In my garage I have two lighting circuits with two separate switches in the same junction box.
Total, on both switched circuits, I have 16 recessed lights, each is a 15w LED. One switch is an occupancy sensor and turns on 6 of them. The other switch turns on the remaining 10.
The idea is that sufficient lighting turns on automatically when I enter the garage. But if I'm working on some project I want more lights so I turn on the second switch for full lighting.
You can imagine if I'm working under a car or something that the occupancy light will turn off (and I flail around to activate it again). What I want is for the second switch to turn on all the lights, even if the occupancy isn't triggered.
How can I wire this?
I have one line to the junction box. The box has two switches and two load wires. One load with 6 cans, the other with 10 cans.
Best Answer
The easiest way is to replace the manual switch with a double-pole switch, such as this example. This allows you to switch two independent circuits with the same switch. Connect the original switch connections to one pole of the switch. connect the other switch pole in parallel with the motion detector (extend the wires connecting to hot and switched-hot at the motion detector to connect to the other switch pole). If the motion detector has built-in wires, you can add the new wires to the existing wirenuts. If the MD has screw terminals, it would be best to add pigtails (short wires) from the MD to new wirenuts and then to the existing and new wires.
If you are unsure which terminals are which on the double-pole switch, try connecting just in place of the old switch. Once you have that working ysing two terminals of the switch, use the other two terminals to for the MD connection.