Upgrade Your Fluorescent Lights To Wafer LEDs

we're going to spend a minute we're going to demystify what's going on here i don't want it to be intimidating you can do this you can do this [Music] this video is about how to install these lights anywhere in your home in this case i'm pulling down the fluorescents that are existing getting rid of the toxins and nuisance flickering we're installing aesthetic leds in a master walk-in closet here we go grab the lens on the fluorescent fixture pull it out it's going to be brittle these old fluorescent fixtures are going to be brittle might shatter in your hands but they are just acrylic all right it's down the power is already off you rotate the bulb 90 degrees bring the pins out this thing if it explo if it shatters it will explode you'll have glass and mercury and fine white dust i don't know what type it is everywhere so get it to a safe place these are toxic your city probably has a toxic waste disposal that you can use for free pinch the internal cover there are tabs that hold it in on each end down it comes all right let's see what we've got it looks like the fixture is being held up by a toggle bolt on each end first we're going to disconnect the wiring we've got the hot coming in got the neutral we're in a residence so we know we have 120 volt wiring lefty loosey takes the wire nut off i don't reuse wire nuts i throw them away if they've been in service and these are as old as the lights no doubt i pitch them they're gone these wire nuts are dead to me all right disconnect the ground straighten it all out so we can peel the fixture off it take my lineman's lefty loosey that's 12 gauge up here the grounds are twisted and take it all apart in preparation for sliding this fixture off there it is all right these toggle bolts are kind of a long haul they're probably three or four inches long it's a great time to pull out an impact driver and just zip them out i'm going to loosen the other one before i get this one you know dropping out of the ceiling on me so so so i'm putting a little downward pressure on the bolt itself just a little bit of weight because i want the toggle on top of the drywall to catch and i don't want the toggle and screw to turn together i want them to turn independently so it actually comes down out of the ceiling here since i've got plenty to work with i can go by hand i can spin a little faster freehanding it there it is we've just removed two fluorescent lights from this ceiling these are four foot t12 fluorescents pretty inefficient at this point even though they were cutting edge technology like 40 years ago and let's talk about placement of these lights in the ceiling i've got a top top shelf that is 16 inches deep off the wall what i want to consider is the spread of light because i want light getting into the shelves i don't want to position the lights such that i'm casting shadows we're gonna have a total of six lights in this space we're gonna have a lot of overlapping spread the lights and usually in the instructions they'll be um it'll indicate the spread of the light but these lights have about a 135 degree overall spread so that's a cone of light that's going to come down about like this so what i'm considering is probably about 12 inches out from that top shelf such that we get a good illumination into every lower shelf subsequent shelf and so rather than the 16 at the top shelf probably 28 out to the first light and that will replicate itself around the three sides of the closet that have shelving i think it's important to know what your final product looks like and to make sure that you're illuminating the the clothing the colors allow the lady of the house to make a good selection so this homeowner has communicated that they actually want because of the width of the hanger and some potential final larger projections of shelving to come out to 34 inches to center of the first light so that's what we're going to do here all right no actually let's do 34 by 34. guys always use pencil no sharpie on drywall it's it's so hard to cover kills paint three coats later ugh hate it and always use a folding rule always now you can use a tape measure i'm kidding i love my folding rule all right there are my crosshairs nice clean crosshairs so what i'm going to do before i cut a single hole is i'm going to identify my locations because if i want to if i need to based upon framing shift my pattern or any other type of obstruction i want to shift the whole pattern i don't want to have one light that's three inches out of sequence with the greater picture so i'm going to spot my holes i'm going to probe and feel and explore to make sure i've got adequate space now the beautiful thing about the wafer lights because they're a half inch deep half inch thick that's the same as drywall and what that means is i probably won't hit any obstructions that'll prevent me from putting in the wafers as opposed to a recessed can light or pot light as they've been called that would have to be dialed in to fit around every obstruction in the ceiling so this really is a great application and product feels good location number one i'm just going to spin that around feeling oh beautiful wide open let's let's spot the other five before we cut the first okay so we've marked our 34 and 34 and what we want to do is find the center between the two so i'm going to go from mark to mark crosshair to crosser i've got 51 on the money so half of that 25.5 puts me here this is one place where our folding rule guys it's a no-brainer and then i'm going to go 34 off the wall to that mark finalize my crosshairs if