I have installed three lights (60 Watt Bulbs) on the same line (wire) connected to one light switch. The fuse blew when I hit the switch. I’ve connected all of the white to white and black to black. I believe the problem may be with the ground. I’ve grounded each light fixture. I believe that I was just supposed to pig tail the ground to the ground in each light fixtures and only affix the actual ground wire in the switch box to the green ground nut. Is that correct? An informed response would be greatly appreciated!
Electrical – Can a grounding issue with newly installed light fixtures cause a short circuit/blown fuse
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Best guess from the limited details is that you have a ground/neutral short somewhere and also a switched neutral. That would result in the lights always being hot and turning on as soon as there's a path to neutral or ground.
To diagnose this, you'll need a voltage tester that can handle line voltage (120vac). White to ground should read near 0v, white to hot should read 120v, and ground to hot should read 120v. Then disconnect the line from the load and check for continuity in the circuit. The switch should show no continuity when off, and near 0 ohms when on. And the ground should show no continuity from both the hot and neutral wiring. The neutral to hot should show continuity until the lights are removed from the sockets, at which point it should show no continuity.
If the voltage readings indicate a reversed hot/neutral, then correct them and label the issue so it doesn't confuse a future electrician. If the continuity tests show unusual readings, there's likely a short and I'd recommend disconnecting the light fixtures and retesting after connecting them back one by one until you locate the short.
Standard disclaimer: if you're at all uncomfortable around household voltage or do not know the proper safety precautions, please consider hiring a professional electrician.
Based on the information you gave, one white/black pair in the ceiling box is the incoming power, and the other white/black pair goes to the switch. You need to determine which pair is which. Connect the chandelier to one pair and turn the breaker back on. If the chandelier lights up, that's the incoming power, and the other pair should be the switch. If you have a continuity tester, you can hook it up to what should be the switched pair (with the breaker off again) and verify that you have continuity when the white and black wires going to the dimmer are touched together. Turning the dimmer on and off may not be enough to get a reading on the tester - the wires need to be touching.
Once the pairs are identified as incoming and switched, the ceiling box should be wired as follows. Connect the incoming white wire to the white wire of the chandelier. The incoming black wire should be connected to the switch black wire, and the switch white wire should connect to the black wire of the lamp. You should also wrap black electrical tape around the white switch wire since it is playing the role of a black wire. This "marks" the wire as black for anyone looking at it later. The same should be done for the white wire at the switch. It should not matter how the wires are connected to the dimmer.
Edit: Now that I search for an image, this appears to be a possible duplicate of: How to properly wire a ceiling light fixture? Which has some handy diagrams. I suspect what you have is the first picture, and what you need is the second picture:
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Best Answer
Unless you connected a hot to ground, it probably is not related to the ground. Without seeing some pictures or diagrams, my best guess is that one of your white wires is actually a hot (and someone didn't mark it as so), so by connecting the whites (which are supposed to be neutral) together, you've created a short.
Sometimes with switches, when the power comes into the ceiling box first, there will be one cable to the switch from the ceiling box. In this configuration you will find a black and white wire, but both are actually hot since the switch only interrupts the hot wire. Take a look at the switch wiring - are both wires black, or is one black and one white? If one black and one white, then one of your white wires is actually hot and should not be connected to the rest of the white (neutral) wires.
I would start by disconnecting your work, verifying the fuse doesn't blow in this configuration and then start connecting the lights back up at one at a time.
Remember that electricity is dangerous and there's nothing wrong with calling an electrician if you are in over your head!