Three-way Switch Diagram

I'm in the process of planning to wire up two spot lights on the face of my deck as well as running an outlet (which will also be under the deck) for a LV transformer to plug in to. I will need a few junction boxes to achieve this, as well as electrical boxes for the two spot lights. I'm planning on running 12AWG THWN through some sort of conduit run along the joists to the various lighting locations and junction boxes. This will be between 3' to 8' above the surface of the ground and under roof for the most part (we built a roof over the majority of the deck as well).



So, do you recommend PVC and plastic boxes or EMC and the appropriate boxes?
      

I'm wiring two lights to one switch with power coming into the switch. All the diagrams I see show the connection of the two lights at one of the lights(if that makes sense). Can all of the connections be made at the switch box if theres room? Basically a wire from each light and the power wire all run to the switch box and connected.
      

This is kind of a complicated question, but I  think I have figured out how to do it right.  I wanted to run it by some folks here before going to the city code enforcer.  See the attached diagrams for details.



I  am planning a fairly elaborate lighting scheme for my home theater  area, mostly because I plan for the theater automation to be a hobby for  me. (I'm an electrical engineer)

 

I want to have banks of lights that I could later choose to group  differently onto dimmer switches.  For example, I have six can lights.   Some people I have talked to think I should dim the front four together  and back two separately.  Some think I should dim the front two together  and back four separately.  Some say I should dim them all together. 



So I decided I'd run each group of two cans to a junction box, run  the switches to a junction box, and then wire the switches to the lights  in the junction box - then I could later change it if I decided it should work  differently.  In addition, this would keep the junction boxes the  dimmers were in free from extra wires, since I plan to buy nice dimmers  that are fairly deep and would take more space in the switch boxes.  And  if I find that using switches differently would make it more intuitive,  I can change which switch controls which lights easily after the fact.   This would also allow me later to possibly control the lights with an  automated system.

 

There are some track lights and rope lights, as well as a couple  receptacles that would all come back to the junction box where they'd be  connected to the switches/dimmers.



I am bringing in power from  two circuits to balance the lighting.  I plan to put some of the lights  on one circuit and some on the other.  The second circuit has some other  stuff on it already, so it has less load left over, so most stuff will  go on the first circuit.

 

Also to save on wiring and make running wire easier, I was planning  to use 14/3 wiring where possible.  Any given 14/3 wire would  always be connected to only one of the circuits (no shared neutrals).



The attached files show my exact plan for each circuit. Note they both  share the junction box in the upper right corner of the pictures, they  also share the switch banks.  This allows me to decide which switches  control which lights, as well as decide which lights will be powered on  which circuit to balance them properly.  Note that the track lights are  each 2 circuit track, that's why I'm running 14/3 to each.

   

See the attached files for circuit #1 and circuit #2



I am running 14/3 NM to the switches.  I was planning to have two  switches share one 14/3 cable.  I am also running 14/3 to each group of  two light groups that I want to control separately.



I've also attached a diagram from the perspective of the junction box.



I also attached an example circuit on how I plan to use the 14/3 wire.

   

Here are some other decisions I made:



- The junction box will  be PVC 8x8x4 (256 cu. in.)  All the wires coming into the box add up to  70 cu in. so the box should be plenty large.

- All the grounds from both circuits will be tied together

  - The neutrals for both circuits will always be kept completely separate (NO shared neutrals)

- No 14/3 wire will ever carry power from more than one circuit (this would violate the shared neutrals anyway)



Even  though this is kind of elaborate and for hobby, I want to be sure to do  it safely and up to code.  Does anyone see anything wrong with  my plan?

 

Thanks,



Daniel
      

I am going to install some can lights throughout the house soon.  I have one light in the center of each room that is already wired up.  I will be patching the existing light boxes up to run the new can lights, utilizing the wiring that is already present. 



When hooking the extra lights up should I use 12/2 or 14/2 wire for running them in parallel?  There will probably be no more than 3 or 4 can lights per room ran with CFLs.  The current lights that are in each room take up to 3 bulbs per fixture.
      

I could use some help. I have an existing switch (power to switch) that is powering a light I plan on eliminating. I want to add two new lights to my garage and use the power from that switch for the lights. What is the best way to wire the lights from the switch? A diagram would be really helpful.



14/2 at the switch (black, bare copper, white).



Thanks
      

Fixing fixture at Church.  Both Ballast are bad.   Current fixture has 4 lamps and 2 ballast.  Wired as follows.

(SEE ATTACHMENT 1)



The replacement Ballast (T12 120-277V 2 lamp, only has 2 blue wires and 1 red (Original ballast had 2 yellow, two blue and 2 red).



Diagram with new ballast is below.  My question has to do with connections.  Not sure what the "DOTS" mean on the diagram.  Dows this suggest I pigtail the blue wires to make 4 connections from 2 wires, or just run 1 blue to each lamp holder.  Same question with the red.  Does this suggest I jumper 1 red wire to 4 connections, or just run 1 red to one lamp holder then jumper to the second.

   (SEE ATTACHMENT 2)

Thanks!



Rze
      

I'm planning to use some round, 20 cu. in. ceiling mount boxes for lighting in my garage.  I want to run 12-2 into the box and then branch out out to two other seperate light boxes. 

Can I have 6 12 awg conductors and 3 12 awg grounds in a 20 cu. in. one box?
      

Hey,

I'm located in Ontario/Canada and I'm in the process of installing some recessed lights in my uninsulated basement. I was going through the electrical code and noticed that in an 8in^3 electrical box, it is only permitted to have 2 wires and 2 wire nuts.



I have 3 wire nuts (ground, neutral and hot) and two wires coming into each switch.



It seams odd that the light box would not be sized correctly considering its CSA approved. Have any of you come across a similar problem ?



As a side note, I'm also finding it hard to jam 6-8in of cable and 3 wire nuts in this small box !
      

I built a free standing garage with main power tapped from the home breaker box.  The contractor pulled 4 wires via a conduit to the freestanding garage panel which supplies lights, a garage door, and two 20 amp outlets.



Everything worked well initially, but about 1 week ago one section of the lights in the building went out.  The contractor came out and found that one of the two hot wires in the garage panel was only seeing 100 volts and that went down if anything else was turned on.  He swapped one of the ground wires for the bad hot wire and everything now works. 



What would cause a situation like this where the hot wire apparently had a voltage loss?  Is it safe to continue with the fix where the faulty wire is now the ground?



Thanks in advance!
      

Hi, I recently moved into a 1954 house with a  20amp electrical system, not the old fuse type, but there are no ground wires.



I removed an old light and replaced it with a light fan combo. As I removed the old light (after turning off the breaker) I noticed from the ceiling that there were 2 white wires tied together with a wire nut and 2 black wires, one attached to the white wire in the light and the other attached to the black one from the light. Feeling this was wrong and should be black to black, white to white, (even knowing full well the light was working fine before I disconnected it) I wired the fan the way I've always wired fan lights,  white to white, blue and black to black.  (again, knowing full well the light was working the other way). Turned breaker on then powered on switch. POP at the switch, breaker switched off. I reworked it back to the way it was before with whites tied off, black to white, black and blue to black, turned it back on and  viola, things worked fine. (I know, duh... Right???)

2 questions from this experience...

1. Why would the 2 whites be tied off with only black wires used?

And 2. It seems that one of the light switches in the same circuit as the blown one is now working soft. In other words, it used to make the normal click noise when turned on/off but now it just moves softly up and down without the click. Could I have damaged something when I mis-wired?