Light Switch Wires
#15
(12-03-2020, 01:42 PM)MarkSLSmith Wrote: I'm still a bit unclear about how the switch should be wired according to today's code.  Is it possible to provide a diagram?

Found these online.  Quicker than making my own.

The first is the switch leg in the OP.  Power comes in to the load, which is a ceiling box in this case, and the hot is extended to the wall switch where the circuit is made or broken.  No neutral in the switch box.  Not to code any longer.  And notice the white being the always-hot conductor, while the black is switched.  This is what srv52761 posted.

   

This is how it's supposed to be wired now.  Hot and neutral in the switch box, neutral carried up to the light (or a switched receptacle, like in the pic), and the hot being switched.

   
Tom

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#16
(12-03-2020, 02:04 PM)TDKPE Wrote: Found these online.  Quicker than making my own.

The first is the switch leg in the OP.  Power comes in to the load, which is a ceiling box in this case, and the hot is extended to the wall switch where the circuit is made or broken.  No neutral in the switch box.  Not to code any longer.  And notice the white being the always-hot conductor, while the black is switched.  This is what srv52761 posted.



This is how it's supposed to be wired now.  Hot and neutral in the switch box, neutral carried up to the light (or a switched receptacle, like in the pic), and the hot being switched.

For a ceiling light that may have a fan in the future I prefer to run the hot and neutral feed to the ceiling box then run a 3 conductor down to the switch box.  In that case the black and white are a feed and the red wire becomes the switch leg that way you have you have a hot and neutral at the ceiling box and a hot and neutral at the switch box along with a switch leg. Tie the whites from the feed, the 3 conductor, and the light fixture together, then tie the black feed wire and black from the three conductor together at the ceiling. If not needed cap  the white wire in the switch box, the black becomes the feed for the switch and the red connects to the other side of switch, then at the ceiling connect the red wire from the 3 conductor to the black wire from the light fixture.   Roly
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#17
Also. If the device is controlled from two or more locations, I think you only need the neutral in one switch.
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#18
Yes you can use the hot from one switch to feed another switch, it’s done all the time.

Don’t overcomplicate it.  You switch the hot (black) wire and tie the neutrals together.

Sometimes the neutral is run through the fixture so you’ll only see a hot & switch wire in the box.  Don’t let that throw you.

Then again, sometimes the neutral is switched DAMHIKT!
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