i'm operating in an older home where things are just plumb out of square i might not be able to measure along the wall oh i got something i might not be able to measure along the wall because i could have an inch and a quarter inch and three quarter variation in that wall and i'm going to end up with lights that aren't in a straight line so some kind of straight edge a laser anything between the marks to make sure that i'm in line if there's any question about the integrity of the wall is a great idea boom right there all right so let's move over a bit because i know i'm going to get coverage i feel i feel my framing running this way my eyeballs are on the end of the screwdriver blade oh that's the edge of it okay the other edge there it is it's gonna work again wait for light disc light half inch thickness same as drywall great so went ahead and took a moment to set the laser on the floor plumbed the first line shoot across the ceiling and now we've got certainty that we're dialed in three in a straight line as long as we cut our holes true it'll be a beautiful outcome and if you're working for an electrical engineer they'll notice an eighth of an inch so at this point we've mapped everything to the ceiling we have confidence that it's going to be a good fit i've got three different ways of cutting holes i'm going to show you all three first is i just cut out a little cardboard template there is a margin for air so it's not a perfect circle but it's going to be good enough here and i'm going to under cut just a little bit because i'm going to come back with my jab saw after i i'm going to cut it with the jab so then i'm going to come back and clean it up just a little bit try outfit that and just ease that baby in there because i want as much drywall to grab too so it's not slipping and messy in the hole so here it goes template to the ceiling again a fine pencil line so it's easy to cover with primer or paint keep it tight to my template there it is the old-fashioned method and i'm going to cut with the thickness of my blade on the inside of the line inside of the template so i don't accidentally add a sixteenth or an eighth of an inch all the way around my template i do only have about three sixteenths to play with so that would start getting a little sketchy and plus two the jab size is so it's so forgiving i'm gonna feel what i'm working into and i'm gonna feel the difference between drywall and something else i could come across like a wire or a pipe i don't want to cut into that this is probably not the greatest time to be utilizing an aggressive power tool like a sawzall and one more thing look at the um how the blade is shaped the the it's narrow at the top that's going to give a lot less resistance if i'm using this cutting portion right here um to turning and take following that circumference of the circle if i'm full depth not only do i risk hitting something in the ceiling but i also there's more resistance to that turn i'm going to get a sloppier cut because i'm using a straight blade on a round round cut [Music] oh [Music] boom oh i like it i like it i'm actually not going to snap it up in there just yet that's a good fit [Music] beautiful wide open all right this is a good time to talk about why i selected this product one it's incredibly forgiving on the layout because of that disc nature the only thing that's beyond a half inch thickness is the wire protrusion itself you don't want to crank and bend that over and cause damage to the wire and the spring clips a little bit beyond half inch so that's going to be real forgiving as far as placement but also check this out and that under six inches right there most can lights are going to have a larger profile than that unless you get a low profile can light recessed light pot light all the same thing it's not going to fit because i've got an attic space up there with storage so i'm going to do my wiring from below because there's literally plywood sitting on top of the two by sixes and so not enough room for a can light unless i buy the more expensive low profile lights and i'm in it for another 125 bucks on the project and and what this is a beautiful vintage 1980s worth nothing can light that is low profile that we've pulled out of the project and obviously this is a new work edition there's no way this is going in the ceiling now but the overall concept is it does have the ability to fit but look at everything you're trying to fit and house so take a look if you've got nothing in the ceiling already and you're planning this project this is probably not what you're looking for this is called an led retrofit it's a retrofit because it fits up inside of a can light take a look at that much larger profile this is rated for five and six inch can lights that refers to the diameter it's got a typical led polarized plug there only fits one way and this is the tail adapter that screws into your standard edison so this right here is not meant to be wired independently you can't just cut things back and wire nut into this this unit has to be housed inside of a recessed light and it says here in the box recessed down light this is not an independent product one thing i do like about the leds nowadays is they've got the color temperature adjustment on the back side this one actually has five adjustable settings which is beautiful you can take your pick so just so we're clear this goes with this and before i plug it together screw it in now everywhere you've got can lights that are existing i highly recommend that you upgrade to an led retrofit it's an incredibly beautiful modern look all of our builders