AboutJ Cook Expertise General electrical wiring, including but not limited to, residential, panelboards, control wiring, low voltage wiring, Heating and A/C control wiring, single and three phase wiring.
Experience I have been doing electrical since high school. I have been licensed by the State of North Carolina for ten years and am currently the Building Maintenance Superintendent for a municipality. I have extensive control wiring experience.
Organizations Refrigeration Service Engineers Society.
Question I bought a house and in one of the room there was no ceiling fixtures. You will know that the old fixture was taken by the former owner as the wirings are exposed. There was two main wire... each wire has three small wires colered white, black and copper. I tried to put a new ceiling fixtures but could not make it work. I tried to put all the white wires together, the blacks and the copper, but it did'nt work. I was informed that this house has a three way wiring set up (not sure what does it mean). Anyway, my question is, how should I wired my new fixtres? what combination? I have no way to identify the 'hot wires' from the other. Please help. Appreciate your help.
Answer Hello Leon. One of these is the power wire and the other should be a switch leg. Try connecting a light to just one set of the wires. Black to black, white to white and the bare copper to the light ground. Now turn the circuit back on. If it does not light, try the other set. When the circuit is cut back on this time, if the light does not work, you need to get a volt meter to check for voltage at the wires themselves. If you do identify the hot wires that make the light work and there is a switch to control the light, connect the hot wires neutral ( White ) to the lights white wire. Connect the black to the other black wire, not the light black wire, but the other existing black wire. This black wire is going to the switch if there is one, and will be coming back from the switch on the existing white wire. This wire is now a hot wire since it is part of the switch leg and should be color coded black. Connect this color coded white wire to the black of the light and the circuit will be complete. Let me know if there is not a switch as there will be a different wiring method. Thanks, J
About Electrical Wiring in the Home
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