adding another light switch


  #1  
Old 02-19-02, 06:54 AM
joling
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adding another light switch

I have a light on the outside of my house. It is controlled by a switch on the inside. I want to be able to turn the light on from the outside. I turned off the power, took the fixture down, drilled a hole and installed a small rotary switch on the fixture. I connected the wires, turned the circuit breaker on and trying various combinations of pairing the wires received the following results. The circuit breaker tripped when I turned the light on from the inside, reset the breaker and it tripped when I turned on the light from the outside. At one point the light was on and when I tried to turn it off the breaker tripped. At one point it didn't do on and the breaker didn't trip. I knew it was getting power because the inside switch is lighted. This is an old house with old wire covering so both wires look black. The light fixture has a black and white wire plus a ground. the rotary switch has two black wires. The wires coming out of the wall to the fixture are also old wiring and both the wires look black. I'm thinking that the switch doesn't work, trips breaker because of the switch on the inside which is still connected. I thought that if I kept the switch on the inside in the on position all the time I can control the fixture from the rotary switch. If your confused, I worked two hours on this and still can't get it. If I remove the light switch from the inside, what do I do with the two wires. I don't know which one is hot but intend to get a Greenlee Voltage Detector which I saw mentioned in an earlier posting. So sorry for the long message. Thanks in advance for any help.
 
  #2  
Old 02-19-02, 08:40 AM
T
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The wire from the house switch connects to one of the black wires on the rotary switch. The light fixture's black wire connects to the second black wire on the rotary switch. The neutral routed with the house's light switch black is spliced to the light fixture's neutral. Once you identify which wire is the hot and which is the neutral, connect them as described. Make sure you have the correct polarity at the light fixture. Hot to switch and neutral to neutral.
 
  #3  
Old 02-19-02, 09:18 AM
J
jn
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For you to be popping the circuit breaker it sounds to me like you somewhere have tied the neutral to the hot wire through a switch.
If the light worked before, then the problem most likely isn't inside the house at the old switch location. The problem sounds to me like it is outside at the light fixture where the new switch was installed.
There were two wires coming from the wall of the house going to the fixture. For the switch to work, it simply needs to be installed between one of the wires from the house and its corrosponding connection to the light fixture.
The wire color, or if it is hot or neutral, wouldn't matter functionally. If the light switch is "on" inside, breaking either connection (neutral or hot) with another switch outside would allow the light be be turned on and off at the outside switch. However...to be safer and code wise correct, you always want to switch the hot wire and run the neutral unswitched.
Hope this helps...jn
 
 

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