The answer to how it works is to have an extra hot wire that runs between the two switch boxes. If you intend to add multiple lights with a 3 way switch use the 3 way switch for multiple lights diagram.

2 Way Switch Wiring Diagram Fig 1 Two Wiring Diagrams
How to wire multiple lights on a 3 way switch. Wiring multiple lights on a 3 way switch. The hot source is connected to the common terminal of sw1. The steps above describe installing a 3 way switch and provide a 3 way switch diagram utilizing one light fixture. With a pair of 3 way switches either can make or break the connection that completes the circuit to the light. This circuit is wired the same way as the 3 way lights at this link. 3 way switched outlet wiring.
Click the icons below to get our nec compliant electrical calc elite or electric toolkit available for android and ios. Wiring a 3 way switch isnt that difficult. In this diagram two 3 way switches control a wall receptacle outlet that may be used to control a lamp from two entrances to a room. The most important rationale is that there are several ways that a three way switch can be wired. Three wire cable runs between the switches and the outlet. You can do this light switch wiring in one of two ways.
Wiring a 3 way light switch is certainly more complicated than that of the more common single pole switch but you can figure it out if you follow our 3 way switch wiring diagram. The other way to wire multiple lights to one switch is to connect all of them directly to the switch in a home run configuration. The most common is to daisy chain the light fixtures by connecting them to each other and hooking the first one up to the switch. Two 2 wire cables c3 and c4 run between the fixtures and a 3 wire cable c2 runs from the second fixture f2 to the second 3 way switch sw2. In other words a 3 way switch is made up of one light thats controlled by two separate switches. Wiring a 3 way light switch.
3 way switch diagrams for multiple light fixtures. 3 way switch diagram multiple light between switches 2 pdf 79kb back to wiring diagrams home. It is true that there are several wiring configurations for wiring 3 way light switches and all of the wiring configurations will depend on where the incoming circuit power is located and once that is identified the rest of the three way wiring connections are straight forward. Wiring a 3 way switch with multiple lights in this circuit two light fixtures are shown but more can be added by duplicating the wiring arrangement between the fixtures for each additional light. Here the source is at the first switch sw1 and 3 wire cable runs from there to the first light l1. The electrical calc elite is designed to solve many of your common code based electrical calculations like wire sizes voltage drop conduit sizing etc.