I'm pretty new at this electrical stuff, but I have done a few easy wiring things, so I kind of get the white to white, black to black wiring thing, but I just purchased An Altair 3 light bathroom fixture and I'm not sure why there are separate white and black wires for each light. There seems to be only 1 ground wire (although there is a detached white and black wire also included) The instructions show only 1 black, 1 white and 1 ground. I'm a little confused. There's no dimmer or fan, just 1 switch. Do I just bunch them together and connect it to the 1 wire on the box? It uses csl bulbs, does that make a difference?

Are there 3 bulbs, if so bundle the 3 blacks together with the loose (pigtail) black, add your hot from the ceiling to the pig. Now do the same with the whites.

So I twist the 3 black wires from each bulb together onto the extra piece of black wire on one end and then connect the other end of the loose black wire directly to the black wire coming from the box? Then do the same with the 3 white ones. Should I have to use a wire nut for the bundled connections?

Q1: Yes

Q2: Yes, wirenut for the bundled connection and a wirenut for the ceiling connection. I would suspect that the appropriate wirenuts (5) were included. Wirenuts are made for many different combinations of wire. Like 2 ea #14, 3 ea #14 etc. A particular nut will take various combinations.

Ground is sometimes more difficult. Depends if you have a metal box (with or without tapped holes in the bottom) or a plastic box. What do you have?

If metal, both the box and the light need to be grounded. Your not allowed to depend on the attachment screw anymore for ground.

I'm not sure. I haven't taken the old fixture down yet, but I'll let you know. If you could, could you explain the grounding connection? One copper wire from the box and one from the fixture just twist and wirenut them? How exactly does the attachment screw fit in? You have been so helpful. Thanks in advance.

Here, IDEAL INDUSTRIES, INC. - Grounding you will see a lot of interesting products. The term-a-nut, the grounding tails, the grounding screws, the grounding clips, combo tails etc. You may only find some of these at your local hardware store. You can do without them.

For a plastic box, the term-a-nut or equlivelent works. You connect a stranded ground to the solid grounds in the box and to the fixture.

For a metal box, it get's more complicated because you have to ground the box and the fixture.

A ground pigtail with a ground screw would attach to the tapped hole in the box and a term-a-nut would connect the grounds together and give you a flexible ground lead.

If the box does not have a tapped hole, you have to use a solid ground wire and a "ground clip" to attach the grounds to the box.
Then the ground Term-a-nut gives you a stranded ground to work with.

You can do the same thing with wires, wirenuts and ground clips.
The products do cut down the labor time.