and remodelers are utilizing this um i'm gonna say five six years ago these were like 20 30 bucks a piece at this point they're down to five six bucks apiece really phenomenal deal black friday you can probably pick them up for two so a few more things to consider when purchasing your down light this packaging is actually really instructive juno is a good brand we've got 670 nominal lumens of output per down light that is approximately equivalent to a 60 watt bulb 10 lumens per watt is the led to incandescent equivalent that we're used to and that's nominal lumens because actually all led lighting products are going to slowly almost imperceptibly quite imperceptibly degrade over time in their light output recommended mounting height is nine feet dimmable if you want dimming characteristics i'd actually recommend that in any closet that you've got especially the master closet because you're going to walk in here in the early morning and you might not want full bright now one thing to note you can't just necessarily throw any dimmer on your led lights or there's going to be incompatibility and it won't perform well so if you want to dim it make sure it says dimmable and then if you want to make sure it dims optimally then find a dimmer that's been rated to be compatible with this product on your manufacturer's website if you don't want to go that deep with it give it a shot 120 volt weight rated wet location look at that wet location this is good for a shower don't settle for damp location a shower is a wet location those are two different ratings and so uh in this case we don't need wet location this is a dry location but just be mindful of that nine watt overall use ic rated what is that that means rated for direct contact with insulation see the issue there was some of the old lights and some of the new lights too they'll have a heat issue and if you pack insulation around them and you've using them in a attic application that insulation will trap the heat it'll actually shorten the life and put you at risk of fire potentially cri color rendering index the higher the number the better the results color rendering index means how true will this light display the colors of the space in a closet cri is going to be relatively important when you're picking out clothes and matching things up you want them to look their truest form so pick a number that's 90 or above my recommendation 50 000 hour life now here's an interesting thought a lot of us have been frustrated with the results we've gotten 50 000 hour life means like 25 to 50 years depending on the use time of that product it's averaged use is three hours per day is what residential lighting gets utilized uh if you haven't experienced that full 50 000 hour life it may be that it's a result of poor installation like a heat situation ic rated kind of thing it could be that it's dirty grid power coming in where your electronics and leds do have electronics this part of the junction box is actually rectifying ac to dc power for the led lights and it could be that the product has actually been damaged by a dirty grid or it could be just bought cheap stuff juno is pretty well respected here's one more thing i want to eliminate energy star if you're going after some kind of utility rebate for upgrading the lighting the product is going to have to be energy star rated in order to claim that rebate so check for that little icon on the box dirty grid means you're not getting a pure 60 hertz sine wave and they're fluctuations see the every component in your home is designed to operate upon certain specifications and when the electricity coming in it browns out or does different things that cause it to fluctuate outside of those specifications that's harmful and damaging to electronics doesn't usually kill things instantaneously but it does damage them slowly over time we'll talk about dirty grade power later alright methodology number two my jab saw keyhole saw a drywall saw is going to be difficult to cut out my nice true circle where the framing member and these center two lights is going right through because the jab saw is intended to cut through the hole and i can't there so i'm going to use method number two and that is a drywall cutter it's got blade on either side i'm matching the blade to i flip my product upside down put down some cardboard so don't mar the face i flip my product upside down and i'm matching it to the hole size i want one thing to note is the whole overall inevitably it's going to be a little bit more sloppy so match it tight knowing that you're going to get another 16 eighth of an inch out of it all said and done and start small you can always expand that a little bit if you need to so my pilot bit my cutters are sized my pilot bit slips in there locks my cutters in place their teeth along the edge we'll have a link for this product in the description now i'm locked in and what i do here slip it into the dust cup so i'm going to catch all that dust this is really useful if you're operating in a clean space and that cup is going to spin freely jam it up against the ceiling and then there's a spring action that goes on here look at that spring action that's going to allow me to plunge into my cut so chuck it up to my drill here we go wild man there it is she got a good seat spins freely if that dust cup doesn't spin freely what it's going to do is it's going to score the ceiling in this 12 inch diameter all the way around your cut and you're going to have this big nasty circle nice and slow there it is easy does it tiger yeezy does it it isn't it how's it option number three if you