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Electrical Wiring Question.

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tony barnhill

tony barnhill

Great Pumpkin - R.I.P
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I'm trying to wirie a circuit in my garage - 2 lights inside a couple of 3-way witches - & I'm having a problem. I can make 1 light work properly with the 3-way switches (I know how to wire 1 light inside 2 3-way switches) but when I add the second light the lights are dim, though the 3-way switches work properly.

I'm using 10/3 wire, 2 can lights, & 2 3-way switches.

I ran a 10/2 wire from a 20-amp circuit breaker in the fuse box to the first switch; that's where the circuit's power comes from.

My red 'traveler' wire runs straight from switch to switch.

The black & white wires from light to light are where I'm having problems.

Anybody out there who can walk me through the wiring?
 
Hi Tony,
It sounds to me like you've run the 2 lights in series, instead of parallel.
 
Are you using runway lights with 1,000,000,000,000 candle power? #10 wire is a bad thing. Will take forever to blow a usual breaker. Will burn the house down
 
All the wiring in my house is 12; but because I'm putting 2 can lights in the circuit with 75 watt bulbs in each of them, I ran the larger wire from a 20-amp circuit breaker....

But, I really wanna focus on the wiring route here, I'm not concerend with the size of the wire.

My question is: what am I doing wrong that, when I hook up the 2nd light, causes the lights to dim? Can anybody draw me a wiring diagram?

Greg: how did you draw that diagram?
 
Here's what I'm tlking about:

[circuit breaker]========[switch]==========[light]========[light]=========[switch]
 
[circuit breaker]=====[switch]=====[light]====[switch]
||
||
[light]

This would be one way to do it. There are several ways. I would think you could find some diagrams with a search. The light need to be in parallel. It sounds like you have them in series.

Edit:
When it posts this response, it does not line up right. The second light should be directly below the other one. Connect it black to black and white to white.
 
rlwhitetr3b said:
[circuit breaker]=====[switch]=====[light]====[switch]
||
||
[light]

This would be one way to do it. There are several ways. I would think you could find some diagrams with a search. The light need to be in parallel. It sounds like you have them in series.
Click to expand...
Thought about that option but really don't want to run the extra wire.
 
Did you see my edited post? Run a 12/2 between the lights.
You can also run the 12/3 between the switches and a 12/2 from one of the switches to the lights. It all depends on how things are located.
 
I did see it, Rich.....I had also though about that as an option but would prefer not to have to pull wires backwards to the other can when my 12/3 goes right past it.

There's got to be a way to go from the switch to the 1st light then to the 2nd light & finally to the other switch.
 
I do not think you can do it. You have to have the terminals on the lights connected directly to each other. You have them connected like Greg's wrong picture. The voltage is being divided between the lights making them dim.
 
Yep,Rich, everybody shows you how to wire 1 light on 2 3-way switches but they never tell you how to do multiple lights.
 
You need four conductors between the light to do what you want to do.
PLEASE do not use the bare copper wire. That has the job of saving your
life, which is more important than saving the labor of running a wire.
 
Hi Tony,
The diagram I did was in Illustrator. I found a 3-way wiring diagram on the net and added a 2nd light to it. Maybe this will help.
 
Greg,
What he seems to have is a setup where the light is wired between the switches.
He wants to use the 12/3 to connect the switches and the lights. That will take four conductors, 2 travelers, hot and neutral. That does not include the
grounded (green) wire.
 
I found this....it'll work & all I have to do is add a single black wire between the 2 lights:

3-waySwitchesLinearMultiLite.gif
 
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