Electrical – Simple switch wiring

electricalswitch

Apologies if this is a stupid question, but I can't figure out a simple wiring setup. I have two simple switches controlling two separate lights, all on the same circuit, all in one electrical box.

There are three cables coming into the box. Left to right: First cable is WHITE & BLACK wires. Second is WHITE, BLACK, RED. Third is WHITE, BLACK. First two cables' black is joined together in a wire nut and then pigtailed into both switches (wirenut crimps 4 wires total). Red wire goes into switch one. All white wires are crimped together and are not connected to any switch.

See diagram below (note – I colored white wires in yellow so they could be seen on the drawing). Ground wires not shown.

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My guess is that

  1. white wires must be neutral rather than hot/switch legs as they are just wired together and don't go into any of the switches.
  2. First cable with B,W wires is power in, as it is shared between two switches, and both switches operate independently (and control two separate lights).
  3. Middle cable and cable on right (two and three) are load cables to lights.

So far run of the mill light switch setup, except for… WHAT IS THE BLACK WIRE IN THE MIDDLE CABLE? I would have expected the middle cable to only have two wires, with red wire being colored black.

My question is – do my assumption 1-3 look good to you guys, and 2) what is this third wire in middle cable that's connected to what I believe is HOT/LINE directly? Can recess lights be wired with LINE, SWITCH LEG, NEUTRAL?

Thank you!

Best Answer

If you are correct about where power is coming in at (a bit more likely than not, but you'll need to test it or open up the box the middle cable goes to if you want to be sure), then the black wire in the middle cable carries power onward to some other thing that is not switched (like another set of light switches, or some receptacle or outlet somewhere, maybe a smoke detector?). If power is indeed coming in on the black wire in the middle cable (somewhat less likely), then the left cable is going off to another non-switched thing.

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