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Pilot Light Switch?

2K views 3 replies 3 participants last post by  joed 
#1 ·
Trying to wire in a pilot light for the cellar. The pre-existing single-pole light switch was on a switch loop, so the hot coming in is on the white wire. What I did was splice the older 14/2 wire at a junction box in the floor joists to a short line of 14/3 up to where the switch is.

So first, at the junction box, I spliced the 14/2 white (hot) to the 14/3 black wire running up to the new pilot switch. Then I tied the 14/2 black (which was originally the neutral running back from the original switch) to the 14/3 white and the 14/3 red.

Then, at the switch I put the 14/3 black (the hot which I tied to the white switch loop wire) on the copper screw, the red on the silver, and the white on one of the blacks with the tab intact. The lights turn on down cellar but the red pilot light does not turn on. It stays off regardless of whether the switch is on or off.

Any thoughts? Thanks
 
#2 · (Edited)
The 14-2 black is not a neutral. It carries the hot under switch control to the light. The 14-2 white is hot not under switch control.

You need a "real" neutral for the pilot light and it must be the same neutral that serves the light itself. So you need to run 14-3 all the way from the light fixture to the switch. (The 14-2 to the switch is abandoned or removed.)

The white of the new 14-3 to the switch is the neutral and connects to the white to the light fixture. One colored wire (red or black) of the 14-3 connects to the black that used to be connected to the white of the 14-2 to the switch. The other colored wire of the 14-3 connects to the black to the light fixture. Down at the switch the red and black wires connect to the switch terminals (gold or black).
 
#3 ·
Thanks, AllanJ, but something is still up.:huh:

Here is where I am now:

I ran 14/3 all the way from the switch to the light fixture in the cellar. (That light fixture, by the way, is tied in with two other bulbs in other parts of the cellar.)

BUT the way I have it now the pilot light is on full time, though the light switch is working to turn the lights on and off.

At the light switch I have:
14/3 Black attached to one of the two black screws tied together with the tab.
14/3 White attached to the silver screw opposite the pilot light.
14/3 Red attached to the brass screw opposite the switch.

At the light fixture:
14/3 Black is tied to the black bringing power into the ceramic light fixture box.
14/3 white is tied (1) to the white jumper going to the ceramic light base, (2) to the white neutral coming in from the power source, and (3) to the white going out to the next bulb over on the other side of the cellar.
14/3 red is tied (1) to the black jumper going to the ceramic light base, and (2) to the black going out to the next bulb over on the other side of the cellar.

This is a Cooper 277 switch.
 
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