In alt.home.repair on Tue, 1 Mar 2005 20:54:01 -0700 "JK"
posted:

No, they are three way switches.
"Ray K" wrote in message
...
JK wrote:

It is possible to have two switches provide power to one receptacle? I'm

It's certainlyh possible for one receptacle to have two switches wired
into its circuit, so that either can turn the receptacle on or off.**

It's possible for these to be wired correctly or incorrectly. When I
bought my house, the front hall had two switches, one at either end,
and one had to be up for the other switch to work. When it was down,
nothing the other switch would do would make the light go on. I had
to make a drawing of the wires and think about it for a while to
decide how to reconnect one switch. And I had lots of experience, and
a meter. You should go slower than I went (and yes, you should get a
book on household electricity, or a chapter from a DIY book, maybe at
the library, and read the parts dealilng with switches until you
understand them. The most important factors were the clues I got
from the way it worked to begin with. I forget my actual situation,
but it might have been that the hot wire, the one from the fusebox was
connected to one of the two equal-status connections on the three-way
switch***, and the one at the common terminal was the one that should
have been where it was. So in the end, I only had to reverse those
two wires on one switch. But there are about 9**** ways you can
connect 6 wires to 6 screws on 2 switches, so it really takes some
thought. You know the way it is now is wrong (if I understand you.)
so that leaves 8 more ways.

And you should probably get and use a meter that will measur e up to
150 volts AC. Better yet, up to 250 or more.

***3-way really means two-way. It works in either of two positions
but has 3 wires. There are also 4-way switches, which should be
called 4 wire switches. They only have two positions and work in only
two ways. (They are used when you want to be able to turn a light or
something on and off from 3 or more locations.) So don't get too hung
up on -way. The ones you are dealing with are 3-wire switches.

****There would be 18 ways, but since two screws on each switch are
equivalent, and reversing the wires on them won't change anything
except the position of the toggle to get the same result., I divide by
2.


The original electrician lived in our development. A house might have
been part of the payment he received for the work he did. You could
tell his house because of all the lights outside. and because the
stove fan vented to the outside. At a HOA meeting, I made the mistake
of telling him that he, or one of his men, had connected the switch
wrong. It's not that he retaliated or anything, but he was denied he
had made a mistake, and I just annoyed him for nothing.

**(It's also possible to have one switch go to one side of the
receptacle and the other switch control the other side, but I don't
know why one would do this. Still if the original installer did do
this, my technique above will NOT work. That's why you need a meter
and need to measure the voltage at each of the six screws. To
distinguish this situation from the one I started with above. This is
why you need to measure those 6 voltages 4 times, once each when both
switches are up, when both are down, when switch A is up and B is
down, and when A is down and B is up. Each set of meassrement should
note whether or not the light is on or not with the switches in those
positions When you are done writing this all down and thinking about
it until you really understand it, until you can explain why the light
is one when it is on and off when it is off, after you can draw a
diagram of the wires between the switches^^, then you'll be ready to
change the wiring.)

^^So that the wirees in your diagram are the same color at both ends
as they are in real life (bearing in mind that sometimes the ends of
the wire are painted a different color by the electrician. I know
this last paragraph really complicates things. It's late. sorry.


having the hardest time troubleshooting this. I have one receptacle that
is receiving power from two different switches. However, it seems one of
the switches has to be "on" for the other to work. It does not matter
which is on, but once the receptacle has power, either switch can then
turn on and off the receptacle.

Are both switches single-pole (vs 3-way)? Single-pole will have two wires
going into the body; both are usually black. A 3-way will have three wires
going into the body.

If they are single pole, it sounds like one switch is in series with the
hot terminal of the receptacle, and the other is in series with cold
terminal. For around $7, you can get a receptacle tester from Radio Shace
or Home Depot. Three lights tell you the status of an outlet.



Meirman
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