Yar02169
Member
I want to add a motion sensor to a pair of lights on the outside of a garage. Upon investigating today, I got confused by what I found.
SW1 is in the house, SW2 is in the garage, and has never been used, so I can remove it for the sensor. Here's what I found that gets me. SW2 is next to another switch (SW3) that operates the lights inside of the garage. When tracing the wires, line in (from the switch in the house, SW1) comes to SW2 on one side of the switch, a Red wire is connected to the other side, runs up to the next box, which contains connections for the outside pair of lights, and wiring for the inside light connections. It connects to the Black pair for the outside lights.
That makes sense, but how the heck is the inside light powered? Everything functions correctly, but I'm not sure what will happen when the motion sensor is installed. I don't care about the 3-way function after the sensor is installed, but I don't know how the inside lights are powered.
Breakdown:
Line-In from SW1(inside house) to SW2 (left posts), Red goes from opposite side of SW2 (right post) up to Box1. In Box1, Red connects to L1 & L2 Black.
SW3 Black goes to Box1, connects to Red(in) that goes to inside light (L3in)
SW3 White goes to Box1, connects to Black(in) that goes to inside light (L3in)
White from L1, L2, L3(in) are all connected together.
SW3 operates independently, but I don't understand how. If SW2 Red feeds to L1 & L2, how does SW3 get fed?
The sensor should be an easy thing to install. I assume it would be a replacement of SW1 to a regular switch, and wire as normal, ignoring the extra 3-way wires.
Thanks in advance for any advice.
Ray
SW1 is in the house, SW2 is in the garage, and has never been used, so I can remove it for the sensor. Here's what I found that gets me. SW2 is next to another switch (SW3) that operates the lights inside of the garage. When tracing the wires, line in (from the switch in the house, SW1) comes to SW2 on one side of the switch, a Red wire is connected to the other side, runs up to the next box, which contains connections for the outside pair of lights, and wiring for the inside light connections. It connects to the Black pair for the outside lights.
That makes sense, but how the heck is the inside light powered? Everything functions correctly, but I'm not sure what will happen when the motion sensor is installed. I don't care about the 3-way function after the sensor is installed, but I don't know how the inside lights are powered.
Breakdown:
Line-In from SW1(inside house) to SW2 (left posts), Red goes from opposite side of SW2 (right post) up to Box1. In Box1, Red connects to L1 & L2 Black.
SW3 Black goes to Box1, connects to Red(in) that goes to inside light (L3in)
SW3 White goes to Box1, connects to Black(in) that goes to inside light (L3in)
White from L1, L2, L3(in) are all connected together.
SW3 operates independently, but I don't understand how. If SW2 Red feeds to L1 & L2, how does SW3 get fed?
The sensor should be an easy thing to install. I assume it would be a replacement of SW1 to a regular switch, and wire as normal, ignoring the extra 3-way wires.
Thanks in advance for any advice.
Ray