have a lot of holes to cut you want to accelerate the process now watch out this baby's gonna throw off a lot of dust but this is a compass that's been installed on top of a rotozip the rotozip is going to actually be what's cut in the hole right there that bit right here and this pin is going to go in the center of our hole it's spaced to 2 and a 16th so we're going to get a four and one eighth inch perfect circle out of the cut the only thing that i'm fighting here is i was real sloppy with my screwdriver exploring that hole so this pin is not gonna sit real real clean in there so i'm actually potentially gonna shove a little bit up in there like some wood chips to help grab that pin and then i'm going to spin it around [Applause] [Music] um so [Music] [Applause] i love it link in the description [Music] [Applause] [Music] so in this circumstance um this wiring is not going to be conducive to what i've got going on i'm going to show you how to eliminate this wiring make it safe and then also at least two different methods of running new wiring through the ceiling we've got the beautiful dynamic of access on the other side of this wall show you in a second but if you don't and you've got to fish the wiring that's what we call it fish the wiring then my recommendation to you is a couple of things i've got an extension here this is a quarter inch extension that fits the shank of that bit hexagonal shape eighth inch hex key to snug that down and what this is gonna give me is extra reach right there extra reach so what i need to do is get through framing i'm going to hit the box go this way that's an easy fish no resistance there but when i've got to go across the framing that's where i'm going to encounter challenges i don't want to drill out the bottom of my joist because that's going to damage the structural integrity so in this case i'm going to get as high and at a steep angle as i can with a small bit that size that'll fit my wire the circuit here is a 20 amp circuit so i'm using 12 gauge wire that is a match to number one code and number two what's existing [Music] right all right this is where the extension comes into play i want to make sure that that framing doesn't have any mechanicals i'm going to drill into we'll let it grab i'm going to put two hands on the drill what i don't want it to do is kick and buck and that thing can actually snap and we had team members with injuries and stitches to the forehead jaw nose because of the torque that these power tools can create let's create a small opening in my twelve two i don't rip it too badly because you want it to stay bundled up i'm gonna pull that out and i'm gonna untwist it as i pull it's just gonna allow for it to pull through the framing a little bit more neatly and nicely so untwist pull that out i'm going to send it through that hole i just drilled there it is we're going to fish across now if you've got a blind space my recommendation to you is to install more can lights rather than fewer and what that's going to do for you is it's going to give you more relay and access points there's other wiring up there i'm gonna give you more relay access points to get that wiring fish through take a look at that boom there it is we just fished it through i'm gonna give myself a little extra a little bit extra my junction box is going to be on this side of the framing divide i'm going to get a solid 12 to 14 inches yeah there it is there it is okay so what i've got here is i've got a full joist bay 16 on center joist bait i've got one hole i'm going to have on either side i've already drilled this one i'm about to drill this one and i want to align those holes because i'm going to have to fish through a blind space with fish sticks link to the fish sticks in the description below so when i drill this hole i'm going to try to be low i'm going to be mindful that my bit doesn't damage the hole on either side because i like it but i've got a good clean hole i want to be in alignment so i'm not trying to fish at a wonky zigzag angle bring that down there it is good clean hole and now i just need to fish through there so 12 2 is a conductor there's a cable so 12 so 12 2 is a cable with three conductors haha check it out one two three but the thing is the grounding conductor isn't counted black white that's two conductors 12 3 would include a red conductor um what i'm doing here is i'm getting this conductor ready to be fished across the opening here are my fish sticks hello hello now these are nice and flexible i put two of these together they thread end to end no problem easy peasy look at that fishing apparatus you can add hooks and loops to the ends to grab that wire but at this point i can see my first hole there it is all right i'm in there now i've got to get it out of my second hole my fish stick i'm sure i'm too high so i'm going to bring it down you i might be able to send it through the hole tell me if you see it all right what are we doing right there to see it explain it all right so my buddy chris here has just helped me fish this through i've got nice flexible fish sticks right there it is he's showing the light i had good alignment i had a sense as to how high in that frame remember my my hole was and i just put a little pressure on my flexible fish stick to bring down the nose found the hole in and out so i took my wire strip back all the conductors but one bend it over on that hook i want to make sure it doesn't fall out of the ceiling you never want to lose a fish never ever ever so frustrating we got this one in like 30 seconds we'll lose it it'd be minutes hours and days before we get