Electrical Question
October 5th, 2008 by FuzzWorking in my bathroom, tonight, I came across a rather odd situation. I removed my electrical switch plate, and the switch shorted out. I had intentions of replacing the entire junction box, anyway, with a new three-gang box (I’m replacing the drywall).The wire wasn’t anything that I was expecting, though.
Current Setup
I have one two-gang box. One switch turns on the overhead light and the other turns on the light above the mirror. There is also a dial/timer switch that is separate from the other box that runs an electric heater.
My Plan
Remove the electric heater.
Put the power from that timer switch to a fan in the ceiling.
Install three-gang box and put all three switches into the three-gang box.
Live happily ever after.
Issue
What I ran into was one strand of 12-3 Romex running into the current two-gang box. One hot wire (black) goes to the top of one switch, the other (red) goes to the top of the other switch. A white neutral wire jumps from switch two to switch one and then the white runs back to the main box. The ground wire is grounded to the box.
Questions
1. Do I need to replace the wire with two strands of 12-2?
2. If not, do I jump the new setup the same way that the old setup was jumped? That doesn’t seem code worthy.
3. Any other advice?
Photo
Here is a photo of the switch.
October 6th, 2008 at 9:01 am
To do it clean, I would replace the romex with 4 wire. 3 hot and 1 neutral (for the extra fan appliance). Getting rid of the heater wiring. But, you don’t have to. Neutral sharing is within code and is done all the time. You’re good.
October 6th, 2008 at 2:53 pm
I think it would be better to just run two strands of 12-2. KISS is a method I tend to live by.
October 6th, 2008 at 5:02 pm
You’d have an extra neutral or trailing wire in the mix that way. Depends on where the switch is in the line. Middle or end.
October 6th, 2008 at 5:35 pm
From what I read there was more than one box he was pulling power to if that’s not the case then by all means go 12-4.
October 7th, 2008 at 5:33 am
Alright, gentlemen, here’s what I’m going to do…
I’m going to hook the new light up to the existing light wires.
The jbox for the electric heater that I am removing is in the basement, almost directly below the switches shown above. I am simply going to disconnect the heater, remove those wires and then run new wire up from the switch to the fan.
Sound good?
October 9th, 2008 at 8:49 am
Iz good.