How NOT to Wire Light Switches in 2024 (New Rules)

in this video I'll show you a few options that we have for wiring both single pole and three-way light switches whether or not a white neutral wire is required at all switch boxes or just some of them and a new 2023 code update that'll change how we wire light switches from now on let's start out looking at single pole switches and then we'll move on to the three-ways there are two methods we use when wiring single pole switches the first method is called the switch Loop this is when we run our feed cable to the light fixture box and then send a two wire Loop down to the switch in the past this was usually done with a two-wire cable like 142 Romax we would connect both the black wire and the white wire to the light switch but since the white wire is not being used as a neutral in this case it would need to be reidentified as a hot wire this was usually done with electrical tape using this method the hot wire comes down from the feed at the light box it goes through the switch and then back up to the light box where it's connected to light fixture the neutral wire would stay up here at the light box where it's needed for the light fixture and not make its way down to the light switch but two wire switch Loops using cable like RX are no longer code compliant for new installations I'll tell you why and I'll show you how you can still use cable switch loops and remain code compliant but first first let's take a look at the second wiring method commonly used for wiring single pole switches this is the way I wire them and we'll call it the feed through method in this case we take our feed cable to the switch box first and then another two-wire cable up to the light box we connect our two white neutral wires together in the switch box which will carry the neutral up to the light box where it's needed for the light fixture the black hot wire from the feed and the black switch leg to the light will connect to the switch and then obviously the ground wires will connect together with a tail to the switch and then continue up to the light box now this is a code compliant wiring method for single pole switches so why was our two-wire switch Loop a code violation because it didn't leave a neutral wire in the single pole switch box and they are required there back in 2011 article 4042 of the NEC was updated to require a neutral wire at light switches the reason for the update was many of the new lighting controls and smart switches were being introduced which required a neutral wire to keep the electronics functioning when people were replacing existing light switches with the new devices that required a neutral they would often find they had no neutral wire in the switch box so the device would not work there were five exceptions to 4042 and the 2011 code and exception number two was the issue the exceptions stated that a neutral wasn't required where the Box en closing the switch is accessible for the installation of an additional or a replacement cable without removing the finished materials so this meant if you could fish a wire down from the attic or up from the basement or crawl space a neutral wire would not be required for the original installation so many light switches were still being installed with no neutral wire but in the newly updated 2023 National electrical code exception number two was removed now a neutral wire is required at a switch boox making that two wire switch Loop a code violation up next I'm going to show you how we can still legally use switch Loops two methods for wiring three-way and four-way switches and whether or not a neutral wire is required for those as well but first I want to take a minute to introduce you to ag1 the sponsor of today's video like many of you I'm not getting any Young and supporting my overall health especially during the cold seasons can be quite complex managing stress and cognition along with supporting digestive health and immune system are essential steps to supporting overall 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that's it good stuff go to drink a1.com backyard main or scan the QR code to get your free welcome kit that includes a canister a Shaker a year supply of vitamin D3 K2 and five extra travel packs of ag1 thanks to ag1 for sponsoring today's video okay let's get back into the content you may be wondering how do we get a neutral wire to the switch boox with a switch Loop the solution we'll have to run a three wire from the light down to the switch boox from now on we can still run our power to the light box but now we'll connect our black black hot wire to the black wire down to the switch our red wire back up from the switch will connect to the light fixture the neutral and ground wires will connect as usual but the neutral will now be going down to the switch box as well at the light switch box will connect our red wire and our black wire to the light switch the neutral wire will either be capped off if not needed or connect it to the Smart Switch or lighting control if that's what we're using so is the neutral wire required at three-way and four-way switch boxes as well it is well kind of I'll explain there are actually four methods to wire three-way switches the Chicago 3-way which has been illegal for decades the California 3way which is not acceptable in all areas then we have the standard method and the dead end three-way and I'll show you those right now let's go to the Whiteboard okay let's start out with the standard method because it's the most common and the most widely accepted way to wire three-way switches so on the board we have our power we have our first three-way we'll call it switch one our second three-way switch two and our light our first switch will be line because that's where the power will come in and we'll call our second switch leg because that'll take the switch leg up to the light then we'll run a 122 cable from our power source to our first three-way switch in the black wire we'll connect to our power source and come down and hit the black common screw on our first three-way switch and we'll run a second 122 from our light box to our second three-way switch and our black common wire will come from our light fixture over into the common screw on our second three-way switch then we'll run a 123 cable between our two three-way switches the red and the black wires in the 123 are going to be our Travelers so our red wire will go from the gold screw on one