MINIMUM OF 4-WAY SWITCHES

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dannyrzk

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Good morning. i being searching and so far I haven't found nothing that limit the amount of 4-way and 3-way switches I can use in a room, or controlling a set of lights. Can't anybody please tell me if there is a minimum of switches, that can be use, or does it matter at all?

Thank You
 
dannyrzk said:
Good morning. i being searching and so far I haven't found nothing that limit the amount of 4-way and 3-way switches I can use in a room, or controlling a set of lights. Can't anybody please tell me if there is a minimum of switches, that can be use, or does it matter at all?

Thank You
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The number of 3 and 4 way switches you use is a design issue and not a code issue.

I normally limit the number of 3 and 4 way switches to the number the customer is willing to pay for. In most cases that isn't to many.
 
dannyrzk said:
Good morning. i being searching and so far I haven't found nothing that limit the amount of 4-way and 3-way switches I can use in a room, or controlling a set of lights. Can't anybody please tell me if there is a minimum of switches, that can be use, or does it matter at all?

Thank You
Click to expand...

AFAIK, you are stuck with two 3-ways per 'set' of lights, but can have any number of 4-way switches.
 
161128-1030 EST

A three-way circuit consists of exactly two SPDT switches.

If you add one four-way switch to a three-way circuit, then you have three switching points. From this minimum you can logically add as many more four-way switches as desired to increase the number of switching points.

What is a four-way switch? Internally it is a DPDT switch with the addition of some cross wiring. Instead of the six terminals of a DPDT switch it only has four terminals. Easier to install for this application than using a true DPDT switch.

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We did one house where we had at least four seven gang boxes with three and four ways in them. They wanted to be able to control a bunch of different lights from a bunch of different places.
 
With today's technology there are definitely better ways of controlling complex lighting systems.
 
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