Re: White wires as travelers on 3-way
A re-identified white traveller runs from switch to switch, supplying the second switch . The wire running between the last switch and the switched outlet is the a return conductor from the switch to the switched outlet . That is, the return conductor has a switch on one end and the switched outlet on the other end.
The thing is, that the way this is worded is singular in many instances where it would have to be plural to make the "white hot constantly" or to make 200.7(C)(2) apply to travellers at all.
"
the supply" would be "any supply", etc
"
the switch" would be "any switch", etc
The repeated use of terms that limit this to singular objects tells us something. There is one switch involved--at least, there is one switch being referenced by this code. There is one outlet involved. You can't make a farmer switch happen any other way. You can configure it as a threeway, sure, but that one
cable assembly, the one with the supply from the outlet and the return conductor to the outlet, is specifically and singularly referenced here.
Are you saying that a cable's white conductor, re-identified, used as a traveller can't be done unless all the conductors in the cable are special ordered white?
Hypothetically, yes, I am saying that if this code were changed (to plural references) to include re-identified white
travellers, the conductors that supplied a switchleg side of a threeway
in this system would have to be white to begin with, be re-identified, so that each supply to that switch were white. This doesn't add up. The travellers are not being referenced here. Besides, those reidentified white travellers wouldn't be the supply at the other switch, would they?
Consider this diagram:
The "switch loop" between the outlet and the switch on the right is specifically referenced here. The three-wire running between threeways does not have a "return conductor from the switch to the switched outlet." It doesn't meet the criteria, this code doesn't apply. The three-wire between switches can be called a "switch loop" but the functions and criteria are not similar to this code, so this code doesn't govern it.
In this diagram, the "switch loop" between outlet and switch are referenced, so the white conductor must be used to feed the other switch loops to get the ball rolling, and the result must come back on the black wire, the return conductor. Do whatever you want, however you want in the meantime, this code references only this switch loop. It governs the supply to the switching system, and the return from the switching system. What the switching system is beyond that is beyond this code. Stating that it applies to single pole, 3-way, 4-way switches confirms that regardless of other circumstances at work, this switch loop is to be done this way.
[ February 11, 2005, 07:44 AM: Message edited by: georgestolz ]
