Flourescent/Track conversion question


  #1  
Old 11-18-03, 10:37 AM
HGC
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Flourescent/Track conversion question

I removed an old flourescent light fixture from the kitchen ceiling. The array of wires included the two neutral whites, the two grounds (bare ones), the two hot blacks, and the one confusing red. I've installed a track light in its place. I added the red to the blacks. The wall has a triple switch: one for the ceiling, one for the over-the-sink light, and one for the exhaust. The sink light is piggybacked to the ceiling I believe: when I had the ceiling fixture wires capped separately between getting the old fixture down and the new one installed, I had to join the red to the blacks in order for the sink light to work. At any rate, as I've rewired it now that the track light is up and working, each of the two wall switches (forget the exhaust) turn on the ceiling and the sink lights, as a pair.

What do I do? Pull out the red wire, cap it and leave it at that? Or something else?
 
  #2  
Old 11-18-03, 11:27 AM
J
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Wire the track lighting to the same pair of wires that the old fluorescent was wired to, leaving all other connections alone. It is usually not a good idea to start rearranging existing connections.
 
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Old 11-18-03, 11:30 AM
HGC
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thanks

Thanks much. The problem is, I don't remember for a dead certainty how it was on the old fixture, whether the red was with the blacks or off on its own. I think together. However, before each light operated separately and from only one switch. Now they're working as a pair, and from either switch. Could this be, I wonder, because I no longer have two flourescents, but one flourescent and one track/halogen?

Anyhow, thanks much.
 
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Old 11-18-03, 11:47 AM
J
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Try connecting the red from the box only to the black wire from the track lighting. Connect all the blacks in the box to each other, but not to the track lighting.

No, it's not due to what you guessed.
 
  #5  
Old 11-18-03, 12:35 PM
HGC
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Okay. Will do, when I get the energy to turn off the power there and take the fixture down. I'll report once I've done so. I do appreciate the input. (There probably ought to be a law about diminutive people of the female persuasion undertaking electrical work aided only by a Wiring 1-2-3 book.)
 
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Old 11-18-03, 02:58 PM
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Originally posted by HGC
(There probably ought to be a law about diminutive people of the female persuasion undertaking electrical work aided only by a Wiring 1-2-3 book.)
My thoughts on a daily basis!
Don't knock youself for being female. Being female has nothing to do with it. Most ladies can think on their feet as good or better than any man.
 
  #7  
Old 11-18-03, 06:25 PM
R
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I hate to say it, but this is another case of it being necessary to thoroughly document the existing wiring before removing any devices (lights, switches, etc.)

You can continue to experiment, trying different combinations till it works, or you can buy an inexpensive neon tester and figure out which wire goes to where. Once you know where the wires go to/come from, wiring it will be snap.
 
 

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