How to wire a 3-way switch system

hello and welcome to skills and trade and today I'm going to show you how to wire a 3-way switch system a 3-way switch system is one of the control light or a group of lights from two different locations that would be two different switches independently controlling the light or a group of lights here are the two switch boxes in the light before you start be sure and turn the circuit breaker off this is the cable that bringing C electrical energy into the first switch box this is a 14-2 with ground that means it has two conductors we have one black conductor one white neutral conductor and a bare ground wire that's a 14-2 with ground coming into the first box leaving the first box we have a 14-3 with ground cable that means there are three conductors a black hot conductor a red hot conductor a white neutral and a bare ground it goes over to the second box the one that's middle of the run it is again a 14-3 with ground leaving the second switch box is the light with a 14-2 with ground the first thing I'm going to do is connect together the ground wires we have the ground wire from the power cable and the ground wire from the cable it goes to the next switch box now we're gonna take these ground wires and splice them together with a twist on green wire nut in this case we have one light we could have a group of lights in the first switch box so the power comes into the system I'll install a 3-way switch now that I have the grounding pigtail it's going to be connected to the switch itself so we're going around the green terminal in a clockwise manner we're gonna crimp and tighten it down securely now we're going to connect together the neutrals the neutrals are not used in three-way switches but it has been code since 2011 that all switch boxes need to be provided with neutral wires okay now we're going to splice them together using a wire nut so I'm going to take the black wire let's bring in the energy in the switch box which is also known as line wire and I'm going to attach it to the block common terminal on the switch tighten it down securely in a clockwise manner now it's time for the red and black traveler wires all right so you put one traveler wired one bronze terminal tighten it down and the other traveler wired to the other bronze terminal doesn't matter which traveler wire goes to which it is extremely important that the traveler wires only go on the bronze terminals all right so you put one traveler wired one bronze terminal tighten it down and the other traveler wire to the other bronze terminal so we're wired on this 3-way switch we got the line wire to the common black terminal we have the two traveler wires to the bronze terminals we get all the ground suped-up and we have the neutrals in the back of the box you now we're gonna move over to the last switch box and the first thing I'm gonna do is take care of all the ground wires so we have a ground wire coming over from this cable connected to the first box we have one coming from this cable that is going towards the light so I'm just gonna cut them even strip them down all right now I'm gonna splice the ground wires together and attach them to the switch now we're going to connect together the neutrals the neutrals are not used in three-way switches but it has been codes since 2011 that all switch boxes need to be provided with neutral wires okay now we're going to splice them together using a wire nut so I'm just going to attach the the black wire doesn't bring the electrical energy to the light also known as a load wire to the black common terminal and tighten it down securely in a clockwise manner now it's time for the red and black traveler wires all right so you put one traveler wire to one bronze terminal tighten it down and the other traveler wire to the other bronze terminal so we're wired on this three-way switch we have the load wire to the common black terminal we have the two traveler wires to the bronze terminals we have on the ground sucked up and we have the neutrals in the back of the box all right now I'm gonna put on the switch plates all right okay now I'm gonna flip on the circuit breaker and see how we did all right let's see let's try it out all right that works this works this works try out all the different combinations everything works great I just want to thank you all so very much for watching please like and subscribe for more educational videos please leave a comment down in the comment box and have a wonderful day

Channel: Skills and Trade

Views: 985,982

Keywords: 3 way switch wiring, three way switch wiring, how to install a three way switch, how to install a 3 way switch, 3 way switch, hooking up a 3 way switch, 3 way switch red wire, 3 way electric, how to wire three way switch, Wire a 3 way switch, How To Wire 3-Way Switches, How to Wire and Install 3-way Switches

Id: iZmRKUgZDeo

Length: 5min 29sec (329 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 24 2017