I want to do something that seems a bit more complex to myself. I want to have 4 switches in my garage that I can use to turn on the garage lights I'll be installing. (Switch on workbench, by the door, etc). Here's where I'm stumped. I want the lights to come on when ANY switch is on but only turn off if all of the switches are off. How would I accomplish this?
Electrical – Control a light turning on from multiple switches, but not off
electricallighting
Related Solutions
Besides an arcing switch, there are 2 other common 'loose wire' scenarios to consider.
Loose wire wrapped around a side screw terminal. Turn off the breaker and tighten the screw. The wire should wrap under the screw head nearly 360 degrees (clock-wise). The insulation should cover the wire to within 1/8 inch or less.
'Back stab' connections are notorious for arcing connections. I cut them off (if there is sufficient spare wire and side wire them. The 2 round holes (in the right device) are the Quickwire connections (to be avoided) Much better are 'screw and clamp' devices that allow 2 secure connections per terminal (left device in photo)
This is possible using standard electrical wiring devices! You will need (in addition to standard electrician's tools and supplies):
- Three three-way switches (switches 2, 3, and 4)
- A four-way switch such as a Leviton CSB4-15T or equivalent (linking for the sake of those who have never bumped into one, a good home improvement store should have one kicking around somewhere) -- this will be switch 1
- A two gang box for switch 4, with a switch + blank two gang faceplate -- one side of this faceplate has the standard switch slot, the other is blank.
- And lots of 14/3 NM-B (in addition to 14/2) because you'll need to run multiple travelers
The wiring diagram is as follows:
Dotted lines are neutrals, the rest of the colors are self-explanatory. Three things:
- You will want to use a two-gang box for Switch 4, as the wire fill (eight wires) is too dense for a single gang. Perhaps you could stash a wiring diagram in there for the sake of anyone who has to fix it later, too?
- Keep your travelers consistent: in the diagram, red is up and black is down, always.
- Make sure the documentation for this is kept well, otherwise it will give the next electrician who encounters it a bit of a headache.
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Best Answer
Here is a quick sketch of some light switches connected in parallel:
If any switch is on, the lights are on. If all the switches are off, the lights are off.
Querent has not responded to requests for clarification of his purpose, but it's not impossible to imagine a use case for this circuit. Suppose the garage is used by several parties, who don't always know when others are present and using the lamps. With a "multi-way" circuit, someone leaving the garage might turn off the lights, leaving other users in the dark.
With the parallel switches, each user must turn on a switch when entering the garage, even if the lights are already on. This insure that he will not be left in the dark when he is the last one there. On leaving, each user must turn off the switch that he turned on when entering. (If the lights go off when he does this, then he knows he was the last one out, not that it matters.)
For completeness, here is what the "multi-way" circuit looks like:
with two "3-way" switches and two "4-way" switches.
Now, following the comment by Harper, a future owner of the property might want to convert to the multi-way behavior instead. Querent could facilitate the conversion by using the switches required for the multi-way, but using only the SPST functionality of each switch, and wiring them in parallel. Like this:
This saves the future owner buying new switches, but must be carefully and thoroughly documented or else it will be worse than useless.