Hello.
I have a detached garage about 75' from the house which has flood lights, and of course the house does as well. I want to connect the flood lights on both structures so I can turn them on/off from either building. So at night I can turn them on from the house, walk to the garage, and turn them off, and vice/versa. It is possible for me to run a hard wire to do this with a standard 3-way/4-way switch configuration, but I've been told that it can be done with radio frequency switches that operate wirelessly without travelers. Is this true? Can somebody in the know fill me in on the details?
To clarify, the house has a simple switch at one location only. The garage has 2 locations for the lights using 3-way switches. I imagine I might have to replace both of those switches to wireless switches? There are two floods on the garage that face toward the house, and one on the house that faces the garage, so all 3 lights would come on together.

Thanks much!

 

Easiest is to power all the lights from one source. Simplest may be to disconnect the garage flood lights and power them and the new lights from the house. That would require running a new cable or conduit to the garage.

 

Though possible, this would be a difficult wire to run. I would either have to dig a new ditch, or using some existing conduit and a very long, convoluted run, I might be able to make that happen. The idea with the RF switches was actually to make it easy, with no new wires required, just replacing switches.

Something like this:
file:///C:/Users/logajo1/Downloads/Data%20Sheet%20-%20LevNet%20RF%20Remote%20Switches%20DS%20(WSS0S)%20(1).pdf

 

Yes, RF would be easiest but you will have to wait for one of the pros to help you with that.

 

Once source, yes. But the feed for the lights would come from the garage - assuming you have power to the garage now. You can't have multiple feeders to a detached structure. NEC 225.30

OP, check out X10 or Insteon. Both have wireless switches that work on the existing power lines, nothing new to run.

 

since radio control will be used but:Yes, but the power to the lights would not be assessable for use in the garage. The gatage is treated as a "light pole" or that is my understanding.

Edit: Dang! Joe said it better.

 

Under most circumstances this would be correct (although there are several exceptions for commercial buildings), but the discussion of switch legs, switch loops and 3-way travelers doesn't fall under the realm of feeders.

 

(tried to put link but it wouldn't let me, search amazon for 'insteon 2477s')

So here's an insteon switch that the not so knowledgeable person at customer support seemed to think would work. She said to put one of these at each switch location after linking them together, and that should do it. Seems too good to be true. They are $50 each, so $150, but I would spend more than that much in wire and time installing a hard wire. Anybody have experience with these? The good thing is she said there is a 30 day no questions asked money back guarantee, so I can try it essentially risk free. I wonder how they perform in the long term.

 

Do you mean this one: INSTEON 2477S SwitchLinc On/Off Dual-Band Remote Control Switch, White - Wall Light Switches - Amazon.com

Do you have neutrals at the switches? That is almost certainly going to require a neutral.

 

I have Insteon products installed. I got them from smarthome.com. It may be easier to browse that website and see what else they offer. I do believe all the lights need to be on the same phase for the remote switching to operate properly. They may offer some sort of bridge if they aren't.

And you need a neutral.