I have two outdoor wall sconces, which are rusting and falling apart. I replaced ONE of them so far, and left the other as-is.
The old one I replaced, there were two sets of wires coming out of the side of the garage powering two independently powered bulbs in the wall sconce (two sets of white, two sets of black, two grounds), while the new ones just use one set of wiring to power both bulbs.
Since I only needed one set of wires, I put caps on the individual wires for the set I wasn't using, and tucked them back into the junction box, and wired up the new set.
Now NEITHER wall sconce will turn on (not the old one, not the new one).
- I made sure to change the bulbs just in case
- I made sure the breaker was back on
- I made sure the light switch was on
- All of the other lights on the same circuit (garage light) are working
I suspect that I cannot have one set of wires disconnected like I have, and that both sets need to complete the circuit.
My question is, is it safe to wire the unused black and white wires together to complete the circuit? If so, do I need to include the ground wire?
Best Answer
It sounds like you've wired the second sconce directly up to the first sconce and capped off the power source. They should all be wired in parallel: blacks and whites capped together by color grounds tied off together as well. Check out this great link on wall-mounted-lighting. The picture is the most relevant. Note that the wires of the same color are all connected.
In the future, go straight for the multi-meter when the wiring doesn't make sense, test it carefully with the switch ON and the breaker closed. Mark the wires, draw a diagram, and fix it on paper (verifying that you haven't created a short), then implement it in the fixture. As always, be careful and good luck.