One of the main advantages of having unswitched power in the ceiling light junction is that it makes it easy to add a ceiling fan and turn it on and off with the pull switch independent of the light. Not a good idea to hang them on the plastic or fibreglass boxes. Threads can pull out. Yes I have done it, but still not a good idea.
Supposedly the three way switches comes from the older English spelling of saying there were three w y e s pronounced ways for wires connected to the switch. In theory there can be an infinite number of four way switches installed between these two three way switches. Ron ----- Original Message ----- From: clifford To: [email protected] Sent: Monday, February 15, 2010 4:55 PM Subject: Re: [BlindHandyMan] How many connections are feasible. Dear Dan: Your last suggestion is the correct method. The last time I was dealing with the electrical code, eight fixtures were the maximum allowed. If you use number twelve wire, I believe that a twenty amp breaker is standard. I have run number 14 wire to a single fixture from a switch. Speaking of switches, if you are putting all of the lights on one circuit, then I would suggest that the connections should be from switch to switch, with feeders going to each fixture. Some folks like to run the hot wire to the fixtures, and then run a switch wire using both the black and white wires for hot wires, but I simply prefer the first method. It gets really fun when wiring a four way switching system for a light. It seems to me that it should be called a three way system, as there are only three switches involved, but a three way switching system universally means a two switch arrangement. Yours Truly, Clifford Wilson ----- Original Message ----- From: Dan Rossi To: Blind Handyman List Sent: Monday, February 15, 2010 9:56 AM Subject: [BlindHandyMan] How many connections are feasible. OK, lets say I've got this idea of having a single circuit for all the lights on the second floor of my house. That way, if an air conditioner overloads a circuit, or my wife throws the toaster into the shower while I'm in there, none of the lights will go out. I believe it is pretty rare for a light fixture to overload a circuit, although it is possible. But I just thought it would be a cool concept to have a breaker that says, all lights on second floor. In my house, I think this is doable in that a 15 amp circuit can handle 1440 Watts. 1440 Watts is a hell of a lot of attic. OK, so how do you wire this? I can't imagine that it works to run say six or eight sets of wires from various light fixtures to one box, and one power line. Then try and tie 7 or 9 black wires together and 7 or 9 whites together. I wouldn't think you could twist that many wires together. So, do you just run the power to the first fixture, then jump to the next fixture, and daisy chain your way along, wiring a switch in parallel for each fixture? -- Blue skies. Dan Rossi Carnegie Mellon University. E-Mail: [email protected] Tel: (412) 268-9081 __________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 4866 (20100214) __________ The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus. http://www.eset.com __________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 4869 (20100215) __________ The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus. http://www.eset.com [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