switch to the gold screw on the other traveler number one and the black wire will go from the gold screw on one switch to the gold screw on the other traveler number two now our 122 wire coming down from Power all o has a neutral wire in it now since I can't use a white marker on a white board we'll use a dotted line so our neutral wire is going to come down and go to switch boox number one but it's not going to connect to the switch and our neutral wire from the light fixture is going to come down and it's going to be in our second switch box but also not connect connect to the switch our 123 that we have going between our two switches also has a white wire in it so that white wire will carry our neutral wire between our two switches and these are going to splice together in our two switch boxes like so let me show you how this would work let's cross these little pieces out on our switch so our power comes down it goes into the first switch we'll say that the switch is in this position right now and it goes across the black traveler here and we'll say that this switch is in this position then it goes up to our light then our current travels through the light fixture back on our neutral wire back to the source and the light would be on so if we go to this first switch and we switch it to the other position now the power comes down goes to the second switch but it's open here so it can't get to the light so what if we needed to control our lights from more than two locations so we just stick a four-way in the middle so we'd have a three wire cable between three-way number one and our four-way and a three wire cable between three-way number two and our four-way so our two Travelers would connect just like before our black tra traveler here that would connect from the gold screw on the three-way to the gold screw on the fourway and our red traveler here same thing between the gold screw there is no black screw on our four-way switch and then our black here between the four-way and our other three-way and the red between our four-way and the other three-way and then our neutral wire would connect in this box as well so now the circuit would work exactly like it did with the three-ways but now we have a four-way in the middle notice with this method we have a neutral wire at every switch boox location so we're going to be okay if we ever want to install a switch that requires one and we're code compliant okay now let's look at a deadend three-way and you'll see why we call it a dead end three-way in just a minute we still have our power source our two three-way switches and our light like on our standard 3-way we run a 122 cable from our power source to our first three-way we'll connect the black wire to our power source which will connect to the black common screw on our three-way but this time another 122 will come from the light fixture or the light box to our first three-way switch so our black wire will come down from the light into the switch box here but not connect to the switch so like before we'll have a three wire that goes between our two three-way switches our red traveler will connect to the gold screw on the first threeway and go to the gold screw on the second one we'll jump over this wire here and our black traveler will come from the gold screw on this three-way jump over that wire and connect to the gold screw on our other three-way but now we have to get our switch leg from this three-way back to this switch box to conect connect to our light all we have left is our white wire and the three wire that goes between the two threeways so we'll re identify our white wire as a hot wire I'm going to use a blue marker in this case but it's a white wire reidentified so we're going to go from our black screw and we're going to go over here and we're not going to connect to this making a mess here we're not going to connect to this other switch we're going to go up and we're going to connect to that wire right there which goes up to the light so then we'll have our neutral wire coming down from the light dotted line here we'll go right through these same Loops here and then we'll jump over that go over to the first switch box and our neutral from our power will come down here over to our first switch box and that'll those two neutral wires will connect together in that switch box now this works pretty much the same as our last three-way power will come down we'll say it goes through the switch like that goes across on our black wire goes across this switch comes on our blue wire we'll call this our reidentified white wire goes back to switch boox number one and then goes up to our light then the neutral carries the current back from the light back through this switch box here and up to our power source and completes the circuit now the reason we call this a dead end three-way is in this box here you can see that the circuit cannot continue after that all we have is switch power and there's no neutral looking at switch boox one we do have a neutral wire so we're good to go here but switch to nope we have no neutral wire over there but article 4042 in the National electrical code also says where multiple switches control the same lights a neutral wire is only required at one of the switches so since we have a neutral wire in this first switch box this is going to be a code compliant method some electrical inspectors may have an issue with reidentifying your white wire due to size limitations in the code but I found that most inspectors will let that go keep that in mind though when you're deciding on which method you're going to use to wire your three-way switches I want to thank you all for watching and I want to thank ag1 for sponsoring today's video remember to check out the link in the description to try it out for yourself I'll link some other content for you to watch next right here I'm John from backyard Maine thanks for watching

Channel: Backyard Maine

Views: 688,169

Keywords: light switch, single pole switch, 3-way switch, 4-way switch, how to, DIY, how to wire a light switch, how to wire a 3-way switch, how to wire a 4-way switch, basic electricity, electrician, how to wire a light, how to wire an light fixture, how to wire an LED light, how to make an electrical pigtail, How to wire a smart switch, wago, wago 221, national electrical code, NEC, electrical inspection, backyard maine

Id: B6gfI73Tvg8

Length: 15min 20sec (920 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 18 2024