Talk:Carter system

Whoooooh doggie!!! Are you ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN that California 3-ways are prohibited? Don't you think it's more likely that you're confusing a California 3 way with something else? A California 3-way does NOT have to switch the neutral!!! LP-mn (talk) 01:27, 25 February 2009 (UTC)

The next-to-last entry on this page: Has a good illustration of a CALIFORNIA 3-way. 11-10-2008, 05:57 AM Billy_Bob Senior Member  Join Date: Apr 2008 Posts: 250
 * http://www.terrylove.com/forums/showthread.php?t=24496

"California" 3 way with lights at both ends of run... [IMAGE HERE] Sure it's non-intuitive, but it's not illegal.

I still don't know what a "Carter Sytem" is. LP-mn (talk) 17:54, 25 February 2009 (UTC)


 * It appears the Wikipedia article may be wrong and that that a Coast 3-way/California 3-way is not the same was the Carter system 3-way. The message thread http://www.electriciantalk.com/f2/three-way-switching-standard-coast-carter-2229/ appears to give a reasonable explanation.  In that thread, it's explained that a Coast/California system is weird but legal, but the Carter system has been against NEC since 1923 because one of the "on" positions effectively swaps the hot and neutral wires, providing hot on the "neutral" wire of the light (and therefore the shell of the light?) instead of on the proper "hot" wire, and one of the "off" positions works by running hot on both wires of the light.  The post by 480sparky (dated 03-08-2008, 08:10 PM) in that thread has pictures of the Carter system. --Closeapple (talk) 04:25, 26 February 2009 (UTC)