Home electrical wiring question please?
Question:i have a basement stairwell with one light at the bottom, switch at the top. I want to make it a 3-way switch with 2 lights. 2 sections lit from either top or bottom of stairs.
How to do? the wiring dates from 1954, but there is plenty of amperage left on the fuse formula.
Thanks ahead of time.
Answers:
I have many years of experience with remodeling older homes electrical systems. The problem with three ways are that there are so many different ways to do it and for a rookie, it's pretty difficult. If you have a switch at the top of the stairs and the light at the bottom, there are probably only two ways that they did it. Power comes in on a 2wire cable, called NM cable.meaning non-metallic sheathed cable. There is probably a black and a white. Then out of there, it goes downstairs on a another 2 wire cable. The black coming in is a hot and the black going down is the switch leg. The white wires are generally the neutral and they would simply tie together. Let me remind you that color alone means absolutely nothing, you will need a voltage meter to be 100% sure. The other way that they could have done it is to bring the power cable into the light and then switch loop down to the switch. That just means that they would use one 2wire cable to take power up to the switch and then back down to the light. That's where the color doesn't really matter because they would both be hot after the switch was turned on. If you have two cables in the switch box, you can do this. It's kina tricky especially if you've never done it before. It would take a professional about a half hour but after scratching your head for a little bit, you can get it done in a little more time. Here's what you do: You take the cable out of the light and put it into the switch box at the bottom of the stairs, provided that you have mounted one. Then you will run another wire up to the light from your new switch box. The new cable will have an additional ground wire in it. I'm just assuming that your existing cable does not. Here's what you need for a three way to work...a hot wire at one side, two wires from one switch bow to the next called travelers, a wire going up switching the light and a neutral for the light to work properly. That's where it's gonna get tricky. You're going to have to run another wire from somewhere, I can't see what you have going on but you need a neutral and I just know that you wont have coming from the switch at the top of the stairs. The other way to go would be to run a 3 wire cable from top of the stairs to the bottom so you can bring the neutral down with the 2 travelers. The common screw on the switch will always be the hot or the switch leg wire. As many other people on here have said, it would be safest and easiest to call a licensed sparky. It wouldn't probably be more than a hundred bucks. Here is a decent link with a nice diagram for ya. Hope all goes well
the best thing that you can do is to have a person at home depot or lowe's tell you how to do it. i can tell you how to to it but i'm not there and i don't want to risk burning the house down.
I suggest you do not attempt to do any electrical wiring on your own unless you are a licensed electrician. Faulty installation may cause a fire, one whose inspection may determine that you are at fault and your home-owner's insurance policy will not cover.
the age of your wiring may not allow you to do this,, as you need to have the ground wire to make the three way circuit.. you should run a new wire,, there is no such thing as a fuse formula,,, unless your speaking of the fuse/circuit breaker panel? and amperage really has nothing to do with the circuit in question as your only putting in two lights!! if you buy the right switches to make the circuit they will have a little schematic included in the box to show how its done!!
I suggest you have the work done by an electrician. Home depot guys are not electricians. That is like asking your car mechanic how to do a root canal because he had two.
Of course you can always have an eletrician do the work for you.but with some studying, you can have the confidence to do it yourself...
http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=ho...
Good luck!
Amperage for one more is light is negligible and not an issue.The job requires two three way switches and running some wire and that is an issue. Get a licensed electrician as others have suggested electricity is the last thing you want to experiment with.
Hmmmmmmmmm 1954. Is it in pipe or romex or BX(armor cable?) If in pipe, it is most probably cloth and rubber covering. High flamable and very smoky when burned. The more you move it around , the greater the risk of shorting. If you really want to try then use two wires of the same color for runners between the switches, and one wire for hot. take these to the junction you have for the new switch and install. Obviously the odd color goes on the odd color screw. The first switch should be connected with the runners on the same color screws and the wire to the light goes on the odd color. Oh yea, before you start, have a fire extinguisher and an ambulance nearby. Just kidding.
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