Wiring question

[George Bregar]

I have a three gang box that will have three single pole switches in it, and I am bringing the power in on one 20A circuit. No problem bringing power to each of the loads, just pigtailing the power black to the switches, and the load black off each switch. Tie all the load neutrals to the power neutral. The question I have is how to ground the switches and the loads. I can only put four #12 in the wire nuts I have. Can I use two pigtails like the attached?

[Don Jarvie]

I'll be interested in the answer. I have a similar situation where I have 3 switches for lights. I just tied the grounds together similar to the whites so the circuit stayed grounded. From what I read it seemed to be the appropriate way to do it.

[Justin M Rovang]

I'm a little confused by the diagram, you need to have 3 different hots going to the switches - that diagram indicates just one possible, unless you wanted 3 switches in the same box for the same leg

To clarify what you want:
To use 1, 20A circuit to power 3 fixtures, with each fixture having it's own switch - having all 3 switches located next to each other in the same box.

If that's the case take a look at this; (I'm not an EE, but I've used this before)

The jumpers between the switches might be a bit confusing - but the hots/grounds are in parallel.

The only wire nut you use are to bring the 3 fixture whites together with the circuit white (4 wires, 1 nut) - You could also do this with the grounds.

[Tom Godley]

If I have ganged switches that must be grounded - I loop them all together with one wire starting at the far switch - you end up with one wire. You can then tie that into the ground from the feed along with a pigtail out to the three for the lights. So three and four.

[George Bregar]

I'm a little confused by the diagram, you need to have 3 different hots going to the switches - that diagram indicates just one possible, unless you wanted 3 switches in the same box for the same leg

To clarify what you want:
To use 1, 20A circuit to power 3 fixtures, with each fixture having it's own switch - having all 3 switches located next to each other in the same box.

If that's the case take a look at this; (I'm not an EE, but I've used this before)

The jumpers between the switches might be a bit confusing - but the hots/grounds are in parallel.

The only wire nut you use are to bring the 3 fixture whites together with the circuit white (4 wires, 1 nut) - You could also do this with the grounds.

The diagram is the grounds only...read my post, I know what to do with the hot and neutrals. I went ahead and di what I diagrammed since at the time their were no posts. The ground off the power feed was pigtailed to the three load grounds and the three switches.

[Jim O'Dell]

It looks from your diagram that you ran the input wire from the breaker to the switch first, then to the item that was being turned on by the switch. I think that is ok to do, and did so with my 2 florescent light circuits being that the switches were about 2' from the main panel and it took less wire that way. But it is more normal to take the input wire from the breaker and go to the item being switched first, (say a light bulb) then run a wire to the switch to loop the hot (black) wire. That way you don't end up with too many connections inside the switch box.
Take this with a grain of salt, as I'm not an electrician. IIRC, I did run my situation past a master electrician to make sure it was safe. Jim.

[George Bregar]

It looks from your diagram that you ran the input wire from the breaker to the switch first, then to the item that was being turned on by the switch. I think that is ok to do, and did so with my 2 florescent light circuits being that the switches were about 2' from the main panel and it took less wire that way. But it is more normal to take the input wire from the breaker and go to the item being switched first, (say a light bulb) then run a wire to the switch to loop the hot (black) wire. That way you don't end up with too many connections inside the switch box.
Take this with a grain of salt, as I'm not an electrician. IIRC, I did run my situation past a master electrician to make sure it was safe. Jim.

No the power hot I pigtailed to each of the three switches. Off the switch each of the load hots. Tied the three load neutrals to the power neutral. I pigtailed the power ground to each of the three awitches and to each of load grounds. The diagram is the grounds only. Make sense?

[Rob Russell]

It looks from your diagram that you ran the input wire from the breaker to the switch first, then to the item that was being turned on by the switch. I think that is ok to do, and did so with my 2 florescent light circuits being that the switches were about 2' from the main panel and it took less wire that way. But it is more normal to take the input wire from the breaker and go to the item being switched first, (say a light bulb) then run a wire to the switch to loop the hot (black) wire. That way you don't end up with too many connections inside the switch box.
Take this with a grain of salt, as I'm not an electrician. IIRC, I did run my situation past a master electrician to make sure it was safe. Jim.

It's actually very common to run power from the circuit breaker to a switch and then out to the actual load device. One time you would have power going to the device first is if the device is physically closer to the panelboard than the switch. When I wired our addition, the vast majority of the circuits were wired breaker-switch-device.

[Rob Russell]

No the power hot I pigtailed to each of the three switches. Off the switch each of the load hots. Tied the three load neutrals to the power neutral. I pigtailed the power ground to each of the three awitches and to each of load grounds. The diagram is the grounds only. Make sense?

Makes sense and should work just fine. If your 3-gang box is metal, you would have wanted to install one of the green grounding screws and have a grounding conductor landed under the grounding screw.

[Dave Wagner]

When we had our old house re-wired, our electrician used some of these, and I have used them too. If you need more connections than a wire nut can hold. They work well.

http://www.idealindustries.com/prodD...-in&l2=in-sure

[George Bregar]

Makes sense and should work just fine. If your 3-gang box is metal, you would have wanted to install one of the green grounding screws and have a grounding conductor landed under the grounding screw.

Thanks Rob. 3 Gang is a Carlon Super Blue so no grounding need. Went with the Super Blue because it is more rigid which I thought important for a three gang box. It's also large so all the wires and the three switches fit easily.