any electricians on gfy? I need help.
 

installing a light in the kitchen.. from the ceiling there is 2 black and 2 white wires and a red one.

I put the black together with the black.. of coarse.. and white wires with the white. and I just capped the red one. put the lights in and the lights are on if the switch is on or off.. so obsiously the red wire needs to go somewhere to control the on and off of the light.

I also got fucking shocked.. cock sucking light, my arm hurts now.

ohhh the question.. where do I put the red wire?

Is there a variable speed switch on the wall? sounds like it was a ceiling fan with a light previously..trace the existing black and whites and cap off the other ones

Do you have 2 switches on each end of the room controlling the light? Sounds like its wired for a 3 way.

Turn the breaker off first this time

in the dinning room there is a light dimmer. in the ceiling there was a black box that im guessing was to control the dimming..

I think the light over the kitchen sink shares the same wires.. probably need to cap the black wires together and do red neg. and white pos.. to the light im installing.

lol some good advice.

you tie the red in with the whites so there should be 3 wires together the blacks should be by themselves

I thought that was always step one lol Glad you didnt get seriously hurt.

shouldn't have too if I turn off the switch, or don't touch the wire. thou after installing 5 lights in the house the last fucking 1 gets me.

plus its night night and I dont have a flashlight.. can you see me trying to do this in the dark?

how does the red control the on and off being tied with the whites?

:1orglaugh :1orglaugh :1orglaugh

I'll tell you right now STOP what your doing, call an electrician. I have over 12 years experience and would never tell anyone exactly how to do things over the internet. One stupid mistake can cost you your life. DONT just swap wires back and forth. White wires are 99% of the time neutral wires and if you splice them together with a hot wire your gonna get a big spark and maybe a nice shock.

STOP.

this is true , but if the breaker is off and your house is wired safely you wont have a problem, this isnt a difficult task unless im not understanding it but the two white wires should be connected to the red and then connect blacks together..

i believe dugmor and danza were electricians.

Duke

I agree .... I have a master electrician degree and licence.

Even if you are doing Home Owner improvements by yourself ... and you do not get the work inspected by the local building inspector....you will not be covered for fire damage if an problem did occur.

Most people cannot figure out a 3 way switch set up ( even some electricians have a problem for some reason )

hehe well got the shock already, no way will I call an electrician for 1 light, I will call my brother, he will grab the wire and get shocked like its a joke.. it doesnt seem to bother him.

funny how you make this sound so serious as an electrician.

Real electricians by standard use the red wire as an additional hot wire. You are telling him to connect the red "hot" to the white "neutrals" most likely wrong. You cant just guess you need a voltage tester.

You can't just think.... Black to Black.... White to White.... turn the screw and make it tight !

It could be possible the blacks are what we call travelers !

Good grief :helpme

120 volts wont kill you but you can burn your house down, have a blast man (pun intended) don't let me stop you.:thumbsup

can you imagine paying 7 bucks for a light, and 60 bucks for an electrician to install it.. im sure its a right thing to do but damn.

I should of kept a better eye on the wires when I took off the other light.

You can't just think.... Black to Black.... White to White.... turn the screw and make it tight !

It could be possible the blacks are what we call travelers !

Three-way switches require a three-wire cable: the power wire, the neutral wire, and the traveller or switch wire.

Doing any plumbing while you're at it?

yeah I agree, thats why I stopped.. I will just get my brother to bring his voltage tester over and do it, and I can laugh at him if he fucks up lol.

another reason for leaving the power on.. imagine I just assumed and hooked the wires together and than turn the power back on.. and the damn thing just smokes away. better that I see or feel it than my house burning down.

This link should help somewhat........
Level of difficulty: Advanced

That red wire could possibly be the common for the the 3 way switch. In other words the red wire from the light is sending power to the switch. This thread got me wanting to some electric work now.

God luck..... Most Electricans would not even waste their time for one light or $60 !

nope but I have helped my uncle do that for 6months.

I have done carpet installation, hardwood floors, painting, plumping.. and obiously only basic installing lights, switches, plugs, all things as normally when I am taking them apart I can see what I need to put where back.

