Switching Old Light Switches With New Ones

[Dave Duke]

Hi I tried to swap old switches for news ones only the new ones differ,the new ones have 6 points of connection l1 l2 and c top and bottom( twin switches obviously).these are on the stairs the bottom one I swapped OK but there top one is slightly different it Has two com connecters at the top but the bottom four connections are unmarked giving me no clue what to do hope this makes sense to someone who knows cheers

 

[ProDave]

the 4 bottom ones will be L1 and L2 for each of the com's above.  It doesn't matter which way round you connect L1 and L2

 

[poni]

could be 3 top and 3 bottom (C,L1,L2 top and L2,L1,C bottom)

All the right notes but not necessarily in the right order

 

[Lurch]

could be 3 top and 3 bottom (C,L1,L2 top and L2,L1,C bottom)

Which is exactly what the other switches are he refers to in his OP.

 

[Doc Hudson]

Hi I tried to swap old switches for news ones only the new ones differ,the new ones have 6 points of connection l1 l2 and c top and bottom( twin switches obviously).these are on the stairs the bottom one I swapped OK but there top one is slightly different it Has two com connectors at the top but the bottom four connections are unmarked giving me no clue what to do hope this makes sense to someone who knows cheers

As long as you know which one is the 'C' (common) connection then one of your wires must go onto this terminal. If either of the other two are wired back to front, then the switch will still work, but it may appear to operate in the opposite direction to the old one. e.g. up was off now up is on and vice versa with the down position.

Doc H.