Dry wall is why God gave me friends who are actually good at it. Dry wall and painting just are not among things I like doing or are good at. Running new electric, yes. Currently nearing completion of a garage and as soon as it is finished I'll run the electric before insulation and dry wall goes in. As we have gone through this house ripping old walls and insulation out I have replaced all the old knob and tube wiring. Room by room and square foot by square foot. Amazing what we found in the walls and more amazing the place never burned down.

As of the NEC 2011 Article 404.2 requires a neutral in all switch boxes. The logic here is more and more electronic devices are being used in switch boxes with lighting sensors, occupancy control sensors and similar which require a neutral. What people started doing was using the Ground wire as a neutral which is a bad. My book is a NEC 2008 which does not list it as a requirement but every three years the code is updated and the 2011 NEC covers it.

Knob and Tube
View attachment 137215

It's always easy before the walls are done.


Ron

My wife and I own a building in town which was built around 1920. It's up to code now, but the basement still has a few unused "knob and tube"
posts. It's no surprise that the floor joists show a little charring around a couple of them. There must have been a minor fire at some point
in the building's history.

 

My wife and I own a building in town which was built around 1920. It's up to code now, but the basement still has a few unused "knob and tube"
posts. It's no surprise that the floor joists show a little charring around a couple of them. There must have been a minor fire at some point
in the building's history.

Been there and saw that. My father in law actually daisy chained outlets using lamp zip cord (AWG 18) which started a fire in a wall. He also just cut holes and nailed outlets into walls. As my wife and I were ripping walls out I found where a fire had started. Then there was the sawzall through a wall with wires in it day. Before my wife's mom passed away she was on constant oxygen. I wasn't kidding when I said it was a miracle this place never burned to the ground. After we began dating I made her dad promise he would not attempt to do anything electrical.

Hopefully this basement project will go well for you.

Ron

 

Thanks to everyone for your replies. Turns out Insteon has a switch (i.e. 2477S) which can be "grouped" with other similar switches.
If, as I understand it, each independently acts as either source or responder, then the problem is reduced to two simple circuits working
in tandem. No isolation transformers or other irritants, so it should work. Special thanks to crutschow for getting thinking about the
approach. And, if it doesn't, I still own a sledge hammer.