
This will prevent you from coming back to turn off the light and reduce your electricity bills. You can install the switches at both ends of a long hallway or a flight of stairs so you can turn off the lights when you are at the other end. Three-way switches are extremely helpful around the house. Image / video 16:9 Use EdrawMax for Wiring Diagram Creation The white wire coming straight from the power source goes uninterrupted into the light fixture while the hot wires are routed through the switches. The 3-way switch is designed to interrupt the hot wire when it's turned off. If the circuit's power is on, any of these may be hot depending on how the switches are toggled. It either connects to the hot wire that leads to the fixture or accepts the hot wire coming from the power source. Lastly, there is a common terminal that is darker in color than the traveler terminals. These screws will provide two different paths for the electricity to travel to the fixture. Then there are the traveler screws that are connected to the hot or charged wire. That is why you may not find them on older 3-way switches.

The grounding screws are a new addition to the three-way switches. The green or grounding screw is attached to the bare copper or green wires.


To understand how a three-way switch works, you need to pay attention to which wire goes to which screw. To learn more about a three-way switch, let's look at how a three-way switch works. Two of them are traveler terminals, and one of them, which is a bit darker, is called common. One is the grounding screw that is green, and the other three are part of the circuit. But, when both switches are in opposite directions, the circuit is open, and the light is off. If both the switches are up or both are down, the circuit is complete, and the light turns on.

For starters, there is no particular on or off toggle. A three-way switch is constructed differently than a normal switch.
