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3-way light wiring question


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Hi all,

I'm sorry if this is another in line of 3-way questions but this had me stumped.

I'm have 4 exterior garage sconce lights with cfl bulbs on a 3-way circuit with switch1/box1 inside the front door foyer and switch2/box2 in the garage. I'm trying to get these exterior lights onto a c4 switch and 2button keypad so I can time/dusk to dawn them. My task is complicated since each of my switch locations shares a double gang box with another sitch for another circuit.

My issue;

- the double gang box in the garage has one switch for the garage interior lights and one 3-way switch for the exterior lights. This 3-way switch had a single run of 14-3 attached to it with the Black to the common terminal and the white and red to the other terminals (including green to ground).

- the double gang box in foyer has one switch for the inside hall chandelier and one 3-way switch for the exterior lights. This 3-way switch has two romex runs to it; a 14-3 and a 14-2. The 14-2 has the black run to the common terminal and the white tied together inside the switch box with the other whites (of both gang circuits). The 14-3 has its white and red wires attached to the switch and its black wire tied together inside the switch box with the other blacks of both gang circuits.

My references to all terminations is with respect to the builder grade Leviton paddle switches. I'd greatly appreciate guidance on wiring the c4 switch and keypad.

Thanks,

Greg

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What you are going to do is remove and cap the red wire on both ends. The power is being fed to the light from inside and that is also where the power comes from.

the 14-2 in your foyer sounds like it's going to the lights, so the black from that should be the red (load) of the c4 switch. Leave the white of the 14-2 with the rest of the common wires, the white from the 3way gets joined with the white wires along with the white from the switch. Last the black wires grouped together need to feed power to the switch and also the 14-3 to the garage.

You now have just Hot and Neutral in the garage as the red is not being used, keypad attaches to those.

Now I would also confirm these assumptions with a volt meter but it sounds pretty straight forward.

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  • 2 weeks later...

THEORY - THANK YOU! Sorry for taking a couple weeks to respond but I was traveling when you responded to my question and it wasn't until today that I was able to try your suggestion. The switch worked perfectly using the wiring you suggested. Surprising to me that the red lead in the house goes unused so that was throwing me off in all my attempts. Your help is greatly appreciated.

Based on my reading, I understand that the 2-button keypad I installed in the second location will not operate the lights (like the switch does currently) until things are programmed and the keypad is "paired" with the switch. Can you confirm this is correct? The 2-button keypad lights up green and appears to be fine and just awaiting its programming.

Thanks again.

Greg

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Pretty much the only time you use the red would be to change the load's location.

In your case, if you wanted to swap the switch/keypad locations (for example, if you wanted the garage to have the switch location in case you lost your zigbee connection so the garage would still control the load) you could use the red wire to "send" the wire going to the lights over to the garage.

Another common use for this practice is to send the load to a 3-way switch in a single gang location if the total wattage is high and the load wire runs to a 2 or 3 gang location which lowers the amount of watts the dimmer can control due to removing the heat sink fins. The single gang location can handle a larger wattage.

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  • 6 months later...
 

Hi,

This may be a dumb question, but where does the keypad get power from if power is coming in to the box at the dimmer location?  I'm just trying to get my thinking straight, but you aren't using the traveler any longer so the keypad is just a remote switch that tells the dimmer to turn off when that keypad is pressed and isn't directly linked to the dimmer any longer???  Is it ok to 'steal' power from another location within the box?

Thanks,

Jeff

 
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