it again it's the curse of the fish never lose a fish so i'm using good quality electrical tape i'm going to tape it up so i close that opportunity to lose it i've got a single number 12 copper conductor that's holding it on there i've got a real easy path and i'm just going to squeeze it through i'm not gonna pull too hard i don't want to destroy my fish sticks ooh it's gonna want to bind and hang up at the holes oh there it is come on ease it back a little bit ease it forward let's find that hole there it is there it is nice and easy pull that 12 2 romex also known as nm cable right through there all right it's at the second hole there it comes boom wiring and cable should never be damaged when it's fished or pulled through raceways or board holes and framing so you just got to ease it through there you don't want to scar up that outer jacket and it's pretty lightweight that can easily be done i'm going to give myself that 12 to 14 inches again boom here we go don't don't drop your wire each time just pull more out hook it on the ladder save yourself a trip down and up now i'm going parallel to framing nice and easy nice and easy there it is boom there it is i'm going to plan my wiring route so that i do not have three wires in one junction box that's going to overload these junction boxes you want to read the instructions check your j box and make sure that you're only putting the number of conductors that are allowed in the box so this already has two i'm not going to add a three i'm going to go around the horn keep it simple i'm going to staple staple on these wires it's holding it in place no there it is got it that's free and clear get this old stuff out of here again make sure it's dead utilizing at the very least a non-contact voltage detector and do the same thing again i'm going to strip back that inch and a half peel it over i'm going to take a little chance i wiggle this wire i know these lights are tied together and that one over there is dancing and jumping so what i'm going to do is i'm going to hook ground to ground whoops i'm going to cut these down here i want everything to be as tight as possible real real slim i don't want a big bundle of tape i'm disregarding that other cable for now and i'm going to tie it on there smooth pull that electrical tape tight it's got stretch to it say not more than two laps at any point on the cable i'm going to pinch that in there's a bit of a head right there i don't want that to hang up take my needle nose i'm just going to pinch that down pinch that head down there make sure it's smooth i'm not worried at this point about damaging any of this wire because i'm actually going to cut it off at the end there it is let's see what we can get some of y'all aren't going to understand this is for demonstration purposes all right there's a staple here get that out of the way utilizing my large flathead and prying against the framing it's now loose come on let's go whoo there it is all right now what do we do with it it's not in the right location pull a little extra here watch this watch this cut that off oh gotta get me some there it is i'm gonna feed this extra over here got plenty plenty there feed there it is that's reaching back in there fishing that grabbing that wire that we fished across the ceiling it's right i'm gonna bend this one over here so i don't lose it i'm gonna feed some more conductor length in into the hole pull it out i mean this is this is where you make your money right here a little bit of fancy pants magic get my needle nose pliers out of there before i forget them what i did was i used those needle nose to give me extra length because i'm working through such a small hole and now i've got my wire reposition my ladder all right we're going to spend a minute we're going to demystify what's going on here i don't want it to be intimidating you can do this you can do this there's my wire feed a little bit more in there it's not there there it is come on just need it to wiggle and jolt and feed across there that angles too much all right so what's going on here we've got this wire that we just fished across the ceiling to demonstrate that it really can be difficult the wire comes in here i'm going to go ahead and cut that this is two distinct ends at this point and it relays to this last hole now we're not quite here to our destination i'm going to reach in there i'm going to grab it pull it over and really in most simplistic fashion what we've got going on here is we're just relaying from one hole to the next my my switch leg from the switch is gonna come in to number one number one i relay to number two from two to three from three to four from four to five and from five to six i've gone right around the horn and everything's gonna get power last thing to do here before we start wiring the lights is to get rid of this old wire that's my old switch leg i'm gonna identify it and cut as much of it out as i can get to without ripping down the ceiling and i'm going to make sure that it never gets energized again all right so we've located our wire check it out and we are going to be able to reuse that switch leg so we don't leave any garbage lingering in the wall all right so at this point chris the homeowner is pulling his wire out getting hands on here oh there's a staple there's a fight maybe it's just round in the hole there there it is beautiful chris beautiful well done is it that one yeah here it is get it out of here we're gonna you're gonna be replacing this header right yeah getting some more structural stability in there and this wire is in good shape we don't have any damage