If my local Lowes sold 14-4 NM-B by the foot, no problem. Since I need about 16’, even a prepackaged 25’ coil would be within reason. If I can’t come by what I need of it, should I go with ENT?
I have decided to add a third switch to a 3 way light circuit. No big deal, they sell switches that if you connect them to the travelers, you can stick in as many switches as you want. The 14-3 cable doesn’t run near where I want the new switch. So starting at one switch, up to the attic, across the way and down to where I want the switch. It is just that I must have 4 conductors plus ground.
Have you tried an electrical supply house? Some will sell to homeowners, some won’t. I think a lot might have to do with how confident you seem when you go in there. Paying by cash might help too, since you won’t have an account set up with them. You could always go through the yellow pages and call them all to ask.
Another option would be to look in the free newspapers for electricians doing side work. Those guys are usually needing the money and may sell you what you need from their stock.
Ah, the old change the problem. Could work. Complication is that the accessible switch also has the incoming power and loop out to the light. I will have to do some scrawling on that.
You could run two pieces of 14/2. Just tag the wires so you don’t get confused, and make sure the white wires are identified so no future electrician thinks he’s looking at a neutral.
i do see two brands of 14 AWG wire that indicates that it is 4 conductor though it is 250’ rolls at Lowes (other home improvement material stores may sell by the foot). maybe you could do a few more switch runs.
a switch loop would need 3 conductor wire, this could be used depending on how the wire is now routed or could be routed. if the new wiring went direct to the load you would need four wires. depends on what you have and how much work each method would be.
I always thought it was puzzling (and difficult to explain to students) why a 3-way is switchable from two locations, and a 4-way is switchable from three locations.
I’m not seeing it. I went searching, and couldn’t find any example where four wires plus ground was ever needed. This page, for example, gives a lot of wiring possibilities, but never needs more than three plus ground.
How is what you’re describing different from the setup here, extending from the light, or from the diagram engineer_comp_geek linked to, extending from a switch, where only three conductor wire is needed? Can you find a diagram of this somewhere that you can link to?
websites and books will illustrate common situations.
sometimes you get uncommon situations. you might have construction constrains due to materials or design or constrains in remodeling not wanting to create too much work.
imagine in
where one of the 4 way switches comes and goes to the same box and those wires travel from that box in a cable to other boxes used as illustrated. in that case you would want a cable with 4 conductors.
I think the OP is simply thinking about the problem wrong. They want to add a 4way switch so they can switch from 3 locations.
If you choose to make the new box the box containing the 4 way switch you would indeed need to run a 4 conductor from one of the 3 way boxes to do so. You’re sending the loop out and back again.
If you simply put the 4 way switch in one of the existing boxes you’d only need a 3 wire going to the new box.
14/4 nm exists most any electrical supplier will have it. It’s normally in a corner collecting dust as there is rarely a need for it.
So if the one that “comes and goes” is the second from the right, then the other 4-way switch goes directly to the box on the right. But in that case, you’d switch the three-way and four-way switches, and only need three wire romex. If you had a five-way switch (with the switch on the right a 4 way, and another switch to the right of that), then you couldn’t do that, and you’d need the four wire romex. But I suspect any three-way or four-way setup only needs three-wire romex.
a 4 way switch needs 4 conductors connected to it. imagine wanting that 4 way switch in a location that you could run only one cable to, that cable would need 4 conducting wires. that 4 conductor cable could come back to a box just used to connect other cables together or a box with other things in it.
Good question. Maybe it has to do with the terminals on the switch. 3 way switches are simple spdt with a common, NOC, and NCC terminals. 4 way switches are a specialty item with 4 terminals on them that reverse the connections from one position to the next. Perhaps even Zen Beam can master the idea that a switch with 4 contacts has to have 4 wires.
I have though some more about it, and think what engineer_comp_geek first suggested in post #3 will work and be the cheapest and easiest way. Thanks.
