On Tue, 3 Feb 2004 21:23:22 -0500, "Dan" wrote:

A rental property of mine has a stairway with a light controlled by a switch
at the top & a switch at the bottom. Either switch will turn the light on
or off, independent of the other switch. A few weeks back, an assistant of
mine removed one of the switches to do some drywall repair, unfortunately
not noting how the wires were attached. Each switch was 3 wires, the one at
the bottom has a red, a white & a black wire. On this switch, the red wire
goes to the common terminal (this switch was not disturbed & the setup did
work previously). The switch at the top has 2 black & one white wire. I
tried connecting the top switch so that the white wire is common, this way I
can turn on the light with the top switch regardless of the bottom switch's
position, and I can turn the light on & off with the bottom switch if the
light is left on at the top, but I cannot turn the light on with the bottom
switch if the top on is off. So I'm wondering how I can determine the
connections for the top switch. There must be a way to do this with a volt
meter. Suggestions?

TIA

Dan



sw1 sw2
__/ --------------------------\_____ red&black (hot)--lamp
--------------------------

--------------------------------------------- white (neutral)--lamp

The common screw is a darker color than the other two. The common
terminal screw is either black or copper-colored to distinguish it
from the other two silver or brass-colored screws. The green wire is
always attached to the metal switch housing screw (or metal box) for
ground.