along its length and it's long enough so we're going to reuse it from the switch location up and through clearing the header to the first can light so we've pulled the wire through the ceiling with all six down light locations pulled to we've pulled out our switch leg um and now i'm using my non-contact voltage detector this is like tool number one to keep you safe i highly recommend it link in the description you just touch it to the wire and if it doesn't turn red it's off what i'm going to do is i'm going to take my switch leg the circuit's live mind you there's power in this box some of you are already freaking out freaking out there's power in the box know your limitations you stop respecting it you will get bit and i'm going to peel back that hot conductor i do know that's my hot conductor white could be hot you got to know what's going on but in this case it's definitely black and i'm capping it so now if somebody throws that switch no one's getting injured so that's safe i'm going to mount my switch on the inside of the wall now watch what's going on here i'm matching what's existing in the space so i'm 48 inch from concrete to the bottom of my box i'm going to actually mark this on both sides of the wall because i'm open on the back side anytime i can use a nail on box and get a little bit more strength in the mounting i'm going to do it watch this this nail on box here i'm going to do one thing it's meant to be nailed on to this side of framing so the nails are angled but what i'm going to do is i'm going to reverse it i'm going to push it through to the face of drywall after cutting my hole and i'm going to nail it on so pro tip i'm going to reverse my nails too so that they're angling to give my hammer the right approach space to swing there it is so hold my box up god this nail right here is coming through i'm going to clench it get it out of my way hold my box up flush to the stud with the bottom at 48 trace it there it is there it is my clan keyhole saw and now i want to be careful i am actually going to cut it from the backside here but if i forcibly send this saw through i risk tear out on the other side and it's pretty right now so i don't want to destroy it oh it's got some bounce and flux nice and easy nice and easy saw action not jam action [Music] [Laughter] [Music] beautiful beautiful all right here it goes here it goes oh good clean fit all right i want my nails to grab so i'm actually going to recess it just a bit which will work out fine with my switch so we're feeling around to the face making sure we get a good fit i'm turning my hammer sideways on purpose so i've got more room to swing looks kind of clunky but i'm gonna have a nice tight box all right next we're going to run our switch leg our reused wire and the only reason we're reusing it because it's in good shape it's got good insulation it's got a full-size ground there's nothing that's deficient about this and note this is 12 gauge even though it's white it's just a little bit older before that color coding went into effect usually 12 is going to be yellow so this is my king stud homeowners replacing that header but this king stud stays so i'm clear to drill here i've got no obstructions that i'm going to hit up there and i want to make sure i'm in the center front to back of that stud there are codes about that i don't want to be just tucked right right in the middle [Music] beautiful beautiful i'm going to fire that hole once the project is over and prevent the spread of flame all right poke it right up in there ah there it is all right let's fish it to the hole now feed our wire up through the hole i'm going to keep all the wire i need on this end to terminate in my box and provide a nice little service loop there and take my my extra wire here on my switch leg and i'm gonna shove it right across the ceiling to my light nothing difficult about it before i secure the wire i want to finish pulling it from point a to point b sure enough there it is there it is good to go i like it i like it time to make up our lights rolling all right now we're starting at the first junction no particular order here we're going to make up all the lights around the room if you've got more than two wires or more wires that will fit in a manufacturer compliant fashion in your junction box what you want to do is add an auxiliary junction box with a cover all wiring connections have to be contained that's real important and then check this one out so handy it's got built-in wire connectors that junction box every junction box has to remain permanently accessible every single wiring junction the fact that these lights pull back out of the ceiling without damaging the building surface that's key code language you can slip that junction box after making it up to your wires up inside the ceiling as long as you have enough length to be able to pull it back out now i don't really recommend that because no one's going to know it's there so if there's a failure on the wiring connections in this box it's going to be difficult to diagnose and troubleshoot at a later date buddy if you have to that's what you can do all right i've got a small junction box so i'm planning six inches of strip length that's all i want that's all i need i don't want to have to stuff any more 12 gauge wire inside of that box watch out for that open utility blade there are various types of romex strippers that are going to be a little bit more friendly than that open blade all right here's an alternative to stripping your romex it's going to help keep you safe from that uh utility knife blade i'm using the 12 2 strip gauge