How to Wire Switches and Lights

this is going to be a quick video about basic household wiring of a wall switch and a ceiling light it's really intended for beginners so if you're a new homeowner and you've never replaced the light before this is going to be useful to you you probably have tons of wall switches in your house some the control outlets others that control light fixtures the process is very similar for both but this video focuses on lighting before you get started with any electrical work be sure to turn off the circuit breaker and verify the wires are dead using a voltage tester most wall switches are simple flip it up to turn on the light flip it down to turn off the light the wiring behind the walls can be a bit confusing because there are multiple ways to wire a switch to a light let's start with the easiest household wiring in North America typically has three wires black for hot white for neutral and the bare wire is known as ground in this scenario the power comes into the switch from the bottom cable and then goes directly to the light through the top cable note that some cities such as New York require shielded or armored cable that may not have a ground wire in this case metal boxes and connectors must be used because the shield itself acts as the ground the ground wires need to be connected to the green screw on the switch but it's not allowed to connect two wires to one screw so we need to connect a short piece of wire called a pigtail to the green screw and then attach them all with a wire nut the white or neutral wires aren't connected to the switch at all they just get joined with a wire connector and pass right through to the light the black wire is the hot lead that brings voltage to the light these two wires get connected to the brass screws on the switch it doesn't matter which is which when the switch is turned on it connects those two wires together there are different types of ceiling lights and if yours has colored screws just connect the ground wire to the green screw the white wire to the silver screw and the black wire to the brass screw when the switch is flipped up power flows up the black wire to the light fixture and the light turns on when the switch is flipped down the circuit is broken and no power flows to the light now if your fixture has colored wires it usually comes with wire nuts to connect them to the black white and ground wires instead of using screws but the process is the same all right now let's get a little bit more complicated because sometimes we need to power a device downstream from the light fixture in this case a three conductor cable is used which adds a red wire that gets connected to the switch so the black wire always remains hot now when the switch is turned on power flows up the red wire and the light goes on the last scenario you may see is where the power comes into the light fixture and the two conductor cable runs to the switch in this case the black wire should always be hot and the white wire should be switched ultimately the best thing to do when replacing a light is to take a picture of the wire connections on the old light when you take it down I recently updated my dated dining room light with this new chandelier from Wayfarer power and ground wires on this type of fixture need to be snaked through the chain to the ceiling box the hook in the ceiling was already there and it's used to swag the light since my table isn't directly under the ceiling box the only issue with this type of fixture is that both wires were black and although one side is ribbed the directions didn't say how to determine which side would be wired hot and which side would be neutral now I've heard the non ribbed wire should be hot but I've never verified this it's not a hundred percent critical anyway the bulbs will still work if the polarity is reversed as you can see this ceiling box had a red wire coming from the switch I attached the ground wire to the rest of the bare copper wires then one conductor to the red wire and the other conductor to the white wires the ground wire attached to the green screw on the bracket well there you have it be sure to leave a comment below with any questions you might have and as always thanks for watching

Channel: HandyDadTV

Views: 80,864

Rating: 4.8812261 out of 5

Keywords: handy dad tv, handydad.tv, handydadtv, light switch, how to wire a light switch, electrical wiring, switch wiring, home electrical, light switches, wiring a light switch, single pole switch, house wiring, how to, electrical work, lighting circuit, ceiling light wiring, ceiling light installation, wall switch, wall switch wiring

Id: wRSgemIxamU

Length: 4min 52sec (292 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 09 2019