Hello – I am a HO and recently replaced a ceiling fan with a normal dome type light. The wires coming into the light can are black, red and white. I tested the wires first and only the black and white together register a reading, which is what I expected. As such, I wired the black and white wires together and capped the red wire off. The light would go on, but not turn off. I was confused, so I unscrewed the light switch and noticed only the black and red wires going to the light switch, with 3 white wires connected together and capped off. Consequently, I tired capping the whites, and wiring red to white and black to black, which again didn’t work. I have tried every combination with no luck. This seems like quite a basic wiring issue, and I am not saying that I’m very handy, but I can’t believe I am having this much trouble with this light? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.
Discussion Forum
Discussion Forum
Up Next
Video Shorts
Featured Story
The RealTruck AMP Research Bedsteps give you easy access to your truck-bed storage.
Highlights
"I have learned so much thanks to the searchable articles on the FHB website. I can confidently say that I expect to be a life-long subscriber." - M.K.
Replies
It may be that someone used a white wire in the switchbox for power, so make sure to carefully test everything to identify which wires are live before you go any further. What has me confused is your description seems to leave one extra white wire in the switch box.
The white wire in the ceiling box is (well, should be, if done properly) a shared neutral between the separate circuits fed by the black and red wires. I usually use the black wire for light power, red for fan power, but that's not universal. Your switch may be mucked up. Fan/light switches on three-wire circuits are usually two switches together, with one controlling the fan and the other controlling the light, and both fed by a single power source (that will probably be black, but may be red, depending on how it is fed, or even white if someone did a screwed-up job before you got there -- see the testing advice, above). You need to determine where power is coming from -- use a circuit tester for this -- in the switch box. Then, feed that circuit through your new switch to the black (or red, if you prefer) wire that goes to the ceiling box. Connect the neutral from the switch box to the white that goes to the ceinling box. At the ceiling box, connect black to black (or red, if you preferred) and white to white on the light fixture.
Mike Hennessy
Pittsburgh, PA
Are there additional red wires running to somewhere from the switch or fixture? This could be a 3 way switch set up. (or perhaps used to be)
Well, if white and black light it up and it can't be turned off, then likely black is an unswitched hot wire. So, put your switch box back together the way you found it, hook your light to white and red.
Step back and turn on switch :-)
Ed
Edited 5/7/2007 5:53 pm ET by edlee
Edited 5/7/2007 5:53 pm ET by edlee
I suspect that edlee is correct.
Verify that you have only one cable in the ceiling box and that black, red, white (an maybe a ground).
And in the switch box you have 3 cables.
2 with black and white. And one with black, white, and red.
And all 3 blacks are connected to gether along with a pigtatil to the switch. All 3 whites are connected together.
And the red is connected to the other terminal on the switch.
If that is what you have then at the light the black is always hot and the red is switched hot.
So connect from red to white.
.
A-holes. Hey every group has to have one. And I have been elected to be the one. I should make that my tagline.
If your method of working with electicity is to try various combinations of wiring until you find something that functions, you shouldn't be doing electrical work. First, you can get yourself hurt or damage your home. Second, it's possible to make it function and have it wired in violation of code, which can put a future person in danger if you have the wiring all mixed up but still functioning.
black is a hot
red is a secondary hot- switch
white is a netrual
dont forget to lick your fingers before touching wires
.
“Ilsa, I’m no good at being noble, but it doesn’t take much to see that the problems of three little people don’t amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world”.