i'm going to go up six inches i pinch and pull and then i've got a good clean strip it's beautiful beautiful that's going to make it's going to make it real easy to terminate this i'm not using the provided wire nuts i'm going to use a larger size because these are not suitable for connection with two 12 gauge conductors and the 14 gauge conductors that come on the inside of this box small flathead screwdriver pop out the knockout just back and oh this box is real flimsy back and forth nice and easy don't break anything all right so now i'm going to tighten down the connector i use the phrase all the time but tool tight make it tool tight grab my mini nipx lineman's snug it down there it is slide these in this is the junction box that came with my led down lights i want a minimum of a quarter inch of outer jacket inside my box i'm going to tighten down the clamp just enough to where i don't have any wire slippage no death gripping there it is there it is all right turning face turning face here it is and now it's just a simple color to color equation see that green and yellow conductor that's my grounding conductor so i'm going to strip my outer jackets these are 12 gauge so i'm going to use my 12 gauge strip hole peel back three quarters of an inch beautiful beautiful a little bit more and then i'm going to match up my colors and i'm going to start with my solid conductors first in this case my solid grounding conductors i'm going to twist them to the right give them a nice pre-twist if one one's longer than the other i'm going to cut off that excess i just want them to line up i want the wire nut to grab both conductors beautifully beautifully my wire nuts i'm using tans perfect and that's the number one job of an electrician right there to make good wiring connections high quality i want these to be so tight so right so nicely beautifully pre-twisted patiently pre-twisted that even if you didn't have a wire nut you'd have a good wiring connection of course you're going to use a wire nut all right color to color i'm doing it just being thoughtful about how the wire lays in there so it's neat and tidy so that i can easily add something uh press them all back into the box now look at that there's like a less than a quarter of an inch so i'm going to strip back a little bit more i'm going to take those conductor individual strands twist them to the right add them so i've got all my grounds together this is just a simple color to color equation i've got it twisted right in there now if anything's going to come loose here it's going to be my stranded conductor it's the one that might actually get pushed out of the equation by my wire nut especially if i was using an undersized wire nut and things are real tight i'm going to pull on that strand of conductor and do a tug test it should not come out you can pull pretty hard next set of conductors same thing it's too short i want more connection one more connection there i'm gonna strip back black and white and give them the nice pre-twist to the right seated in there everything just so beautiful lots of connection conductivity they're all the same length there it is there it is let it grab that strain of conductor you'll feel it pulling and twisting into the joint give it a tug test love it there it is there it is i'm real particular on this one this is my hot conductor i'm gonna make sure every little strand is in that joint i've seen it before where one little strand came out just was pushed out of place and was up against the metal of the j box turn that switch on and pop nice electrical arc tripped breaker troubleshooting diagnose time wasted tug test [Music] i don't like it i've got a little wiggle back it off see what's going on here got a little wiggle yeah see it's just working its way out of the joint let's do it again look at that fuzzy monster into the joint work it into the joint oh there it is there it is you can feel it pull and grab pull and grab tug test now it's not going anywhere this electrical joint will last 150 years worry-free all right so now we're going to tuck it all into the box jam and cram are bad words all our wiring connections are sound we're folding them over gently tucking them in there look at that all that's just going to lay and fit beautifully if i had 8 10 12 inches of wire in here way too much way too much i'm going to fold that over and i'm watching i'm on the lookout for sharp edges pinched wire none of that snap good good good nice and tight i'm gonna go ahead and take my my whip here it is a polarized connection it'll only fit one way be nice and gentle those pins are real small just press it in there and then it twists on righty tighty there it is you throw that switch this baby's gonna light right up what i might recommend to you is go ahead and get all these wired up leave them hanging out of the ceiling if you've got any doubt energize the system turn on the switch and just make sure they all light up if you've got a a runt right out of the litter and these things aren't good guess what just twist it off and replace it before you go through the hassle of tucking all this into the ceiling take our j box again i'm going to fold those wires up there one of the reasons i left extra is because i'm going to have to fold push and then push them one way or the other to get them out of my way and i want to have that latitude up there so there's plenty to work with if i left two or three four feet that's too much now i've just got a big rat's nest sitting in the ceiling cover's popping off as this wire flexes up in there i really don't like that i really don't like that