How To Wire a 12V Lighting Circuit With 2 Way Switching

2 Comments1 May 2024

Light Up Your Life With This Simple 12V Lighting Circuit Guide!

  • Easy to follow wiring diagram
  • Step-by-step wiring instructions

Are you struggling with wiring lighting in your conversion? This guide will walk you through creating a 12V lighting circuit with 2 way switching, allowing you to control a light from two separate locations in your vehicle or boat. It's perfect for installing LED accent or ceiling lighting in your campervan, boat, or motorhome.


Wiring diagram

Below is the wiring diagram showing how you would connect a 2-way switching system:

Important: For this application you must use ON/ON switches. These are switches that can switch either one circuit or another, but have no central OFF position. If you use ON/OFF/ON switches and leave one switch in the OFF position, you won't then be able to control it from the other switch.

A suitable switch for this would be our mini rocker switch with product code P02078


5 simple wiring steps

  1. Take a +12V supply from your battery to a fuse, then to the centre terminal of the 1st switch.
  2. Wire from the top terminal of the 1st switch to the top terminal of the 2nd switch
  3. Wire from the bottom terminal of the 1st switch to the bottom terminal of the 2nd switch
  4. Wire from the centre terminal of the 2nd switch to the +12V wire on your lights
  5. Connect the -ve cable from your lights back to the -ve terminal on your battery, fuse box, or busbar.

In this setup, when either switch is flicked in one direction, the circuit will feed power to your lights (or turn them off if flicked in the other direction), so you can turn the lights on from one switch, and turn them off from the other (and vice versa).

Tip: for steps 2 & 3 above, it doesn't actually matter whether the switch terminals are wired top to top, or top to bottom, but it's easier to visualise as shown in the diagram.

We hope that you find this information useful!


Duncan Chappell
01 May 2024  |  18:04

Horses for courses but worth a mention if it suits a particular build.....a latching relay (like the one you sell) and 'momentary switches' as light switches also works in a simple fashion for 12v in a van.


Paul
16 August 2024  |  9:48

Hi Duncan. This is indeed also an option, but I think it would be an expensive one compared with the above method.

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