Check out some similar questions!

StaticFX · Oct 20, 2011, 04:00 PM

Ok.. I have a light switch on my basement stairs that turn on the basements lights. I wanted to add lights to the stairway since its dark. So, I put the lights in, wired them up.. And simply attached the blacks, whites, and grounds together... So that each screw on the switch had 2 blacks, two whites, and the grounds.

But when I powered it back up... Its revered? When the switch is on, the basements lights are on... When its off, the stair lights are on! Lol

Help?

ballengerb1 · Oct 20, 2011, 04:18 PM

First off that is not how you add lights to a switch, a single wire goes to each screw. If you are joining two or more wires you twist them together with a wire nut and add a pigtail that goes to the switch. Now for the bigger issue, does the light switch have a small set of letters showing ON when flipped one direction and OFF when flipped the other way?

StaticFX · Oct 20, 2011, 04:23 PM

No... no on/off on the switch

And.. I didn't attach both wires to the screws (I just said it that way for ease of explanation).. I put one in each of the holes in the back, and the other set on the screws, so they aren't sharing the screws...

If that's still no good, I can easily switch to pigtail it.

Am I on the right path thinking all I did was create a loop on the second set of lights?

Thanks!

ballengerb1 · Oct 20, 2011, 04:26 PM

OK this is likely a 3 way switch. Is there another switch somewhere else that also controls this light? A single pole switch is marked ON/OFF, a 3 way has no markings.

StaticFX · Oct 20, 2011, 04:29 PM

Here is how they are wired...

StaticFX · Oct 20, 2011, 04:30 PM

And no.. There is no other switch... I thought 3 ways had another screw (besides the ground) ?

ballengerb1 · Oct 20, 2011, 04:31 PM

Please tell me about any other switch first

StaticFX · Oct 20, 2011, 04:43 PM

There is no other switch... I thought 3 ways had another screw (besides the ground) ?

Should I do it like this?

ballengerb1 · Oct 20, 2011, 04:46 PM

I am at work, back soon

hkstroud · Oct 20, 2011, 06:50 PM

Assuming that your gray wire is white or neutral.
You do not show where the power is coming from. I have modified your drawing to show power coming into the first light fixture. It has to be that way. What you have is what is known as a switch loop.

Note that the black (hot) of the incoming power is connected the white going to the switch. The white going to the switch is hot, not neutral. The white of the incoming power cable is the neutral and is connected to the neutral of each light fixture.

Power comes in on the black and goes to the switch via the white. When the switch is on the power goes back to the light on the black. That is normal operation.

When you added the wires to the basement stairs the way you show, something different happens. When the switch is on the power goes through the switch to the lights. Power also goes to both sides (hot and neutral) of the basement stair light. The voltage to the stair light is equal so no power passes through the stair light and it does not light.

When the switch is in the off position, power goes to the stair light on the white. It passes through the light blub filament and comes back to the switch on the black. From there it goes to the basement lights. It passes through the filaments of those light to the neutral. The basement lights do not burn because the voltage is distributed among all the lights and there is not enough current to make them glow.

If you look closely, you may see a faint glow. Just for fun, take out the bulbs except one out of the basement fixtures and the remaining one should burn. It and the stairway light should burn at half brightness. Take all the bulbs out of the basement lights and the stair will not burn.

To wire correctly, run a cable from one of the basement light fixture to the stair light. Connect black to black and white to white. You cannot wire from the switch because you do not have neutral there.

StaticFX · Oct 20, 2011, 08:28 PM

So there is no way to tap into the switch? There is an outlet near the switch... What if I tap that and put in a second switch? Or could I get a different switch that would work? It would be a pain to run wire up through the wall to tap the new lights. Thank you!

hkstroud · Oct 21, 2011, 04:12 AM

Yes, you could run a cable from the outlet to the switch box and add a second switch. Wire hot from outlet to one screw on switch. Wire hot to the light to other screw. Wire neutrals together using wire nut.

StaticFX · Oct 21, 2011, 04:33 AM

OK.. I didn't want to have 2 switches, but if that's easier then I will go with that. Plus, I could put the stair lights on a dimmer... 3 50w halogens is a bit much for a small stairway :) lol

THANKS!

hkstroud · Oct 21, 2011, 04:51 AM

3 50w halogens is a bit much for a small stairway

Agree. Why halogens? Normally stair way light don't say on that much so any savings would be minimal. Also halogens put out a lot of heat.

StaticFX · Oct 21, 2011, 06:27 AM

Half the basement is refinished (for my sons "hangout") the stairs were really dark... and halogen recessed lights are small. They needed to fit under the stairs above. Most other can lights are much to big to fit in the space.

I probably could have put 1 in the stairs and it would light the whole thing! Lol... well I'm not re-doing the drywall now :) so I will at the very least drop the bulbs to 20watt instead of 50. That should help :)

hkstroud · Oct 21, 2011, 07:07 AM

I'm not re-doing the drywall now

I can appreciate that. I have three drywall patch jobs going on right now (which I should be doing).