time. A great place for Information, Comraderie, and a sucker punch.
Remodeling Contractor just outside the Glass City.
http://www.quittintime.com/
Yessir! One of my high school teachers played it in class for us in '68 (better'n one of his history lectures) without further comment. When the latest skirmish in the Middle East began and my kids expressed opposition, I played it for them. They really couldn't relate though, there being no present day draft.
Mike HennessyPittsburgh, PA
About 25 of us got written for singing that song on a US Navy ship in 1968. Got extra duty for being dissorderly and disrectfull.
Still love that tune.
Dave
Thanks to all. Broke down and spent the time 'googling' and found the correct way to wire up the lights. I sometimes think I spend too much time trying to reinvent the wheel, or just bieng too determined to try and do it the way I might like it.I do make every effor to do things a absolutely properly as possible, that's why I come here for advise.Let's not confuse the issue with facts!