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Starting at the switch, with one set of three wires coming in from the service panel and one set of three wires going out to the frist light. Usually you would have a black wire for hot, white for neutral and a bare wire for ground. --The black wire coming in and the black wire going out are fastened to the screws on the side of the switch. one on each scerw. You can use either wire for either screw but not the odd green screw that is for ground. --The two white wires are wire nutted together. --The two bare wires are twisted together and are also fastened to the odd Green screw. Some building codes require a small metal ring that looks likes a brass farrow to be used to crimp the to ground wires together. -----At the light box; --The black wires will all be wire nutted together. There should be three black wires, one from the switch, one to go out to the next light and one from the light fixture. --The three white wires like the black all get wire nutted together. One coming from the switch, one going out to the next light and one from the light fixture. --The two bare ground wires get twisted together and fastened also to a green ground screw. This green grounding screw may be on a metal bar that the light fixture is mounted to. ----Just repet the above for each light you are going to install. At the last light you will do the same, but will have one less wire of each color to hook up.

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16y ago
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8y ago
for USA, Canada and countries running a 60 Hz supply service.

1. On a 120 volt system in which the house is located in the United States, how do I wire a light switch that only has one point which will control the device?

A: (TURN OFF THE CIRCUIT FIRST) In order to wire this switch, we'll assume you are not running a completely new circuit, instead you are tapping off of a nearby receptacle or other power supply.

With Romex cable, inside the box where the switch is or will be, optimally you should have all black, all white and all copper individual wires. The neutral (white), you want to wire nut all of them together and bury them in the back of the box.

Second, you want to do the same with the grounds (complete copper or green wires) with the exception of this: You have to check what type of box it is in which the switch has been or will be placed.

1. If it is a metal box then you will need two ends (or very small pieces of same colored wire) coming out of your grounds wire nut. These are called pig tails. One end will go from wire nut to switch. The other wire end will be attached to the metal box via a green ground screw.

2. If the box is a non metal, plastic box, then everything is the same with the exception that instead of two wire ends coming from your grounds' wire nut, there will only be one end that will emerge. Take this end and screw it onto your switch itself where the dedicated ground screw is located on that switch. Usually it is a green screw on the switch itself. That's the spot where you will land the end of your ground wire.

Now that the grounded and grounding conductors (Grounds and neutrals) are finished, we are left with the task of your hot conductor and the switched leg (the screws on the switch itself are usually gold colored screws), unless your box has more than two Romex cables entering it. Then, you have to take a volt meter and determine which wire is the constant hot. In the case of the wire going toward the light, make sure if you are the one who ran the wire from switch to device, you have the black wire (switch leg) marked. If not, you have opened up a can of worms.

When multiple wires are entering a box, the most important wire to separate from all the other black wires is your switched leg. Your other black wires are (90% of the time) loads and one feed. Wire nut the feed and loads all together with a 6" pig tail coming out of your wire nut going toward one of the two screws dedicated for hot conductors. Land your feed (6"pig tail you just made) on one of these screws and your wire headed to/from your device (I have been assuming it is a light) on the other. You're done.

In summation:

Turn off the circuit which is responsible for powering the switch (or proposed switch).

Wire nut all white wires with no pig tails.

Determine if your box is metallic or plastic.

Cut one or two 6 inch pieces of wire colored green or bare copper.

Grab the (those) cut piece(s) and all the grounds in the box.

Wire nut them together where you will have one or two small pieces of wire coming from where the wire nut is at. (The wire nut that connects all your grounds.)

Land the 6" piece(s) in its (their) appropriate place(s) as described above.

Land one black wire (or hot conductor) on one of the gold screws.

Twist screw with wire underneath tightly.

Repeat the previous two steps with your other black wire remaining.

Turn on the circuit which controls the switch you were working on.

Enjoy controlling the device that prior to you working on it, had power continuously.

Please take extreme caution when working with electricity, as it can kill you. All it takes is 5 milliamp and you could die. If you feel for any reason that you or others may be hurt off of this project, then by all means contact a licensed electrician.

<><><>

As always, if you are in doubt about what to do, the best advice anyone should give you is to call a licensed electrician to advise what work is needed.

Before you do any work yourself,

on electrical circuits, equipment or appliances,

always use a test meter to ensure the circuit is, in fact, de-energized.

IF YOU ARE NOT ALREADY SURE YOU CAN DO THIS JOB

SAFELY AND COMPETENTLY

REFER THIS WORK TO QUALIFIED PROFESSIONALS.

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18y ago

It all depends on where the live power is at (the switch or at the light). If power is at the switch, put the black wires on the switch and tie the whites together (assuming there are only 2 cable assemblies in the box). If power is at the light it becomes a little tricky, which I won't go into here.

