# Five switches controlling one light.  How?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/five-switches-controlling-one-light-how/825160>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 27, 2018, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/five-switches-controlling-one-light-how/825160 "2018-11-27T15:15:03Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 2

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/marvin_the_martian/32/2898_2.png) [@Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marvin_the_Martian)\
**Post date:** [November 28, 2018, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/five-switches-controlling-one-light-how/825160/21 "2018-11-28T17:37:00Z")

</div>

> [@Hari\_Seldon](#):
>
> Thanks. I answer to some of the questions raised, the house was built in 2010 and, yes, the stairway light can be turned on and off from any one of the five locations. And it means not having to stumble down an unlit (okay there is a small night light on a baseboard) hallway. Quite convenient really.

Oh, the stairway light is also the hall light? Recent electrical code requires (1) switches for stairwell lights at both the top and the bottom of the stairs and (2) switches for hallway lights at each “entry” into the hallway. for example, in my previous house three bedrooms had their entrances clustered at one end of a hallway. There was one switch controlling the hallway light next to the bedroom doors and one switch at the other end of the hallway. Similar set for the hallway to the master bedroom.

Since in the case you describe the same light serves both the stairway and the hall, what you describe is required by code (although whether each bedroom requires its own switch depends on how far the doorways are separated - if close enough they could share one switch in the hall).

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/five-switches-controlling-one-light-how/825160.md?page=1)