How do I cable for 3 way lighting?

[Munkey]

Thanks for that diagram Mickie.

Oh my, I am kinda confused but at the same time I'm starting to understand what you guys are talking about, well so far as the distribution of the live goes anyway.

So I could get away with,

1) Live to first light using 3 core and then run that to the other lights in the chain.
2) On each floor run cable from the light to the switch
3) Run 3 cables from switch to switch covering each floor.

Seems straightforward enough, I'll run the cables now but leave everything open just in case I need to make any changes this weekend.

Diddy's gonna give me slaps Mickie :slaps:

@ Diddy, what you reckon, any chance this could work as it's the same as the second set of instructions you gave me?

 

[Diddy]

Well my thinking is that it would not work how you want it to....but it is a dam site simpler to wire/terminate.
Just to clarify for mickie and me lol
You want a 3 gang switch on each floor
You have 1 light on each floor
You want to be able to turn off light 1 independent of the others on ANY floor so say you can switch it off/on on floor 1,2 or 3.
Same for lights 2 and 3 respectively.
So to recap you have a total of 9 switches (3 * 3gang on each floor)
The way I see it you need 3 separate switching circuits for your 3 lights. As mickie pointed out it IS a little overkill as why would you want to control each light from every floor.....But if that's what you want then the extra 3 cores I have detailed are required......Again I agree it is a hell of a lot of cables at each switch/light point But with deep back boxes it should not be a problem.

I DO see and appreciate what mickie is saying and trying to put accross. It's just not what you have asked for in post 1 lol...;...now If you wanted to simplify things a tad then yes you could go for my second set of instructions/mickies current idea........That enables you to switch ALL lights on/off at the same time on each floor as well as the option of singly switching the light local to the particular floor you are on -
{So Ground floor you have a 2 point switch 1 - controls all 3 lights at the same time and No.2 controls the light on ground floor only
Same for 1st floor 2 switches 1 -controls all 3 lights No.2 controls the 1st floor light only
And once again the same for 3rd floor}


The part in red refers to mickies current wiring diagram/ my second set of instructions.

At the end of the day it is up to you on what you want and how you are after it being controlled.

@ MickieD to think what Munkey is after and how it should be wired - think of the switches as 9 separate switches -3 on each floor.....that is basically what he is after - Yes these switches are all going in the same box on each floor (3 gang) but they are essentially 3 different switching circuits.
This thread has deffo got to go down as one of the most amusing DIY threads I have ever given advice on due to the simplicity but yet complexity of the job in hand. BTW a lot of guy's I have worked with would run a mile when faced with this question lmao.

 

[Munkey]

Ahhhhhh I get it finally...the difference being the ability to control each light from a different switch or control all of the passage lights from a single switch with both systems allowing switching the passage light on/off locally.

Your second suggestion seems to be the logical one but I have my orders so will call HQ and get some clarification on the matter. Hopefully she'll accept the second proposal although TBH both really aren't that much work as the cable run is pretty much vertical with very easy access.

Thank you gents :Clap:

This thread has deffo got to go down as one of the most amusing DIY threads I have ever given advice on due to the simplicity but yet complexity of the job in hand. BTW a lot of guy's I have worked with would run a mile when faced with this question lmao.

I should have mentioned that my old man refused to take the job on, something about poor design he said.