Light switch wiring for two lights

[HRJoe]

Probably dumb question, but how I wired my two egress lights seems to be confusing the inspector...

Per code, I have to have a light above both man doors of my pole building, both on opposite ends of each other in the building. The switch was somewhat centrally located, so I brought both lights' wiring back to the switch box instead of daisy chaining one light from the other...

Is there a reason I can't do this?

 

[marklc]

Only issue is if box isn't sized large enough for the amount of conductors you have in it. Or that he may want the light switches close to the doors. Might be a building code where you live?

 

[HRJoe]

My light location is fine. His issue, while looking at rough wiring only, is he thought I was somehow backfeeding...but I'm not. The breaker side comes up to bottom of switch and then I just fed both lights off the top of the same switch using tail / yellow wirenuts.

And it's a double gang smart box, so I don't think it's a space problem.

More typically, I see one light fed directly from the switch, then subsequent lights daisy chained from the previous light. At least that's how most schematics are drawn. But what I've done works just fine...unless there's a code issue I don't get.

 

[Falcon67]

IMHO - Why would anyone run a wire from a central switch to one end of the building, then another wire all the way back across the building - gigantic waste of material.

 

[HRJoe]

IMHO - Why would anyone run a wire from a central switch to one end of the building, then another wire all the way back across the building - gigantic waste of material.

Right, that was what I was thinking.


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[checkthisout]

Probably dumb question, but how I wired my two egress lights seems to be confusing the inspector...

Per code, I have to have a light above both man doors of my pole building, both on opposite ends of each other in the building. The switch was somewhat centrally located, so I brought both lights' wiring back to the switch box instead of daisy chaining one light from the other...

Is there a reason I can't do this?

What do you mean when you say "confusing to the inspector".

Was it failed?

Did you mean to say that he's confused by your decision to operate the lights from a central switch that isn't close to either door?

 

[HRJoe]

What do you mean when you say "confusing to the inspector".

Was it failed?

Did you mean to say that he's confused by your decision to operate the lights from a central switch that isn't close to either door?

Yes it failed, but for multiple BS reasons, not just this one. I can get to the others later...

I think he's confused
a) because I don't have two separate switches for the two lights
b) I fed two lights from same switch box
c) said something about backfeeding, which makes no sense

The switch location is much closer to the front man door, however, it'd still be a waste of wire to feed the back door light from the front door box. And for me to fix it, I think I'd really have to waste some wire (that I already ran).

 

[marklc]

Seems like your inspector is a newbie or is a little under qualified to be doing inspections at least for electrical. I know in my area instead of having specific inspectors for different trades they have one general one that does everything. I often wonder why someone is checking my work that has less education and experience, or sadly no experience in the electrical field but took a 6 week course to learn everything. LOL