I just bought a house where the previous owner used to have a chandelier in the dining room. He took the chandelier with him and left a junction box in the ceiling which has two sets of wires coming in. First set: black, red, white, copper and second set: black, white, copper. My chandelier that I am trying to install has a black, white and copper wire. There is one switch that controls the lights and it has a dimming function if that makes a difference. How to I wire this? I have never done any wiring before so please keep the terms to lay language, thanks.

Hello peterjsyoo

Congrats with house. As to the wiring colors :

For residential wiring, some basic rules given in the NEC are:
* phase wire in a circuit may be black or red insulated wire, but never green, gray, or white.
* neutral wire is gray or white insulated wire.
* Grounding wire may be bare or insulated wire of green or having green stripes.

So your first set :
black = hot (direct or switched)
red = hot (direct or switched)
white = neutral
copper = ground

Your second set :
black = hot (direct or switched)
white = neutral
copper = ground

The second set seems to be a feed to another fitting or wall socket.

Connect black to black (this is life --> dangerous : make sure the switchboard is off)
Connect white to white (neutral)
Connect copper to copper (earth)

Connect the chandelier to red (switched hot) , and white (neutral)
If there is an earth wire, connect to copper wires.

That will do. Easy enough??

:D

Peter,

First you need a volt/ohm meter (Lowes, Home Depot). Please leave the wall switch in the "On" position for these tests.

Using the AC Voltage, measure the 3 wire cable (Black (Hot) - Red (Hot) - White (Neutral)) with the red probe on black and the black probe on white.

Do you see voltage on the black? Now move the red probe to the Red wire, again, do you see voltage?

If not, move the black probe to the other white wire and connect the red probe to the other black wire.

If the voltage is present on the three wire black, then the three wire black will be your source and the red can be capped off.

Turn the power off to this circuit.

Now, connect the white from the wall switch to the black from the 3 wire cable. Connect the Black from the two wire connection to the black from the fixture. Next take a magic marker or black electrical tape and wrap or color the white conductor that is connected to the black on the 3 wire cable.

This is called re-identifying the white. You do this so that you will know that this particular white conductor is not being used as a Neutral conductor. In this case it is part of a "Switch Loop."

The White from the light fixture is connected to the white in the three wire cable.

If the voltage appears on the two wire cable, please let us know and we will have to re-define the wiring plan for this connection.