The diagram below will give you a good understanding of what this circuit is accomplishing. Be sure to attach a bare copper wire to the green screw on the switch. The bare copper wires tie together with a wire nut. The white wires tie together with a wire nut. The upper right screw gets the black wire from the left box (4-cond). The upper left screw gets the red wire from the left box (4-cond). The lower left screw is the common and gets the black wire from the load (3-cond). The upper right screw gets the red wire from the right box (4-cond). The upper left screw gets the black wire from the right box (4-cond). The lower left screw is the common and gets the black wire from the source (3-cond). Now for wiring, lets assume you're looking at the switch just like it shows. Notice that there is a 3-conductor cable coming into the first box, then a 4-conductor cable going from left box to right box, then a 3-conductor cable going from the right box to the load. The diagram below will give you a better understanding how this circuit is wired. When wiring a 3-way switch circuit, all we want to do is to control the black wire (hot wire) to turn on and off the load from 2 different locations. Red wire = Power or Hot wire Black wire = Power or Hot wire White wire = Neutral Bare copper = Ground The fan control switch usually connects to the black wire and the light kit switch to the red wire of a 3-way cable. See Below.īlack wire = Power or Hot wire White wire = Neutral Bare copper = Ground The 3-wire cable consist of a black wire, a white wire and a bare copper wire, while the 4-wire cable has an added red wire which is hot as well. Then a 4-wire cable going between the two 3-way switches and then a 3-wire cable going from the switches to the load. When wiring a 3-way switch circuit, we will be using a 3-wire cable known as romex coming from the source (such as the breaker box).
![wiring a ceiling fan with light 3 black wires and white wiring a ceiling fan with light 3 black wires and white](https://www.chanish.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/ceiling_fan_installation_red_wire_%C3%A2%C2%80%C2%93_moriton_info_1.jpg)
a couple examples would be:Įach 3-way switch in these examples are controlling the power source to the same load. When wiring a 3-way switch circuit, What were doing is simply controlling the power flow (Switching off/on) to the load (a light, lamp, outlet, ceiling fan etc.) from 2 different locations. It should also help in understanding the functions of each type of switch.
![wiring a ceiling fan with light 3 black wires and white wiring a ceiling fan with light 3 black wires and white](https://i0.wp.com/i.stack.imgur.com/G2PDb.jpg)
Go to my Switch Terminology Page where I discuss the terms used for the different types of home electrical switches.
![wiring a ceiling fan with light 3 black wires and white wiring a ceiling fan with light 3 black wires and white](https://www.chanish.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/electrical_4-1.jpg)
First of all we need to go over a little basic terminology on switches. Wiring a 3-way switch is a little more tricky than wiring a 2-way switch.