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    Sailorman's Avatar
    Sailorman Posts: 33, Reputation: 1
    Junior Member
    		  
    #1

    Jan 7, 2008, 09:55 PM
    Black & White wires together?
    Ok, about to wire up new recessed lights. After removing the old fluoresent light and inspecting the junction box to which it was wired I've come to a stand still.
    There are four 14/2 cables entering this box. Two are for recepticles, one for a hood and the other the power for the light.
    All blacks are together, however one white is included in the blacks. This one white is the partner to the black that was wired straight to the light.
    The remaining 3 whites are together with a pigtail for the old light.
    This light is on a 3 way so could this be the reason?
    Confused!
    Sailorman's Avatar
    Sailorman Posts: 33, Reputation: 1
    Junior Member
    		  
    #2

    Jan 7, 2008, 09:58 PM
    Sorry, one wire is a receptacle, one goes to a hood, one is the power for the light and the other heads to an outside light.
    KISS's Avatar
    KISS Posts: 12,510, Reputation: 839
    Uber Member
    		  
    #3

    Jan 7, 2008, 10:20 PM
    Think about it for a moment. When you have a switch, any switch, it switches the HOT wire. The cables have white and black. So white has to be hot.

    What your supposed to do is tie the black of the switch to HOT always. The white from the switch needs to have both ends taped black to change the color of the end of the wire. The taped black white should go to the light.

    This avoids the confusion you are having.
    Sailorman's Avatar
    Sailorman Posts: 33, Reputation: 1
    Junior Member
    		  
    #4

    Jan 8, 2008, 05:00 AM
    Thanks. So what you are saying is that this is normal/ok?
    Everything worked fine previously while connected this way.
    Stratmando's Avatar
    Stratmando Posts: 11,188, Reputation: 508
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    #5

    Jan 8, 2008, 06:36 AM
    Reconnect as before, add tape to white to identify as hot.
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