How to Wire for a New Ceiling Light | All About Lights | Ask This Old House

[Music] so Scott this is my light fixture what do you think a light bulb you get the lamp cord that runs across the ceiling down the wall and it looks like that's the switch yes it is so you have to come in you have to bend down turn it on turn it off turn it on turn it off or you just let the two-year-old do it okay I don't really like it too much I'll tell you it's a pulling acid they could pull this fixture down pretty easily and this comes out yeah you can see those two prongs you can actually get electrocuted right there so I get something better I'm gonna pull this down and I'm gonna show you that's good so Sarah this is what I'd like to install for you it's a hardwired fixture mounted right where the other fixture was that we can control from a wall switch over there that sounds great it's so thin where's the light bulb it is thin it's really thin and there is no light bulb we have light emitting diodes and each one of these little LEDs gives off light they're really bright and combined they all only use 18 watts of electricity which isn't a lot of electricity for the amount of light that it puts out I love it how do we get it up well first thing we need to do is install this fixture box and it goes mounted into the ceiling and I'm gonna trace it out and then we'll cut it [Music] now we need to get a location for your switch what I was thinking was over here on this wall right here that would be perfect because then we could turn the light on when we come in the back door great so we need to get the location the centering is right to left in this space here you got two feet right around one foot should be good no what about height height is 48 inches to Center so we'll go right from the floor and that's 48 trace the box and cut it out [Music] so there's two spots we can get power from the main electrical panel or I have found a box over here that has power in it and we can come out of this junction box go over up to the light switch from the light switch box we can come back down go across the ceiling and go right up to the light fixture itself great all right now I need to send this fish tape up to you pull it up so we have two wires the first wire is the power wire that comes from the junction box the second wire comes from the switch back down it's gonna go over the light fixture we need to tie these on to the fish tape and then we're gonna pull those up to the new location of the switch box itself got it all right hole about a foot or two out oh that's great so we have a switch that we're going to use it's a regular toggle switch the power comes in on one of the screws and goes out to the light fixture on the other screw it doesn't matter which way it goes I've brought this cutaway I'll show you how it works you could see that when the switch is in the up position on the power goes from one side to the other but when you shut the switch in the off position it breaks the connection and no longer does power go from one screw to the other that's very cool and then we turn it on again it makes the connection up now nothing's actually holding the box in right now if you just pull on it it'll come out so they have these Madison bars to hold the boxing against the wall there's a long side and a short side you put the long side in first and then you usually take a screwdriver push it in and then make sure it's behind the drywall pull back on it and then you just take it and fold it over against the wall and then you finish it off with your pliers to make sure it stays in there you want to try one yeah all right all right so long side first yep good and now take the ply is in the screwdriver okay then just tap it in now push it all the way through hold on to it you made it look easy good and now even it in the box and pull back on it there you go very nice and now we'll go ahead and squeeze it with the plies good nice look at the bottom want to squeeze good now pull the wise solid right doesn't move good let's get the switch in so the neutral is unswept and we just splice the two neutral wires together now I can attach the black wires in the ground to the switch and now the plate which covers everything all right let's get the wire over to the fixture now I run my fish tape across the ceiling from the fixture location to a temporary access hole at the top of the wall all right there it is right there so let me grab it I'll pull it right out here then downstairs I can push my fish tape up the wall to that same access point you got to pull it all up so keep the tape nice and short and that'll make it go around nice and tight okay now we can just feed that wire right across the ceiling all right now we're ready to make up the box for our fixture so I'm gonna use Madison bars just like I did on the wall box because the fixture only weighs about two pounds every LED light has a driver and that driver converts regular house power to low-voltage now the glass shade it's just held in with some set screws all right we've got the wall patched and the power turned back on go hit the light switch okay I love it it looks so much better than that light before look there's nothing hanging I can walk underneath it makes the room actually feel [Music]

Channel: This Old House

Views: 589,138

Rating: 4.7899213 out of 5

Keywords: this old house, how-to, home improvement, Episode, TV Show, DIY, scott caron, ask this old house, electrical, repair, lighting

Id: 0G1tQKNlC2I

Length: 7min 48sec (468 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 08 2018