Adding a switch and new lights to a circuit?

mj876

Hey i've currently got a circuit that feeds to my light switch and runs to 3 pot lights from there. I was wondering how i can add another switch and 2 new lights on the same circuit? So right now it goes Feed/switch/light/light/light. The new switch and 2 lights are going to be in a separate room. Thanks for your time.

jbfan

You must feed the new switch from the feed to the old switch to make it work.

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mj876

I would just run a 2 wire from the existing switch to the new switch controlling 2 seperate lights? So at the switch being fed with power im going to have 3 black and 3 whites all together and pig tailed to the switch? I haven't added a seperate switch and lights for another room to an exisiting circuit before sorry.

jbfan

If you have that many wires in the box you may have a problem with box fill.
Are you counting the switch leg when you say 3 blacks and 3 whites?

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mj876

Right now at my switch i've got the power feeding in and the black and white going to the light. In order for me to take the feed to my other switch in the other room what must i do at the original feed switch? Thanks.

AllanJ

The new cable going off to the new switch and lights comes in wo where the feed is, here, the existing switch box.

Black of the new cable connects to black of the feed. Now you cannot put both the feed and the new black under the same screw on the switch so you need to use a pigtail, that is cut a short length of wire to connect to the switch and the other end and the new cable black and the feed black are then connected together.

White of the new cable connects to white of the feed. This part is easy, just join together all the whites.

Black going off to the old lights stays connected to the old switch.

Now this is easier said than done. It is possible you cannot stuff all those wires into the box and also put back the existing switch. You might need to take everything apart and install a bigger box. To meet code you need 18 cubic inches of space inside the box.

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