All About Wiring A Two Way Switch

In order to operate any of the electrical appliances available in our homes, we need electrical switches. For example, you turn on and off the light by just flipping the switch from one state to other. But in some cases like coming down the stairwell in the dark, you need a mechanism so that you can operate the stairwell light from two sides that is from both up and down the staircase.

A two way switch is a great solution for this. As the name suggests, you can operate one light through two switches. The following article introduces you with the steps by which you can easily install them.

For installing a two way switch, you need some equipments like home wiring cable, wire cutter, plastic electrical boxes and of course the two- way switches. There are special switches for a two way connection. Gather all the items.

First step includes supplying the power to the switch board. Make sure, you use the right sized cable for the application. The casing that is coming to the switch board consists of three wires. One is insulated with black plastic, next with white and the third is the bare copper wire.

We need to fix two switches at far locations and run three wires and earth wire between them. The second switch is then connected to the load. The principle of working a two way arrangement is that it works in pair.

Since, home wiring is a bit complicated task, do it cautiously. Firstly, connect the black wire that is coming from the power supply to the live wire of the first switch. The same way, connect the white wire of the power supply to same color wire of the cable you ran to connect the second switch.

The black wire coming from the first switch is now to be connected to the gold terminal of the second switch. Likewise, terminate the red wire at the respective gold terminal of the gold switch. The phase wire running from second switch is to be terminate at the hot wire of the load terminals. The neutral wire is to be connected with the white wire whereas the earth and the bare wire are to be joint together.

Now, you are left with two white wires at the second switch. Twist them together. Place all the switches and the wires in the electrical box and switch on the power supply.

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