3 way switches

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eljefetaco said:
If you run the job site and are pulling every wire, sure you can pull your 3 wire to the fixture. But if you know how to do that your cost of labor is to high. Plus copper has dropped on the NYMEX this week.
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Do you really want men to pull wire that know so little ? In time this will bite you and the price tag will be high.Hourly cheap but bottom line after being watched,directed and checked you might not saved a dime.One screw up caught too late will cost you plenty.
 
Wait, You can front load or back load the service in a three way switching situation! I've missed your thought!

For me, this is always a dedicated application of the required circuits for the service that is not interfaced with neutrals , it's just a "dedicated" item!
One brings in the hot to which ever point suits the design/application.

Frankly the neutrals are usually buttoned up and by-pass the the 3-way toggle switch. Line to line not line to common ...

If your asking if I share the neutral after or, the before or after no, I don't try to by application, No
 
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stickboy1375 said:
Who cares? Re-read Dennis's first post, then draw it, then you will see the problem. :smile:
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even if one light from one set of 3 ways is on that current is coming back on just the neutral in just the one 3 wire. And if both sets were turned on then same thing but each light would have just it's corresponding current coming back on it's corresponding neutral until they would join up together at the fed side of the 3 way. So what? That's not a parallel neutral situation. That's more like a reverse tap situation. :)
 
Dennis Alwon said:
At the switch leg end of the 3 ways you would connect all the neutrals together. Also you would use a switch leg on each common terminal of the 3 way with the black and red hook to the traveler terminals. Same on the opposite end of the room only the hot wire is connected to the common terminals.

Would we agree that 3 ways are regularly wired this way?
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I don't connect all the neutrals together at the switch leg end. Although it in real life it is no biggie and I can see how many would.
 
steelersman said:
even if one light from one set of 3 ways is on that current is coming back on just the neutral in just the one 3 wire. And if both sets were turned on then same thing but each light would have just it's corresponding current coming back on it's corresponding neutral until they would join up together at the fed side of the 3 way. So what? That's not a parallel neutral situation. That's more like a reverse tap situation. :)
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Steelersman-- if you have two 3 wire cables running between the 3 ways and both neutrals ( white wire) are tied together then they are in parallel
 
electricmanscott said:
I don't connect all the neutrals together at the switch leg end. Although it in real life it is no biggie and I can see how many would.
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I don't anymore. Never gave it a second thought. If they were separate circuits I always separated them. I feel totally dumb on this one. :smile:
 
seperate the neutrals so that one three wire cable has the light that it is controlling tied to its neutral and so on
 
Dennis Alwon said:
Yes, parallel neutrals. I never realized it. It dawned on me today while I was wiring a house. I must have done this hundreds of times in my life.

Mea cupa
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I have done that many times myself. So what did you do?

Thanks for the loaded question.
 
Dennis Alwon said:
Steelersman-- if you have two 3 wire cables running between the 3 ways and both neutrals ( white wire) are tied together then they are in parallel
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no because they would be controlling different lights. I already uinderstand they are fed from the same circuit but take just one light for example, the current leaving that light only travels on the white wire in the one 3 wire not both 3 wires.
 
Dennis Alwon said:
Never gave it a second thought. If they were separate circuits I always separated them. I feel totally dumb on this one. :smile:
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Describes my feelings exactly. Ha. I'll be up all night thinking of all those neutrals I screwed up.
 
steelersman said:
no because they would be controlling different lights. I already uinderstand they are fed from the same circuit but take just one light for example, the current leaving that light only travels on the white wire in the one 3 wire not both 3 wires.
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It would only take the white on each switch leg. But once it hit the box where the two whites were tied together and going to the other three ways it would not be able to discern the difference in cables.
 
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