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Morning!
In a previous post I explained a situation that caused an electrial short.
Last night I had time to dig into the situation. I had removed the fixture and was going to begin to upgrade wiring and light sockets. Its a 2 socket fixture.
Well, I removed the old porcelein sockets togther…wiring still intact. In looking at these I noticed something odd immediately. Whoever rewired it the first time had one socket having 2 white wire and the other socket having 2 black wires. upon closer examination, they had connected both the hots from one socket to the ground of the other.
This cant be right, can it??? Shouldnt the hots be connected to together and the grounds connected to each other? black to black, white to white.
Hope this is clear…Can anyone provide some insight? It would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks!
Replies
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Kevin - for starters the white is normally the
i neutral
, not the ground. In the case of a switched fixture it's all hot leg anyway.
*Keep the white neutrals grouped and connected to the screw in part of the fixture...the blacks stay grouped and connect to the screw that goes to the bottom of the bulb...The black hot screw may be gold...or may not. There are motor/lamp shops in every town that can rewire your lamps also...Please make checks payable to above...near the stream thinking I liked this better hear as a Contractor only forum,aj Kevin...How many wiring DIYer books do you own...Buy more and read them too...Beers on me when you finish the first chapter.
*AJ, you're tough! I can only imagine how frustrating it must be sometimes to read this stuff from us amateurs. But just think, maybe you'll contribute to making someone become a professional, and at the least you're helping a bunch of people not make stupid mistakes that they would have gone and done by themselves anyway. And hey, isn't that stream still frozen, so you maybe should cut back on the beer if you see it streaming by..
*Not the beer....Been skiing all week in several feet of powder! Great cliff jumping falls into powder so deep that ya had to swim back to daylight....Happens very rarely on the East coast...near the ski slopes...and da thawing stream,aj Can ya believe it...snowing right now again!...Gonna have to leave the stream to track up the new stuff!
*AJ,To answer your question...Dont own a single book on wiring. Which is why the question was asked. I am very confident in my ability to R&R anything within reason but also know my limitations. When I saw the configuration it didnt seem to be correct and therfore not a simple R&R. Your answer pretty much confirmed that it was wired wrong, or did I miss something?btw...I'll take you up on the beer...make mine Geary's!How many for finishing the book??Was considering pissing in the stream, but reconsidered...I really enjoyed Lake George.
*ajMay your tools or snow not be yellow :)Mike S.
*Ok, so I'm an electrician in the theatre! But I've been doing it for 15 years, so I kind of know what I'm doing. Still, I need to mention all of that stuff about how electricity can kill you, and you need to be very careful, regardless of what kind of info I provide here. Just because I work on 600 Amp, 3 Phase panels while they're still hot, doesn't mean anyone else should try it! Ok, that's my disclaimer...Yes, Kevin, it certainly does sound like it was wired incorrectly. With a two-socket fixture, you can wire it in two different ways. The choice is yours:Series wired: The hot wire (usually black) comes from the breaker box, through the wall switch, and connects to the brass screw on the first socket. Jump from the silver screw on the first socket to the brass screw on the second socket with a length of white wire (place a piece of black elex tape on the end of the wire where it attaches to the second brass screw). Finally, a white wire (the neutral) returns to the breaker box. Parallel wired: The hot wire comes from the breaker box, through the wall switch, and out to the fixture. Wire up each socket with a length of wire at each screw (black wire for brass, white wire for silver). Now use wire nuts to join the two black pig-tail wires together with the black wire from the wall switch. And now do the same with the two white pig-tail wires and the white neutral wire which returns to the breaker box. I would talk about how the AWG wire you choose may depend upon whether you choose Series wiring or Parallel wiring, but just be sure to use cable that will support the entire load of the circuit breaker (14ga. for 15amp breaker, 12ga. for 20amp). The only other thing is the ground wire. Either bare copper or green coated, this simple affixes to the metal housing of the fixture to carry stray voltage and trip the breaker in the event of an electrical short-circuit. I mention this at the end because the ground is not a part of the actual electrical system, but rather a very necessary safety measure. However, it is a good idea to make a habit of connecting the ground first, and disconnecting the ground last. Here ends my exercise in self-indulgence. Make mine a Guinness!!!
*Series wiring lights in a house? WTF over?Don't ever pull a stunt like that!
*No Guinness. Series wired? You've apparently had too many already.
*Delete the above post as your disclaimer may not cover ya!!!!!!!!Ya must be outa your friggin mind...(series wiring)near the stream bein driven to the swill I tell ya,aj
*Wiring them in series eliminates having to dim the lights before the show starts....uh, by the way where's that fire exit??
*Well, actually it would work just fine, so long as you used those 240 Volt light bulbs...(make mine an Old Peculiar)
*For series wiring shouldn't they be 60V bulbs?
*Series wiring is theoretically correct but who wants to do that, since it increases the resistance of the path.fv
*Series wiring is not theoretically correct.near the bozo stream,ajArmchairs for all...We need more stinkin armchairs Andy.
*Well, Its done.AJ...Did some additional reading. Cant really figure why anyone would want to wire this fixture the way they did. Seems like a botched attempt at a series connection. In a true series connection, wouldnt both bulbs go out if one burned out? Like old christmas light? Makes me nervous that perhaps there are more of the same lurking under other fixtures! I will be checking them for sure!Since I havent finished the book yet...What would be an advantage of a series wiring scenario?
*Kevin...Lights are not to be wired in series. Throw out any books that say they are.near the stream,ajTake a course in electricity and you will know why.
*My last post didnt read well...If anyone was at all thinking I left a series wired configuaration in my home...I did not.I rewired the fixture.btw...Thanks to everyone who responded.
*AJ, my curiousity is up. I was reading your other thread about the snow and skiing, and now this. Where are you in the northeast? Last winter I bought acreage in central Vermont when it had two feet of snow. Was there this February when it snowed all Tuesday and Wednesday. Wonderful stuff. Retire and build in 2003 where the weather is interesting and the people are wonderful.
*Gp....have you not heard of Lake George? Above Albany, Saratoga...below Lake Placid (1980 Winter Olympics...also 1932...and hopefully 2012...or so...) Vermont is great too.near the stream,ajnear the stream...near the stream.....and lots of snow...skied all weekend and today too...sunburn time...
*
Morning!
In a previous post I explained a situation that caused an electrial short.
Last night I had time to dig into the situation. I had removed the fixture and was going to begin to upgrade wiring and light sockets. Its a 2 socket fixture.
Well, I removed the old porcelein sockets togther...wiring still intact. In looking at these I noticed something odd immediately. Whoever rewired it the first time had one socket having 2 white wire and the other socket having 2 black wires. upon closer examination, they had connected both the hots from one socket to the ground of the other.
This cant be right, can it??? Shouldnt the hots be connected to together and the grounds connected to each other? black to black, white to white.
Hope this is clear...Can anyone provide some insight? It would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks!