Help with hall/landing lights

[Fazse]

Hi all,

I have a 2 gang switch in the hallway and landing.
The hall switch turns on/off hall and landing lights. The landing switch only turns on/off landing light.
Hall switch has 2 wires, 2 core n 3 core.
Landing switch has 3 wires, 2 x 2 core and a 3 core.
Hall rose has one 2 core wire, landing rose has 2 x 2 core wires.

I have bought this house recently. Is it possible to control both lights with both switches?

Thanks

 

[littlespark]

Possibly, but it’s hard to know where all these cables go without physically testing them to trace.
It may be the 2 x 3 cores are the same cable, but there may be a joint box involved somewhere.
Do you know roughly age of house, and whether the cables colours are red/black or brown/blue?

We always say a photograph helps.... but there’s problems just now uploading to forum

 

[Fazse]

Possibly, but it’s hard to know where all these cables go without physically testing them to trace.
It may be the 2 x 3 cores are the same cable, but there may be a joint box involved somewhere.
Do you know roughly age of house, and whether the cables colours are red/black or brown/blue?

We always say a photograph helps.... but there’s problems just now uploading to forum

It’s a 1945 house, it has the old colours, red/black. The 3 core is a single cable connecting hall switch to landing switch. Doing some research I thought they should be 2 x 3 core wires so both switches can operate both lights.

The 2 wires in the landing ceiling rose are connected to live and neutral only (no loop) tracing these wires they go 2 separate junction boxes and then to the landing switch. At the moment all wires in the landing switch are connected to one gang only, so the other gang is empty.

The hall switch looks to be wired up correctly but the landing switch is not. Any ideas what I can try ?

 

[telectrix]

you'd need to run another 3 core between the switches. then you could do it.

 

[Fazse]

you'd need to run another 3 core between the switches. then you could do it.

Yes, but surely the switches must have been working previously with the current wiring

 

[telectrix]

yes, but the landing switch generally is not wired to switch the hall light as well, only the landing light.

( i like landing lights...makes it easier to see the runway)

 

[Fazse]

yes, but the landing switch generally is not wired to switch the hall light as well, only the landing light.

( i like landing lights...makes it easier to see the runway)

Ok. Is there a way to make both switches work in the current set up

 

[telectrix]

Ok. Is there a way to make both switches work in the current set up

doubtful. unlee syiu use some form of smart tech. e.g. quinetic.

 

[SJD]

It is not uncommon for someone to have fitted a 2-gang switch in the landing before checking the wiring will actually support 2-way switching. And for some reason, after finding it doesn't they don't swap it back to a 1-gang, but leave it there, perhaps in the optimistic hope someone will tell then how to get it working.

To get it working (wired), you need a 3-core cable adding between the upstairs switch and the downstairs switch. Despite there being more cables than usual at the upstairs switch, there are not sufficient at the downstairs switch to make it work as currently wired.

From the age of the house, and assuming solid walls, likely the existing cable between the two switches is in metal conduit. So possibly you could pull in an additional cable in the switch drop downstairs (to the ceiling) and from the floor upstairs to the switch (if that is how it is wired). You'll need to pull up floorboards. I've done this a few times, in exactly the situation you have.

There are non-wired ways of switching nowadays. e.g. with receivers at the lighting points, and remote controls (which can be wall-mounted and look like a switch) or portable (like a small appliance remote), as an alternative.

 

[Fazse]

It is not uncommon for someone to have fitted a 2-gang switch in the landing before checking the wiring will actually support 2-way switching. And for some reason, after finding it doesn't they don't swap it back to a 1-gang, but leave it there, perhaps in the optimistic hope someone will tell then how to get it working.

To get it working (wired), you need a 3-core cable adding between the upstairs switch and the downstairs switch. Despite there being more cables than usual at the upstairs switch, there are not sufficient at the downstairs switch to make it work as currently wired.

From the age of the house, and assuming solid walls, likely the existing cable between the two switches is in metal conduit. So possibly you could pull in an additional cable in the switch drop downstairs (to the ceiling) and from the floor upstairs to the switch (if that is how it is wired). You'll need to pull up floorboards. I've done this a few times, in exactly the situation you have.

There are non-wired ways of switching nowadays. e.g. with receivers at the lighting points, and remote controls (which can be wall-mounted and look like a switch) or portable (like a small appliance remote), as an alternative.

The house does have metal conduit. I will probably just replace the upstairs switch to a single gang.

Thank you all for your replies