I am pretty handy with electrical (wired my whole 1500 sq ft basement w/3 bedroom, theater room, smokes, laundry, 220, sub panel, etc.) but it's been a while, and this is stumping me.
I removed a wall in my house, which had 2 gang switch box on it. The box contained a 3 wire romex that went up to a ceiling light/fan, there were two switches in the box, one for the light, the other for the fan.
On the far side of the room is a 3 gang box, with switches for porch light, entry light, and the light in the light/fan fixture (so the fan could only be turned on by the other end of the 3way).
well, when i disconnected everything from the 2 gang box none of the switches in the 3 gang box had power (all my switches have commons and grounds in the box, btw). So I installed a J box in the attic that spliced the power in to the one that goes to the far switch bank (standard 2 wire), now the front porch and entry way light work, but there is no power switchable to the fan/light.
My assumption is that the traveler didn't go through the light fixture, but...I don't know...Do I have any hope of getting switchable power to the fan/light without re-routing that 3 wire to some other power source? My guess is no, but I thought I'd check. (One thing I did think about was installing a UPB switch in the jbox in the attic, and connecting the 3 wire to it that way, but that would be a jimmy-rig solution that I would feel bad about if I were ever to sell the house.)
Another thought I had is routing that 3 wire romex into another nearby wall where there is a hot switch box, and installing a couple switches there, but the one on the other bank across the way would no longer control it. That's the thing that gets me...where does that one go? it's a 3 wire....it goes up, but doesn't go through the fan/light fixture, so it just comes across to where the other 2gang box was? ARG.
I removed a wall in my house, which had 2 gang switch box on it. The box contained a 3 wire romex that went up to a ceiling light/fan, there were two switches in the box, one for the light, the other for the fan.
On the far side of the room is a 3 gang box, with switches for porch light, entry light, and the light in the light/fan fixture (so the fan could only be turned on by the other end of the 3way).
well, when i disconnected everything from the 2 gang box none of the switches in the 3 gang box had power (all my switches have commons and grounds in the box, btw). So I installed a J box in the attic that spliced the power in to the one that goes to the far switch bank (standard 2 wire), now the front porch and entry way light work, but there is no power switchable to the fan/light.
My assumption is that the traveler didn't go through the light fixture, but...I don't know...Do I have any hope of getting switchable power to the fan/light without re-routing that 3 wire to some other power source? My guess is no, but I thought I'd check. (One thing I did think about was installing a UPB switch in the jbox in the attic, and connecting the 3 wire to it that way, but that would be a jimmy-rig solution that I would feel bad about if I were ever to sell the house.)
Another thought I had is routing that 3 wire romex into another nearby wall where there is a hot switch box, and installing a couple switches there, but the one on the other bank across the way would no longer control it. That's the thing that gets me...where does that one go? it's a 3 wire....it goes up, but doesn't go through the fan/light fixture, so it just comes across to where the other 2gang box was? ARG.
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