I am working as an electrician’s assistant, and I’m having a hard time conceptualizing how three- and four-way switches work. Why are they called three-way or four-way, and how does this affect their function? I just need someone to dumb it down for me!
In: Engineering
Not a native English speaker but a trained electrician. The three ways are really misleading.
Imagine trying to switch a light on from two diffrent switches in a way that it doesn’t matter which switch you use to toggle the lights.
This is done with a two three way switches. The tree way switch has one “input” and that one is connected to one of the two “outputs”. Switching does change which output is connected.
Now connect the power to one “input” and so you will have one live and one dead wire. The other three way switch is placed so that single end is connected to the lamp.
Using the switch on the lamp side makes you choose to connect it to the dead or the life wire. The power side changes which one is the powered one.
A for way switch switches them around when flipped and keeps them normal when not.
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