Switch Wiring

[Chris Spyrou]

OK, please bare with as I really don't know how to descibe this properly. Both the old and new have 6 hole (connectors).

The current 2G2W Double Switch had 3 sets of 1 top and 1 bottom connection.

The new one from TLC is a 2G2W Double Switch has 2 sets of 2 top and 1 bottom connection.

The left switch is fine, but the right one needs to activate 2 separate lights. From what I can tell is that I think the old way used a return path [the middle set]. There are 4 wires (plus the earth), and from memory it's a red, black, blue and yellow, but there seems to be only 3 connectors.

Does anyone understand what I am on about and if so can anyone advise on wiring this up correctly?

[Christian McArdle]

There will be 3 holes per switch on both types. There will be a common for each and two outputs for each. You need to identify which holes were which on each switch and move the wires over.

Frequently, the holes will be labelled 'C' for common and 'L1' and 'L2' for the outputs.

Christian.

[Dave Plowman]

A two-way switch circuit where two switches in different locations switch one or more lamps will commonly have 5 wires at one switch, and three at the other. I've included the circuit below.

L1 L1 0======================0============= Line | | C 0==========================O C \ / 0======================0============= Switch return L2 L2 The three wires between the two switches might well be red, yellow and blue, and there *should* be a further red and black at one of the switches which goes to the light fitting as in a normal one way switch.

However, for some reason best known to themselves, some electricians will feed the circuit from one switch and take the switched output from the other. Or used a shared feed to the one way and two way switch on the same plate.