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Showing posts from October, 2013

One Light, Two Switches

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When I moved into my "new" house last year, I quickly realized that something about the switches for the light above the stairs wasn't right. Once the upstairs switch was "off", the downstairs switch no longer turned it on. Although it isn't hard to wire up two switches to control one light, cleaning up after someone else who did it wrong can turn into quite a puzzle. The first step is understanding exactly how these simple, convenient circuits work. The diagram below shows this. This is not the only way to wire it, just the simplest. If you want to see a few of the stranger variations, check out this link . Note that each one does the same thing, it just splices the wires in different places. To begin unraveling the puzzle you will need a multimeter , screwdriver , and maybe a pair of pliers . First, flip the breaker for the circuit you're working on. Pull the covers off both switches and pull unscrew the switches from the box.  Before to