Hi.
First up, I am not a qualified electrician so this is a DIY project However, I am physicist by training with a specialism in electromagnetism, so I know the principals of circuits.
I want to add a second switch to my garage lighting, so that we don't have to fight our way to one corner of the garage to turn the lights on or off.
I have seen the standard 1-gang 2-way lighting diagrams and understand the principal of how that works.
What I am currently struggling with is slightly strange way the lights seem to have been installed. There is a live in to a 2-gang light switch, the first serving the interior lights and the second serving the internal lights. I have sketched out the wiring below. The mains in comes from the house (this is a detached garage), from the sockets ring. There is a switched fuse box which takes in the live wire, which isolates the lighting circuit only. The always live cable goes to the sockets in the garage. The switched cable goes to the 2 gang switch, with 1 switch controlling the internal lights (2 lights) and another controlling the exterior flood lamp with PIR.
It's also worth noting that the PIR External light would appear to wired up strangely as well, because usually these are wired up so there is a permanent live that feeds the PIR regardless of the switch position, and the switch acts as a always-on override. That means the light sensitive PIR will always activate the light in the dark. In this case, it appears that the light switch isolates the external light completely when it is in the off position.
The question here is, how can I replace the 1-way interior switch with a 2-way switching arrangement?
I don't mind separating out the internal and external switches so there is separate box for each light circuit, something like below. What I am trying to do is replicate the supply being shared between the lights (which is done with the bridge live bridging wire in the current setup), but to do it in a junction box so that I can have two single gang switches.
What I am unsure about is how the 2-way wiring would work with the non-standard arrangement of the circuit to the internal lights.
Would this arrangement below work [in the two way switching arrangement, I have omitted the earth's for clarity, but in the first switch the intention would be to collect them altogether with the supply earth]?
Any advice would be very well received.
First up, I am not a qualified electrician so this is a DIY project However, I am physicist by training with a specialism in electromagnetism, so I know the principals of circuits.
I want to add a second switch to my garage lighting, so that we don't have to fight our way to one corner of the garage to turn the lights on or off.
I have seen the standard 1-gang 2-way lighting diagrams and understand the principal of how that works.
What I am currently struggling with is slightly strange way the lights seem to have been installed. There is a live in to a 2-gang light switch, the first serving the interior lights and the second serving the internal lights. I have sketched out the wiring below. The mains in comes from the house (this is a detached garage), from the sockets ring. There is a switched fuse box which takes in the live wire, which isolates the lighting circuit only. The always live cable goes to the sockets in the garage. The switched cable goes to the 2 gang switch, with 1 switch controlling the internal lights (2 lights) and another controlling the exterior flood lamp with PIR.
It's also worth noting that the PIR External light would appear to wired up strangely as well, because usually these are wired up so there is a permanent live that feeds the PIR regardless of the switch position, and the switch acts as a always-on override. That means the light sensitive PIR will always activate the light in the dark. In this case, it appears that the light switch isolates the external light completely when it is in the off position.
The question here is, how can I replace the 1-way interior switch with a 2-way switching arrangement?
I don't mind separating out the internal and external switches so there is separate box for each light circuit, something like below. What I am trying to do is replicate the supply being shared between the lights (which is done with the bridge live bridging wire in the current setup), but to do it in a junction box so that I can have two single gang switches.
What I am unsure about is how the 2-way wiring would work with the non-standard arrangement of the circuit to the internal lights.
Would this arrangement below work [in the two way switching arrangement, I have omitted the earth's for clarity, but in the first switch the intention would be to collect them altogether with the supply earth]?
Any advice would be very well received.