I have a 4 way switching dilemma. A new box and 14/3 wire was added to one of the boxes in the middle of the run. Can I make all of the switches work without rewiring the whole thing?
If need be I can change the 14/2 wire from the light to run to box 3 instead of box 1 – Other changes are major! THANKs – here's the drawing showing the current wiring runs (only) – Tell me what switches I need and how to connect them please
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Wiring – use 14/3 wire to connect a new switch on a branch in a 4-way circuit
wiring
Related Solutions
Have you considered a remote for the house end of the garage hookup? I'm thinking a z-wave controllable light switch or something in the garage, and a remote control in the house. That way you can ignore the 12/3 romex and weird wiring (of that part of the circuit) and get on with your day.
I'm unclear whether it's allowed by code (especially with the colors you have), but with 3 wires, you've got enough for a single 30 amp circuit - ground, neutral and hot. Is that enough for the garage? That would at least be safe.
This diagram describes what you want (source), it's just complicated by the box positioning. Normally you do it in a series
- Three-way
- Four-way
- Three-way
I think you can tweak this to make it work.
In Box #1, the incoming hot (the 14-2 black) should connect to the black screw of your switch. Wire the black from the 14-3 to your 14-2 neutral white.
Put your 4 way into Box #2 and wire it as shown in the diagram, but instead of nutting the black wires together, nut the white wire from your fixture (14-2) to one and the black to the other (it doesn't matter which you connect to).
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Best Answer
You'll need something a bit fancier than a standard switch to bail you out of this mess
With standard four-way switches, a mid-loop spur like the one between boxes 2 and 3 would require a /4 cable instead of the /3 you've run. However, a more sophisticated system like the Lutron Maestro can handle this without a hitch: simply replace the switch in box 1 with a MA-S8AM and the rest of the switches with MA-AS'es. These can work with only a line, a load, and a single interconnect wire connecting the accessory switches together, which allows for the mid-loop spur you have to be run with the cable already in the wall.