How to Wire a Light Fixture With Two Black Wires
How to wire a ceiling light to two black and two white wires from the ceiling
I have a ceiling light that has a black, a white, and a green wire. The ceiling box has two black and two white wires. What do I do?
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level 1
Dont touch the different colored wires together
level 1
Is one pair leading from the breaker box and another to a light switch?
level 2
I'm not sure. I tried connecting it color for color. Could it be because I'm not connecting them secure enough?
level 1
Likely the power and neutral are supplied from one of the cables, black and white respectively, and the other cable goes to the wall switch as a switch loop. The original wiring should have been power black to switch loop white re-coded with black marker or tape, as well as in the switch box, leaving you with the white supply neutral to the fixture neutral and the black switch loop wire to the fixture black wire. If a black and white are already nutted together and there's just a white and black left, splice them color to color on the fixture. If the entire splice was opened for some reason, you have to find out which of the 2 cables are the feed and make the appropriate splices from there.
level 2
I looked inside the switch box but all the wires are covered in brown paper. Same for the wires on the ceiling. None of them are marked with black tape. I've tried to splice the black and white together, and color-for-color but there was no response, so I'm heavily confused. Maybe I'm not splicing them correctly?
level 2
Edited the post with a picture
level 1
Are those 2 black wires spliced together or separate? Are the 2 white wires together or separate? If they are spliced in a wirenut simply put black to black, white to white, green to green/bare copper wire.
level 2
No idea how it set up originally. The workers took down the lights and I wasn't there.
level 1
One cable is power and the other cable is switch. Black power to white switch, white power to white fixture, black switch to black fixture. Ground box and fixture.
level 2
How do I tell which is power and which one is switch? I tried your combo but there was no response.
level 2
Don't listen to this bozo, power comes from the switch to the fixture… that's how the circuit opens and closes with the switch, it's not a three way there's no travelers.
level 1
Get a non-contact voltage detector. They're cheap and anybody doing any electrical work should have one clipped on their pocket at all times. Check each wire to determine which are hot. Label them on the photo. If there is a switch, flip it to the other position and repeat the check and record process. Share the results here. If one thing that owning a pre-owned house has taught me it is that you can't trust anything to follow conventions for color or typical wiring arrangements. Electrical is really not something where you want to guess or do any trial and error.
level 1
Get a non-contact voltage detector. They're cheap and anybody doing any electrical work should have one clipped on their pocket at all times. Check each wire to determine which are hot. Label them on the photo. If there is a switch, flip it to the other position and repeat the check and record process. Share the results here. If one thing that owning a pre-owned house has taught me it is that you can't trust anything to follow conventions for color or typical wiring arrangements. Electrical is really not something where you want to guess or do any trial and error.
level 2
Get a real multi-meter, not a non-contact. I agree with the point about not guessing what colors mean and testing to see what things are. But a non-contact is still to some extent guessing. Plus, a real multi-meter will allow you to do other things like test for continuity that will help you troubleshoot.
level 2
My parents gave up and decided to hire an electrician. He came over and found out that the previous contractors messed up the wiring which is why no matter how I wired the wires, it wouldn't work. Thank you for your help.
level 1
How many lights were in the ceiling in that room? Just one? If multiple then it's probably hitting the others in the room, daisy chaining them.
level 2
It's a light on top of the staircase
How to Wire a Light Fixture With Two Black Wires
Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/electrical/comments/odazqi/how_to_wire_a_ceiling_light_to_two_black_and_two/