How To Wire A Three Way Switch

Hi. I'm Chris from Aspect Maintenance, a large electrical company based in the center of London. Today we're going to have a look through some 3-way switching.

To show you some of the components that we're going to use, we're going to use a 2-way switch, an intermediate switch, which looks like a normal switch, only it's got a different layout on the back, and we're going to use a 2-way switch, which is basically just to get you familiar with the different switches, we're only going to use one of these sections today. With 3-way switching, basically what we have is, you have the feed coming in one end, and the switch wired at the other, similar to other lighting layouts that you may have seen before. So, let's refer to this as the live feed coming in, which will go there.

We then have the switch wire, that would leave by this point here, which would be noted as the C and the C, the common. That would go to the light, so that would be switching the light through the switches. And then we'd have, in the middle we'd use some strappers to go between L1 and L2, from the bottom.

So L2, there, L2 there. L1 there, L1 there. Connect them up straight through.

Maybe label these as you put the cables in because it makes it easier as you go to connect. And the same for this one. You'd go L2 here, and reverse it to the top of the switch, L2 at the top of the switch, L1 there, and L1 at the top of the switch.

You have to get this right on your switches, or it will come up with a funny configuration, and you won't get the switching that you're looking for. And that's the basic connection of a 3-way lighting circuit. We've obviously used different cables.

You'll be using twin and earth, or something like that, something similar to domestic cable. We've used these singles just to make it a bit simpler for yourself and the connecting. And that's how you do 3-way lighting in a domestic household.