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Need help wiring 3-Way lights

EthanW
9 years ago

I am seeking help in 3-way wiring a Leviton (Vizia) VRM1-1L & VPOOR-1L (My apologies if this is the wrong forum to post this)

Neither of the 3-way wiring examples in the VRMX1-1L manual resembles how my home is wired. I am trying to determine if my wiring is incompatible. The manual with wiring examples can be found here: http://bit.ly/1HgPmI4

Because the forum does not allow file attachments above 1024KB, I have shared a DropBox folder with (3) Files: (1) Wiring Diagram of the Dimmer side and (2) Pictures of the Remote side.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/wu410on2fo5htws/AAAGfFcreyQ8BbPtQM8yQTGQa

If anyone can please help, I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you...

Comments (4)

  • joefixit2
    9 years ago

    From the pictures of your wiring it appears you have everything you need present in the boxes. You first need to determine which common goes to the load, and which one is power. Whichever common is power goes to the master switch. With both switches removed there will only be one hot wire which is what we are looking for. If that is not the box you want the master in, you can still do it by re-configuring the wiring.

    The fact that your 3 ways are wired with 2 wire romex is not standard, and will make things a bit more confusing. One thing we need to verify is that both boxes are on the same circuit or we could have a violation, so check that out as well.

    Find that hot wire and we'll go from there. My guess is that it will be wire "G".

    This post was edited by joefixit2 on Sat, Dec 20, 14 at 23:52

  • bus_driver
    9 years ago

    Until about the mid 1950s, NM cable with more than two conductors was not readily available. So two runs of 2-conductor NM would be used where 3 conductors were required. .
    Apparently ( I have not researched this subject to determine dates of code changes ), the use of two runs of NM for 3-way and 4-way switching circuits was not a code violation at that time.
    The description posted seems to indicate such an installation.

  • joefixit2
    9 years ago

    If you look closely, they did not use 2 runs of 2 wire. They only ran one, picking up the hot at one end and the neutral at the other, which is why the OP needs to verify that both are on the same circuit.

    I am not sure about when or if this practice of using two wire cable for 3 ways was made non-compliant, the only code section that comes to mind is 300.3(B). I remember discussing it at length on one of the forums but I do not recall the outcome.

    One of the things I see done a lot is two-2 wire cables ran to HVL units and 2 speed swamp coolers, which is a clear violation of 300.3(B), but the inspectors never say a word.

    At any rate, judging by the look of the romex and the tan twister I'd say the installation is not very old.

    This post was edited by joefixit2 on Sun, Dec 21, 14 at 10:35

  • joefixit2
    9 years ago

    Well so much for helping the guy......looks like he doesn't need us anymore. Hope he's ok.