3 wire light 2 wire coming out of ceiling
#1
01-01-05, 02:00 PM
3 wire light 2 wire coming out of ceiling
I just bought some new lights for my house and I went to hook them up but found that I have a three wire light and I have only two wires coming out of the ceiling and there is no box. The old light had the ground wire hooked up with the white wire and has been that way for the 15 years I have lived here. Is there a safe way for a three wire light to be hooked up to a two wire source? Thanks for any help.
#2
01-01-05, 02:35 PM
Member
Connecting the grounding wire in with the white is, pure and simple, insane. It is 100 times better to leave the grounding wire unconnected.
No box? What held it up? Unless the fixture you install has a special compartment in the fixture for the electrical connections (which is true of many wall-mounted bath fixtures), you must install a box.
The biggest problem you have is probably not that you have no grounding, but that you have 60-degree wire. The vast majority of fixtures sold today require 90-degree wire. About the only ones that don't are the fixtures which hang down a ways, keeping the bulbs some distance from the ceiling.
Ungrounded lighting fixtures are not as safe as grounded ones, but it's not the most dangerous thing in the world.
No box? What held it up? Unless the fixture you install has a special compartment in the fixture for the electrical connections (which is true of many wall-mounted bath fixtures), you must install a box.
The biggest problem you have is probably not that you have no grounding, but that you have 60-degree wire. The vast majority of fixtures sold today require 90-degree wire. About the only ones that don't are the fixtures which hang down a ways, keeping the bulbs some distance from the ceiling.
Ungrounded lighting fixtures are not as safe as grounded ones, but it's not the most dangerous thing in the world.
