BuiltWithNOF
3ways 101

Okay, hang onto your hardhats! We are really gonna start slinging some wire around now! But first a few guidelines. I have left the ground out of the drawings, but you won't. Keep that ground continuous, ground those fixtures and metal boxes if you are using them. When I am talking about "2 wire", I mean a piece of 12/2 or 14/2 romex with ground. A piece of "3 wire" is 12/3 or 14/3 with ground, depending on your circuit size. Now, let's have a little fun.

 

This is a fairly simple 3-way system. The power is coming into the 1st switch on the left. From there, we are running a piece of 3 wire to the light box, and another piece of 3 wire to the second switch. Notice I changed colors in the box (the black traveler from the 1st switch changes to white. I do this so my common wire is always black, real handy when I go back to install switches. It also makes the light feeding the light fixture black. The National Electrical Code gets a little forgiving on color coding when you are switching.

 

Power is feeding the light on the right. A switch leg is fed down to the 1st 3way switch on the right. A 3wire between switches. The second light is attached to the switchleg and neutral. Notice I am using the white for power feeding the 3way switches. I have "identified" it red.

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