Honestly, you really should not be fucking around with electricity if you don't know what you're doing.

I charge $100.

Its not a 3 way switch btw.. there is only 1 switch for this light, but there is a light in the kitchen as well over the sink that has its own switch.. but im guessing that the power is controlling both lights.. I could find out simply by removing the wires in the middle. and if this is the case than the red wire should be neg. and the 2 white pos. and the blacks put together to run power to the 2nd light.

this is my guess thou. not that I feel like playing with it anymore.

That is the problem ..... who knows that they are using as the common.... I would use the red as the common.... but since he is getting power to the light when he caps the red... it make me think other wise.

I was thinking the same thing.... I had fun working on the big stuff. Twisting 500 MCM. Didnt mind getting hit by 120... it was working in a ceiling and getting hung up on 277 that hurt !

yeah them are not my case.. looks very complicated for sure.

Its Not A 3 Way Switch !!!!!

Good job he's not in the UK - it's all 240 volts there

I did it all too the industrial,commercial, old work residential, new contstruction. I haven't done it for about 8 months now but this thread got me thinking about getting back into it.

heh i always go black to black white to white then on the last one i flip a coin and flip the breaker with my head turned away , it hasnt failed me yet ..

but yes the best advice is call someone qualified.. but if your gonna wing it , black to black white to white , and red tied into the whites is how most dimmer switches hookup as far as i remember , but hey i wouldnt trust myself either lol

At least you have the sense to turn the breaker off first -our friend doesn't seem to see the point :helpme

i guess thats why you call yourself smokey the bear:1orglaugh :error

Exactly.... but the time you drive over their and have to pretent it takes longer than it really would.

When ever I did a small job people would say .... that is it ?
It took you less than 5 mins.... and now I have to pay you $100 + !

So what I did was ... go to the job .... say I am going to need a cad weld .... be right back I am going to the electrical supply store..... I would then drive to a few other jobs..... say the same thing... by the time I got back to the first... it was a few hours later.... then I would run out to my van a few times pretending I was getting a drill , latter , wire nuts , ect... come back... do the job in less than 5 mins.... go back out to my van and write the invoice !

But all in all it was not really even worth the time .... even if I could do like 10jobs like that a day ! I liked the big ones... Co Generation plants, I worked on the High Voltage splices at Mono Rail System at Newark Airport. ( Got paid crazy amounts for that ) ... the first phase of the Stratosphere in Las Vegas.... I would just go chasing around all the big jobs around the country. The ones I could walk out with $10,000 of thousands when I was done.... not a freakin $100 !

:1orglaugh :1orglaugh good point .. heh , well common sense always apply's , im mean you can usually follow the wiring and see how it works , i'm certainly not an expert but i have wired an awful lot of stuff and never had a problem other than a few burnt breakers , but then again when the farmers cow died he said " thats the first time she has done that before "

Yea i don't go out for just 1 light unless they are within 15 minutes of me. The real money is in the service work, parking lot lights, signs, generators, elevators shit like that.

the way smokey is talking is exactly how I feel, normally I would turn off the breaker, I was just doing it late at night, normally its simple.. I done 5 other lights in the house without any problems at all, and Ive done this many times before... got a picture in a sec.

the light over the sink has its own switch, the light hanging lose his its own switch as well. the switch below is off but still gives power to the lights if i put 1 in. with black to black and white to white and the red one capped.

http://www.fucksakes.net/light.jpg
http://www.fucksakes.net/switch.jpg

Have you looked to see how the switch is wired?

ok I went ahead and tried.. the two blacks are caped together, the 2 whites attached to the white from light, and the red attached to black from light, it now turns on and off.

take the cover plate off those switches and see if there is a red wire in there. For fucksakes just leave it alone and go to bed:1orglaugh

I did carefully touched the black wire to the red, nothign happened, i turned the switch on and i tried again and .. holly fuck.. you should of seen the HUGE spark.. was the size of the tip of a pen lol, and the light went on.

haha I wish I could go to bed.. I do nights with the new baby, hopefully I dont kill myself before its feeding time.