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13y ago
Answer for USA, Canada and countries running a 60 Hz supply service.Most times you can't feed your load only from the switch because it doesn't have a neutral.

If there are no existing power outlet branch circuits nearby you'd have to consider connecting into the existing light fixture, which is where the hot feed and neutral wires should be.

<><><>

If you are lucky - and by lucky I mean the cable to the switch isn't stapled in the wall (which is very unlikely) - you can use the old cable to pull through a new piece of 14-3 cable to get the neutral in the box that you will need to be able to power a new switched outlet.

A new cable is needed because, as well as the "unswitched hot" and the "switched-hot return" to the light fixture, the box must have a full power service including Hot (Black), Neutral (White) and Ground (Bare Wire).

However, to do this job safely, there are several things you must first check:

  • Do your local wiring codes allow you to fit a new socket outlet in the intended place?
  • Is the breaker protecting the lighting circuit not already overloaded by its existing lights and any extra outlets that are already in place?
  • Will the load to be applied to the new outlet be no more than 5 amps?

    Even if the new outlet is to be the normal 15 amp size, a higher load current (amperage) than 5 amps could dangerously overload the existing wire size of the lighting circuit.

    Such overloading is a common cause of house fires!

Do the following:

1. Turn off the breaker controlling the switch.

2. Remove the switch from the box.

3. Identify the supply Hot Black Wire (Call it B1)

4. Remove B1 from switch and label in some way so you'll remember what it is.

5. Undo the wirenut in the box which will typically have two white wires unless the box is also being used as a junction box and there may be more than 2 white wires.

6. Get a piece of the same gauge white wire long enough to reach the new outlet to make a new pigtail - strip about 3/4 in from each end - and add it to the bundle of white wires connected together. (You may need a bigger wire nut.) Make sure that all wires are solidly connected.

7. Make two black wire pigtails long enough to reach the new switch and outlet and connect one end of one of them to wire B1 using a wirenut.

8. Connect that black wire pigtail to one terminal of the new switch and the other black wire pigtail to the terminal on the outlet that has a brass-colored screw.

9. Connect the new white wire pigtail to the terminal with the silver-colored screw on the outlet.

10. Connect the black wire from the new outlet to the terminal on the other side of the new switch.

11. Make a new ground pigtail and connect it from the bare wire in the box to the green screw on the new outlet.

Warnings

Make sure all connections are tight and no bare wires are exposed.

Make sure you have identified the supply B1 wire correctly. If not you will create a switched outlet as well as whatever you were switching before.

<><><>

As always, if you are in doubt about what to do, the best advice anyone should give you is to call a licensed electrician to advise what work is needed.

Before you do any work yourself,

on electrical circuits, equipment or appliances,

always use a test meter to ensure the circuit is, in fact, de-energized.

IF YOU ARE NOT ALREADY SURE YOU CAN DO THIS JOB

SAFELY AND COMPETENTLY

REFER THIS WORK TO QUALIFIED PROFESSIONALS.

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9y ago

It depends on where the feed to the two lights comes from. If the second light is fed parallel with the first light just isolate the second feeder from the first light. If the two lights are feed from the switch box, isolate the light from the switch that you do not want to operate.

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Q: How do you add a separate fixture along with a separate switch from an existing switch which has only 2 hot wires coming from the wall that are attached to the 1st switch?
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How do you add another porch light to an existing switch?

Piggyback off the box for the existing light. Run a wire from the existing junction box to a new junction box (which is placed wherever you want the new fixture). Then, in the existing box, connect the wire coming from the switch, the wire for the existing fixture, and the wire for the new fixture together using wire nuts. Wire up the new fixture, and presto, you have two fixtures on a switch where there was only one before.


Outside porch lamp has no box just two wires coming in black wires are tied and don't connect to fixture just the white wires what is going on here?

You would have to provide more info to be certain what your problem is. Typically a black and white wire would connect to the two wires on the light fixture. The fixture should also be controlled by a switch that "breaks" the black (Hot Wire) to turn off the fixture. If you have a volt meter you can see if there is 120Volts between the black and white wires with switch on. If there is a single white wire going to fixture (Neutral), where is the "black wires tied" to. Maybe one of the black wires has broken off the fixture.


How do you wire 2 new lights with on-off switches using wires coming from an existing outlet?

You can attach/splice into the power feed to outlet (ways of doing this can vary with how the outlet is wired but make sure that all or part of the outlet isn't controlled by an existing switch). You can then take the hot, neutral and ground to a light fixture or to the first switch, then to the second switch. It is normally easier to do this project by taking power to the light (s) first, with 2 wire drops to the switches, from basement or attic.


How do you replace dining room light fixture?

