Help wiring lights, please

[keiron99]

I have upstairs landing lights which are operable from a switch upstairs and downstairs (ie 2 way).

I also have downstairs hallway lights. However these are only operable from the downstairs light switch. The downstairs light switch is a double switch, operating both up and down.

What I want to do is configure things so that both up and down work together, and can be switched either on or off from either upstairs or downstairs, and both operating together from a single switch.

I've taken the downstairs switch off to have a look, but I'm rather confused by L1, L2 and COM. The downstairs light appears to have 2 wires, going to one of the switches COM and L2, with the L2 in turn having a connector to the L1 of the switch controlling the upstairs light.

I was rather hoping I could simply move the wires over to the switch that operates the upstairs light. Can someone please tell me whether this is possible or not, and if so which should go where. My usual DIY approach of trial and error didn't appeal on this occasion!

Thanks in advance.

[ARWadsworth]

Try moving the wire that goes into the COM on the downstairs light switch to the L2 of the upstairs switch. Remove the link wire and put the wire that went into L2 on the downstairs lightswitch to the L1 on the upstairs lightswitch. Copy the wiring exactly as it is when you replace the switch for a one gang.

Adam

[keiron99]

Thanks, Adam, I tried this. Unfortunately, it doesn't work quite as I hoped. The downstairs switch just switches between the 2 lights ie. in the on position, downstairs is on and upstairs off, and vice versa for the off position. I swapped the 2 wires from the downstairs light over, and it just reverses the switching. Also, the upstairs switch still only operates the upstairs light and has no effect on the downstairs.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

You first need to ascertain both lights are on the same circuit - check by pulling out the fuse or switching the MCB. If they are on different circuits forget the idea - it will require substantial re-wiring.

If they're on the same circuit, with the power off, remove the upper floor switch and note the wiring. This is how it should be:-

(you'll need to use a fixed font on your newsreader)

L1 L1 0===========0 0===========0============= Line | \ / | C 0================================O C \ / \ / 0===========0 0===========0============= Switch return L2 Optional L2 Intermediate

The first switch in the diagram will likely be the ground floor one, the last the top floor one.

You'll see the switch return (usually black and should have a red sleeve) for the top light goes to L2. Doesn't matter if it is L1 - just note that.

Remove the ground floor switch and disconnect the lower hall switch wires from it. Tape up the red - it's no longer needed - and connect the black to L2 (or L1) as per the upstairs one. Both lights are now in parallel and will switch from the one pair of switches.