Hello,

First of all, I would like to let you know I am sort of a beginner, so please forgive me for any imprecision.

After repainting a corridor, I decided to upgrade the switches of the 3-way circuit as well as the lamp that they control.
No changes to the wiring at all. Just a simple straightforward replacement of the old components that have been there for 50 years or so.

As expected, I can control the lamp with the switches, but when it is in the "off" condition, the lamp actually remains lit, although dimmed (but it's not a special lamp or light bulb).

The current comes from one wire, and it gives electricity to the corridor light as well as the rooms on one side. This wire, entering BOX 1, is "skinned", to give current to the switch and also to the cable towards some other rooms (attached is a picture, out of focus, just to give an idea).

Here is a description of the "schematics" (all neutrals are together, and all ground are together)

In BOX 1, there are 3 cables:
- CABLE 1 with 3 wires (ground, white and hot "skinned" black) that goes to the breaker
- CABLE 2 with 4 wires (ground, white, red and black)
- CABLE 3 (ground, white and black)

In BOX 2 there are 2 cables
- CABLE 2, coming from BOX 1
- CABLE 4, going to the CEILING BOX

In the CEILING BOX there is CABLE 4

Please also see the attached drawing (forgive its roughness).

Apart from the quirk of the skinned wire to bring the electricity to the switch and continue to the other rooms, all looks fine to me, but I cannot understand why the lamp stays on (albeit dimmed) even when the switch is off.

Did I connect something wrong when I replaced the switches?

Thank you,

Clemens

 

Are the switches lighted? If they are then when off they are passing current through the light. This was not a problem with old incandescent lamps. But with new CFL or LED it can often cause them to blink or remain on dim.

 

Thank you for the reply.

Indeed, one of the switches is lighted, but even with the previous lamp I had a LED bulb and there was no light.
The lamp is also on the cheap side.

But before I go get another switch, could there be other reasons?
Such as the way I connected the switches?

 

If the lamp has multiple bulbs try switching one of them to an incandescent lamp. See what happens.

 

Welcome to the forums.

You haven't shown the neutrals in your diagram but the hot wiring looks ok.

 

Thank you for the replies.

I will try to change the bulbs this evening once I get back and see what happens.

As for the neutrals, in each box they are all tied together with twist nut connectors.

 

Hello,

I finally managed and indeed, it was the lighted switch+led combo that was causing the problem.
I've installed a regular switch and all is fine now.

Thank you all for the help.