Connecting Multiple Circuit Boxes
Academy Trade Electric students learn in-demand skill
Take a look at Long Island’s future electricians. These students in Christopher Silva’s class at Ward Tech spent the day practicing how to make back-to-back, 90-degree bends with box offsets. This means they are learning to connect multiple boxes (switches) on the same circuit so that more than one switch can control the same light fixture.
In commercial electrical work, wires are run through metal pipes between circuit boxes. This requires precise measurements to bend and cut the pipe into “U”-shaped angles (known as sub bends), ensuring the pipes are straight and the bends are on the same plane.
This skill is essential when you want to turn lights on and off from various locations around a room or at the bottom and top of staircases. “What if you needed three switches or 30 to control the same light? This is how you would do that,” explained Silva.
The Eastern Long Island Academy of Applied Technology, referred to as the Academy, is the Career and Technical Education Program of Eastern Suffolk BOCES, with locations in Bellport, Oakdale, and Riverhead. Ward is located on the Riverhead campus.