BP wrote:
"Jeff Wisnia" wrote in message
...

helpme wrote:


Please help. I just installed two 2 pole light switches in the bedroom
(they should have been 3 pole). When I went to turn on the power it
tripped a breaker so I knew it was not right. I looked online and
found I should have bought two 3 pole switches, so I went to HD and got
2 of them. Now they are both installed, but I am unable to turn on the
light. When I tested with a multimeter I found only one switch has
power going to it while the other has none. Anyone have a clue what
happened? Did I 'fry' the wires? What do I do now?


Assuming there were 3-way switches and the proper number of wires there
already, installing new 3-way switches correctly should get it working
again.

The breaker will have protected the wiring, so it is very unlikely you
damaged anything.

Go back to Home Depot and buy a book on basic electrical wiring.

You don't know what you are doing now, but your post is intelligible
enough so that I'd guess with a book to guide you you'll come up to speed
fast.

HTH,

Jeff



"The breaker will have protected the wiring"
Actually, the breaker is there to protect the humans. Though rare, the
devices can be damaged in a hard short.


Oh???

Would you be willing to try clenching your right hand around a bare hot
feed wire and your left hand around its bare neutral wire and depend on
the upstream 15 amp breaker to "protect" you?

I suspect not.

The breaker "protects" the wiring and devices to the best of its
ability, and the relatively new arc fault detecting breakers add another
dimension of protection.

Breakers are there to limit heating caused by overcurrents and by so
doing prevent fires. Thus, they only indirectly "protect" humans.

I stand by what I wrote, the OPs "wiring" wouldn't have much chance of
being damaged because the breaker (which popped) would have protected them.

Jeff

--
Jeffry Wisnia

(W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)

"Truth exists; only falsehood has to be invented."