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?

Answer 1

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.

Answer 2

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.

Answer 3

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.

Answer 4

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.

Answer 5

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.

Answer 6

To add a separate fixture and switch, you can install a new cable from the existing switch box to the new fixture location. Connect the hot wire from the existing switch to one terminal of the new switch, and connect the new fixture to the new switch. Make sure to properly ground all connections and consult a professional if unsure of the wiring process.