that cover doesn't want to stay it's popping right off you know what i'm going to do zip tie and electrical tape i don't want to put any screws into this box i don't want those sharp points damaging my wire i'm going to take three wraps of electrical tape and stretch it tight i'm going to keep my cover closed i feel like that's a design deficiency of this particular product i don't want to rely on my electrical tape for an electrical connection but for some mild enduring mechanical strength if it's good quality tape i'm okay with that if it's cheap tape it's gonna dry rot it's gonna dry out and it's gonna lose all elasticity pliability stickiness all right there it is there it is get those spring clips up there there it is all right clean off that face as soon as that light turns on any dust that's left on the lens you'll see it so you may notice we lost one of the wires out of this hole it just it got jiggled out of the way don't ever lose your fish we've just spent 25 minutes getting it back so we fished it out of this hole we're sending it back to the other hole there it is come on come on come on don't ever lose your fish don't ever fold them over protect them talking and working at the same time there it is there it is all right on the back side of the wall i've popped my knockout out of the box slipping in my switch leg my hot feed i don't want to get them mixed up so i've got it i've got it labeled a little piece of little flag of red tape there all right there it is plenty of wire on both i'm going to uh staple it on the back side here in this case within eight inches of the penetration so get my wire right where i want it well we have a little service loop i like that enough to work with celebrate jeremy accelerate all right no railroad spikes here just nice gentle soft touch all right beautiful i'm gonna start with my grounds i'm gonna go to my neutrals there's only one ground terminal on my switch so i'm using a crimp sleeve here to combine my grounds there must be a mechanical connection if you just twist your grounds together and you don't use some kind of green wire nut or crimp sleeve then i would argue they haven't satisfied the code so because i've got one ground terminal on my switch i made a secure crimp i'm gonna crimp it again it looks a little bit funky it is love it got to keep those grounds nice and tight and right bend that shepherd's hook boom moving on to my neutrals um these are going together under a wire net same thing match the ends twist to the right now one point of caution a white conductor at a switch is not always a neutral you do have to know if it's a neutral or it could be utilized as a switch leg or return so be mindful of the purpose and use of each conductor if a white is being utilized as something other than a neutral then it does need to be relabeled with a little flag of black tape or some kind of permanent marking such as sharpie or paint all right i'm gonna see a number two phillips is just so sloppy in this uh terminal screw that i'm gonna use a number one robertson screwdriver which is beautiful less force required no fuss no muss here it is grab that tip bend the shepherd's hook real important that you bend wrap it around the screw clockwise and be talking about that all the time it's a little sloppy clockwise clockwise so it works into the terminal i don't want any expose installation underneath my terminal screw i want a good clean connection i'm going to keep this little flag of tape for identification purposes in case i need to bring another wire into this box at some point i know the difference at a glance between my hot which is this guy here's my power feed into the box and my switch leg which is my feed to the light let's strain it up just a little bit clockwise nice gentle wrap i'm pull i'm actually pulling on the switch to help that wire seat in there righty tighty don't death grip it and if you've got a strong pair of hands you'll actually peel that switch apart it can actually separate and fall apart in your hands if you death grip that so i've got ever all the connections made and i'm going to give it just a nice little bend i'm going to tuck it all in there i don't want my ground wire to be in contact with my hot terminals because that's recipe for a dead short again that number one square drive or robertson snug it up snug it up to the face of drywall don't over tighten there's not a lot of stress on this switch it doesn't have to be death gripped just gently snugged into place make sure it's true and vertical for a good pretty fit and finish we're going to flip on power and give it a test before we throw the switch here i want to illuminate a couple things price tag on this project between 150 bucks and 200 bucks a light is a reasonable place to land as a homeowner you're nine to twelve hundred dollars into the project as a business owner you're gonna have four to five hours in the performance of the job but you've gotta capture that front end estimate the material acquisition time frame your setup your cleanup and your homeowner engagement you're gonna have seven to eight hours in a four to five hour project because of the peripherals so don't forget that three two one boom hey subscribe to electric pro academy for real skills to make real money and click here for our next video on lighting repairs and upgrades full of pro tips codes to help keep you safe and move your project forward

Channel: Electric Pro Academy

Views: 144,929

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Id: KuiGaUUFkKo

Length: 64min 58sec (3898 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 08 2022