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Tony Hwang Tony Hwang is offline
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Default Electrical wiring questions

Grimley wrote:
I'll try to be as thorough and descriptive of my problem..

I recently replaced a bunch of outlets and switches in a room. I have
two switches which I believe are at the end of the circuit.

One switch controls an outlet (Switch A) and one switch (Switch B)
controls an outdoor light. They are side by side in the same box.

The switch controlling the outlet works properly. The switch
controlling the outdoor light does not seem to.

I have been testing the wires and here are my results... Keep in mind
I know very little about wiring.

1) On both switches, Testing the "in" to the "out" in both the on and
off positions yields nothing.
2) On both switches (both on), testing Switch A in to Switch B in is
successful.
3) On both switches (both on), testing Switch A in to Switch B out is
successful.
4) On both switches (both on), testing Switch B in to Switch A out is
successful.
5) On both switches (both on), testing Switch B out to Switch A out is
successful.
6) If either of the switches is off, testing from either in to out or
out to out is not successful.

The question I have now, is there something I am missing? It would
seem to me that I have the sources coming into the switches correctly
and at least the the "out" wired properly on Switch A. Does this seem
like the appropriate wiring? I don't believe there are any other
variables here. If there are I haven't caught them yet.

Any guidance would be appreciated. If more information is needed I
can supply that too.

Thanks in advance.

Chad

Hi,
Obviously you miswired when replacing them. Switch interrupts
hot side to the load(light, outlet or whatever). So either switch has
hot side(120V)? The other side is going to your light and outlet.
Black, red is usually hot, white is neutral, green or bare wire is
ground.(Maybe you know this already) My guess is miswiring caused one
switch controlling another instead of controlling it's load side.