bypass switch

Merry Christmas
J

jabschc

Member
Location
Louisiana
Occupation
electrical contractor
Hey guys, I'm doing a job and the homeowner is wanting all of the outside lights to come on with a switch in the bedroom for emergency reasons. The lights are for front porches back porches, floods, sconces, etc. In total about 7 led floods, 12 led wafers, and a few wall sconces, no real amp draw. They still want to control them independently (about 10-12 switches in total, 3 locations)for normal operations, but hit one switch in the bedroom in the event they need (security lighting). Just trying to see what product or best way to go about this. Was thinking of contactors with some kind of bypass or override. Thanks
 
You didn't indicate whether this is new construction or a remodel. That would modify the answer, I would think.
 
I would just use WiFi switches. If connected to a Amazon Echo you can do a voice activated simple skill which will trigger all of the lights to come on simultaneously. Something like "Alexa Emergency" and all of the programmed switches as part of the skill will come on at once. Otherwise you would need to route all of the switching through a lighting control system.
 
WiFi is the way to go. There are plenty of companies that make switches that will talk to each other without running wire. The added bonus to this way if ever in the future they want to change any of it , they can add/ remove switches with little effort.
 
WiFi this, app that... it all works great until the mfr (Amazon, Google, whoever) decides they don't want to run the servers supporting the hardware anymore. If the walls are open, it wouldn't be all that hard to create switch banks to handle things with a master override in the bedroom, but if you decide to go wireless, make damned sure you choose something with an open and documented protocol (e.g. Matter)
 
You could install 3 way switches, with the "up" terminal always powered, and the "down" terminal wired to get power from the bedroom switch. Common terminal goes to lamp. When switch in bedroom is turned on, all lights that were turned off will light. If done this way, you could also ask them if they want a switch somewhere else, such as the living room. I like this because it will never become obsolete, and is easy to understand.
 
Barbqranch said:
You could install 3 way switches, with the "up" terminal always powered, and the "down" terminal wired to get power from the bedroom switch. Common terminal goes to lamp. When switch in bedroom is turned on, all lights that were turned off will light. If done this way, you could also ask them if they want a switch somewhere else, such as the living room. I like this because it will never become obsolete, and is easy to understand.
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This woukd require all lighting to be on one circuit, or at least all on the same 'phase'.
 
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Barbqranch said:
You could install 3 way switches, with the "up" terminal always powered, and the "down" terminal wired to get power from the bedroom switch.
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The way I see this being wired is to have 3-wire cables with hot, switched-hot (emergency), and neutral connecting all of the boxes with the 3-way switches. And then have a 2-wire "switch loop" from the bedroom switch to one of the 3-way boxes, with the 2-wire connected to the hot and switched-hot wires. This way the power does not have to originate from the bedroom switch box and so a neutral from there is not required, unless you want to do it that way.
 
synchro said:
The way I see this being wired is to have 3-wire cables with hot, switched-hot (emergency), and neutral connecting all of the boxes with the 3-way switches. And then have a 2-wire "switch loop" from the bedroom switch to one of the 3-way boxes, with the 2-wire connected to the hot and switched-hot wires. This way the power does not have to originate from the bedroom switch box and so a neutral from there is not required, unless you want to do it that way.
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The one issue I see with this is if some of those lights, like the porch are already on 3 way switches. I have done a house where they had mad switching.
 
synchro said:
The way I see this being wired is to have 3-wire cables with hot, switched-hot (emergency), and neutral connecting all of the boxes with the 3-way switches. And then have a 2-wire "switch loop" from the bedroom switch to one of the 3-way boxes, with the 2-wire connected to the hot and switched-hot wires.
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Strathead said:
The one issue I see with this is if some of those lights, like the porch are already on 3 way switches. I have done a house where they had mad switching.
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If you did have an existing 3-way lighting circuit, then you could route the 3-way cable mentioned above to the 3-way box that powers the circuit, and replace the switch there with a 4-way. Then if the "emergency" switch is turned on, both of the travelers would be "hot" and the light(s) would be lit up in either position of the downstream 3-way switch.
 
synchro said:
If you did have an existing 3-way lighting circuit, then you could route the 3-way cable mentioned above to the 3-way box that powers the circuit, and replace the switch there with a 4-way. Then if the "emergency" switch is turned on, both of the travelers would be "hot" and the light(s) would be lit up in either position of the downstream 3-way switch.
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I think the wifi or low voltage switching solutions are likely better solutions.
 
Strathead said:
I think the wifi or low voltage switching solutions are likely better solutions.
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I agree, one advantage is that if you have multiple Echo or Google devices you can turn on all of the lights from more than one location. If I use my personal command from just about any room in the house all of the interior and exterior lights will come on at once
 
I would not consider hard wiring this. I would use one for the Lutron options, Caseta, RadioRA Select or RadioRA3. You can pair Pico's directly to the switches without using the
 
I have no skin in the game, but I would discuss the options with the customer to see what they prefer for the all new wiring and associated devices.
 
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