If you don't know how to install light fixture, I don't recommend that you do it by yourself. The installation theory is actually very simple - all you need to do is attach fixture on the ceiling (or any other place) and then connect the electrical wires (usually there are two of them). After that it's good to put the light cover over the fixture to improve the appearance.


What can a buzzing sound coming from the ceiling in the hallway be?

Can you please login and edit this to say exactly what type of light fixture you have on your hall ceiling? That might help you to get an even better than the one below, which is very good considering how little information we were given... If the buzzing is coming from a light fixture, it could be that the light fixture has a BALLAST and some BALLASTs do hum somewhat, sometimes loudly when they go bad. If the noise is more like eggs frying on a pan, (with sizzling sounds) then you may have a dangerous electrical condition that could start a fire called an arc-fault.If this is the case, the power should be turned off right away and investigated by a licensed electrician.

Related questions

How do you add another porch light to an existing switch?

Piggyback off the box for the existing light. Run a wire from the existing junction box to a new junction box (which is placed wherever you want the new fixture). Then, in the existing box, connect the wire coming from the switch, the wire for the existing fixture, and the wire for the new fixture together using wire nuts. Wire up the new fixture, and presto, you have two fixtures on a switch where there was only one before.


How do you wire in a pull chain switch in a bathroom light fixture?

If you are adding the pull chain to an existing fixture then the pull chain switch should have two wires. Wire nut either one to the hot wire coming in and the other to the black wire of the fixture.


How do you add a motion sensor to an existing outdoor light fixture?

A typical motion detector has three wire on it. Black, White and Red. To install this on an outside light it get wired as follows. The White wire is the Neutral. It gets attached to the White feed wire and the white wire that hoed to the light. The Black wire feed power to the motion detector. It attached to the Black feed wire coming from the house. The Red wire on the motion detector is the switched wire. It get attached to the black wire coming from the light fixture. -------- Is the existing light fixture a decorative one? I ask because having been in security biz for long time, it's important to know the difference YOU WANT in your motion light (from a regular decorative fixture.) The purpose of a motion sensored light - for security purposes - is to startle the perp. when a bright light suddenly shines on him. You want him to think you're inside and you turned the light on him so he will run for the hills. Criminals don't like to get caught in the spot light or encounter homeowners. So that light should be VERY Bright and light up the space like daytime. You need a bright flood light, directed to cover a specific entrance area or door. You want it pointed down over the area so he is forced to put himself right where the light will hit him which is going to be close to the door or entrance he plans on using to enter the house. If light shines up and across a distance, it is easy to duck under it and move among the shadows. Any other type of fixture will not give you the results you want.


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Outside porch lamp has no box just two wires coming in black wires are tied and don't connect to fixture just the white wires what is going on here?

You would have to provide more info to be certain what your problem is. Typically a black and white wire would connect to the two wires on the light fixture. The fixture should also be controlled by a switch that "breaks" the black (Hot Wire) to turn off the fixture. If you have a volt meter you can see if there is 120Volts between the black and white wires with switch on. If there is a single white wire going to fixture (Neutral), where is the "black wires tied" to. Maybe one of the black wires has broken off the fixture.


How do you wire 2 new lights with on-off switches using wires coming from an existing outlet?

You can attach/splice into the power feed to outlet (ways of doing this can vary with how the outlet is wired but make sure that all or part of the outlet isn't controlled by an existing switch). You can then take the hot, neutral and ground to a light fixture or to the first switch, then to the second switch. It is normally easier to do this project by taking power to the light (s) first, with 2 wire drops to the switches, from basement or attic.


when replacing your fixture on a yard post light that now shocks you when barefoot and the wire has been replaced to ensure no nicks what could cause this?

First of all put your shoes on. You never see electricians working in their bare feet. This bit of insulation from the soles of your shoes could save your life one day. What you are feeling is leakage current. The yard post fixture should have a ground wire attachment point where an external ground wire should be attached. It sounds like yours is not attached. This wire should go to a ground rod at the post position. If there is no room for a ground rod and the fixture is fed from under ground feed from a distribution panel, check to see if there is in ground wire in the conduit feeding it. If the ground wire is connected at the fixture end check the distribution end and make sure it is connected there. The leakage is coming from the ballast, as a last resort if the grounding is all intact you will have to change the ballast out. If you know an electrician ask him if he would megger the ballast to establish if the ballast is at fault.


How do you connect a White Black Green wired device to household White Black Red ground light outlet?

If there is a red wire in the fixture box it sounds like the fixture is three way switched. The travelers are coming from one of the two switches and the cable is going to the second switch.See related links below.


How do you replace dining room light fixture?

If you don't know how to install light fixture, I don't recommend that you do it by yourself. The installation theory is actually very simple - all you need to do is attach fixture on the ceiling (or any other place) and then connect the electrical wires (usually there are two of them). After that it's good to put the light cover over the fixture to improve the appearance.