Hello,
I am remodeling my house and hired an electrician to rough in some wiring, with the intention of doing the trim out myself, but I’m confused by the wiring for a particular 3-way switch. The wiring (see image) doesn’t match any of the diagrams I’ve found online or in Taunton’s wiring book. How do I connect the switches?
Note that one of the switches will be a Lutron Sunnata dimmer (https://www.lutron.com/TechnicalDocumentLibrary/0302021.pdf) and I’m not sure if it matters which position the dimmer goes in (box 1 or box 2).
I appreciate any insight you all have.
Thank you!
Replies
Should work fine.
and if you can decipher the dimmer instructions, it should not matter which location is used for the dimmer.
referring to your diagram, inside box 1, connect the white (neutral) from the panel only to the white going to all the lights. (and to each light fixture box and fixture)
Connect the black wire from the panel to the black wire headed for box 2.
(here I assume just traditional 3 way switch)
in box 2, connect the black wire to the black screw(or different color screw) on the 3 way switch. (this is, of course going to have power at all times)
The other (brass) screws in the 3 way switch in box 2 get connected to the remaining 2 of the three insulated conductors in the 14/3. One of these wires will have line voltage, depending on the position of the switch in box 2. also known as travelers.
Back in box 1, connect the two travelers to the brass screws.
Connect the black screw (or different colored screw) on the 3 way switch in box 1 to the black wire that feeds the fixtures.
(also run the bare ground to each box, properly joining as required)
https://www.lutron.com/TechnicalDocumentLibrary/3691129_ENG.pdf
Has some more info you may find helpful
Current code would call for a 14/4 to be used for this connection to allow a neutral wire to be present at your box number 2, for use in lighted devices that need a neutral. (and to avoid the need to track which white wires are actually carrying line voltage instead of being a neutral wire.) the 14/3 should work ok, as long as you do not need a lighted switch at that end.
Thank you very much! I really appreciate your detailed response.
It would be good practice to tape both ends of the white wire in the 14/3 black.