I have tried to change a ceiling light and am confused as to why there are so many cables jammed into the box and some of them are burnt. I need some advise as to what to do. I have attached the best image i can. Thanks in advance.
Ceiling light junction box multiple wire detection
junction-boxlight-fixture
Related Solutions
I see three questions to answer:
1) How do I wire the lights?
You need to wire them in parallel. Assuming you are in the United States, your wires will likely be white and black. This diagram shows how the lights should be wired together.
2) How do I connect the light to the box in the ceiling?
Electrically speaking (and assuming that the wires in the box match the standard color-coding), you connect the black wire from your lights to the black wire in the box, white with white, all with appropriately sized wire nuts. If your fixture has a ground wire or screw, that should be connected to the green wire or bare copper wire in the ceiling box.
To physically attach your light fixture to the box, you use the metal strap attached to the ceiling box. (The one with the hole in the middle that the wire is sticking out of.) You can remove the screws on either end and the strap will come off. Mount the strap on to your light fixture, then put the strap back in position and screw it in.
3) How I use the white junction box?
Read the directions. It will likely say that you can not put multiple wires in to a single hole. Therefore, this junction box will not help you "split" the incoming wires to each of your lights. Find a different solution. Alternatives would be wire nuts or push-in wire connectors. Just make sure you use the correct nut or connector based on the conductor size of your wire. Wire nuts are appropriate for stranded wire. I've had mixed success with push-in connectors and stranded wire so I would stay away from that combination.
On this site there have been discussions from knowledgeable people about the importance of having every hot and its paired neutral conductor in the same cable or conduit. This is so the net time varying magnetic fields surrounding the wires are zero and so will not induce currents in surrounding metal. Induced currents cause heating of the metal.
I think you should find out what this pass through wire is being used for. This seems like a situation requiring a current clamp meter to find out the current (including the direction) in each wire under load. You may really need an expert electrician to look at this.
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Best Answer
It appears, at one time, that the circuit took way too much heat. I would not be comfortable leaving it like this, but I have done wiring for years. When the breaker to the light is off, determine what else is on that circuit. Then look at what these normally pull. I am assuming this is a house 30+ years old. I see 6 ground wires going into the electrical cap, but only 5 white neutrals going into that cap. A question I have for you is why are you changing the light? Was it a "honey, I don't like this light" or the light was not working correctly? Do you have access to the wiring from above, like in the attic? You can always just switch the light out and what you did by changing the light will not increase your chance of fire, but I would still check out what else is on that circuit.