When walking into an electrical outlet wanting to buy a switch, make sure you know what kind of switch you are looking for. Enough have been said about one gang or two gang switch. One mistake that many makes when buying a switch is they did not specify what kind of switch they want and the sales assistant did not get proper clarification from the customer. Most of the time they only realize they bought a switch that is not suitable when the electricians comes and find that they bought the wrong kind of switch.
The most common switches we find in our house are the single pole one way switch and the single pole 2 way switch or 3 way switch. A one way switch is the most common. As the name suggest, it only works one way which means you either switch it “ON” or you switch it “OFF” There are no ways about it.
On the other hand, a two way switch can work both ways. You can switch on the light by throwing the switch in “OFF” position and vice versa. However to make this work, two way switches have to work in pairs. That is to say, you must have 2 individual two way switch to make full use of this ability. This will be another topic that I shall talk about later.
To differentiate a two way switch with a one way switch is easy. Look at the terminals at the back of the switch. A normal one way switch has only to terminals, usually one on top and one at the bottom. A two way switch however, has three terminals, also usually on the top and two at the bottom. This arrangement may vary with different manufacturers, but all two way switches has a minimum of 3 terminals. Again, why is that so will be explained in later postings. There are even some with 4 terminals.
So the next time you need to replace a switch, make sure you get the right one. If the switch you are planning to replace is just for switching the lights ON and OFF with no other functions, you can be sure it is a one way switch.
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I recently remodeled my bathroom.I left all of the wiring in tact as before.I have cieling fan and 2 recessed lights in the cieling and a vanity.The switch before had three on/off switches for each as does the new one with one large and 2 small hand press instead of flip.I have the fan and 2 ceiling lights working.coming out of the wall were the vanity light once was are three 3 set of wires black,white and ground.two are coming from above and one is coming from the outlet below wich used to feed the outlet on the old vanity.the two coming from abve one is hot and one is not.the wires that were remaing after i hooked up both fan and ceiling are not hot.how do i get the new lights above the sink to work?
bill
I really confused here. Let me get this straightened out. Ok, you have three different existing switches, one for the ceiling fan, one for the 2 recessed lights and one for the vanity. I presume it is a 3 gang switch, which means 3 switches aligned together within one panel.
After your remodelling, you replace those switches with a more modern one, but you did not touch or add any extra wires and the lights are still the same. Am I right again? Now after replacing the switch the vanity light is not working?
My best guess is you have mixed up the wires at the switches. Just dismantle the switch, untwist any wires that you have twisted or terminated together. Look for the single live or hot wire and take note of that wire. If you have 3 wires left after singling out the live wire, then these wires will lead to each individual light or fan. If you have any extra wires other than the 3, then those are also live wires which is feeding another switch somewhere in your house.
Now what you have to do is to confirm which wires lead to which light. Since you say you have 2 recessed lights but only 3 switches, I presume the 2 lights are controlled by one switch. If that is the case, you might have 2 wires leading to the recessed lights that should be twisted together during termination. However most of the time, if you use one switch there will be only one wire and that wire loops to 2 lights.
After you know which wire leads to which light, and still you see an extra wire or two, these are probably hot wires feeding to other switches. What you do is you twist these wires together with the hot wire which you have taken note just now and terminate them together or you can do it with short jumpers.
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