Electrical – How to properly wire a ceiling light fixture

electricallight-fixturewiring

I rent an apartment and a tenant installed ceiling fan that was not well secured to the ceiling. I removed the fan and attempted to re-install the original light fixture after he moved out.

I am having issues with the wiring. There are 2 black wires and 2 white wires in the ceiling. On the fixture itself there are 2 black wires and 2 white wires as well as a small ground wire.

I try to wire it white to white and black to black. When I turn the power back on, the light switch is off but the light comes on. If I turn the switch on it's blows the breaker?

Should I have 4 connections 2 x black to black and 2 x white to white or should I have two connections – all black together under 1 cap and all white together under 1 cap?

What am I missing? How should this be properly wired? Or is there something else going wrong (maybe an issue with the fixture)?

Best Answer

The power (from the breaker) is likely at the light fixture. When you hook black to black and white to white, the light is powered directly from the breaker. In this configuration, when you flip the switch on you create a short through the switch.

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What you need to do is hook it up like this.

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Notice the white wire that runs between the switch and the light has a black stripe on it (in above image), that lets anybody that works on this light in the future know that the wire is switched. You can mark the wire using a bit of electrical tape, or a marker.

Figuring out which wires come from the breaker, and which go to the switch will require some tools. First Turn off the breaker, and verify the power is off using a non-contact voltage tester. Now pick one set of wires to work with first (one black and one white from the same cable). Turn the switch to the on position, and use a multimeter to check continuity between the two wires. If the wires are connected (low resistance), these are the switched wires. If not (infinite resistance), check the other set of wires. If neither pair pass the test, contact an electrician.

If at any time you don't feel comfortable doing this work, or you don't have the proper tools to complete the task. Contact a local licensed electrician.

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