Posted: 4/23/2005 8:20:59 AM EDT
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Before I burn down my house, can someone tell me If white is the hot lead? thanks in advance. -HS |
| If it is being used as a switch leg in the light switch it could be either. Are these the only two wires in the box? If so the power is first run to the light fixture and then just the hot (line) is brought down to the switch box (generally on the black) and sent back up to the light fixture on the white (switch leg). |
| Back in the day (before I started riding a desk), we used to either tape the switch leg (black) or put what we called a foreman on the wire. Basically a tight loop in the wire to designate it as a switch leg (also known as an a$$hole, which in turn is a foreman). |
WOW! Nothing personal, but this is a recipe for disaster. Just one point, as related to your making joints in the box: If you 'wire nut' all the whites together, you've connected the neutrals to the return from the switch. Here's what you should have said: 1. A 12-2 piece of Romex goes from the panel to the fixture. 2. At the fixture, cut the white, labeling the two pieces (in your mind) neutral and return. The neutral connects to the fixture white. The return connects to the hot wire of the fixture - might be red, black, etc. 3. Also cut the ground (green) at the fixture. Attach one end to the fixture, and send the other end, along with the return end of the white and the uncut black to the switch. 4. Attach the black - which is continuous from the panel to the switch - to the hot of the switch. 5. Connect the white return to the return (output) of the switch. 6. Connect the green to the ground of the switch. I generally avoid these threads, but the info in the previous post is BAD! Hire an electrician, man. |
The information in that post is not bad, but it may not be clear. The only time a white wire is connected to a switch is when a single cable is used as a switch loop. When power goes directly to the box which will house the fixture, the black and white wire are used to carry power to the switch and back. The white wire used must be marked near both ends, either with electrical tape around the insulation or colored black with a permenent marker, to indicate that is a hot wire. |
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I was explaining what might have been done by the original installer. If I was to wire it from scratch first turn the breaker off to the circuit, then I would have run the power to the switch box first (it could be black, red or blue in an commercial/industrial building or either black or red in a residential for the line and white for the nuetral) from the breaker panel if it was a home run or the previous source of power, Then run another romex/bx cable to the light fixture. I would first terminate the ground to the box and switch as well as connect it to the ground going to the fixture. I would then terminate the line (power in) to the top of the switch and wire the load (power out) on the bottom of the switch and either taped it or added the foreman to designate it as the switch leg. I would then wirenut the nuetrals together to allow the ciruit to be completed once it goes to the fixture. Finally I would wire the fixture, ground to ground, white to nuetral and black to switch leg and turn on the breaker and check function (if you wanted to be extra safe check there are no shorts to ground on the load/switch leg before turning the breaker back on). Let's not even try to explain the wiring of a 3-way. Backstop and out-a-ammo are right, the post was vague and under the wrong conditions/scenario could have caused damage. I'll edit it. |
About 50 times harder than asking someone here on the board that may have experience in old housing. I don't think you need to be an electrician to do something as simple as what I did. I was surprised to see four black wires behind a wall plate. BTW, I was quoted $80 to $100 to install a cieling fan last year...screw that. -HS |