Recessed lighting issue

Hello all,
I'm a new home owner and I'm finishing my basement and I've wired a new 15 amp circuit with an outlet and 4 recessed lights.. I turned on the power and everything works except the lights.. I tested to see if there was power going to the cans and there is to all four. I tested the outlet that is before the light switch loop and it works as well. I looked at all the wiring and everything adds up.. I'm confused, please help.. Some context I live in RI and the basement is all new construction.

 

Welcome to the forums.

The receptacle works well but the lights don't work at all. This would be a perfect place to have a voltmeter to check for 120vac.

Do you have a meter..... not a non contact test pen ?

 

Can you tell us the connections and wire colors at the switch?

 

Yes I do... I haven't used it yet but I'll give it a shot.. Where would I test on the recessed lights?

 

It's a 2 wire/1 ground nm romex

 

Recessed lighting won't work in RI. You either have to change the lights to LED or move. JK

There could be a lost neutral somewhere. Check your junction boxes.

 

Excuse my ignorance but what's the definition of a lost neutral?

 

Checked all Junction boxes and all connectors are tight.. I'm not sure how reliable the non contact pen but when the switch is on its have power to all cans but none of the bulbs are lite

 

The neutral is the white wire. It's possible that it's not making a complete connection somewhere along the line. Between the breaker box & the lights, how many junction boxes are there? Look in the breaker box as well for a bad connection.

 

It's not so those results are not useful. If power goes from the receptacle to the switch you would not have a switch loop. At the switch two blacks to the switch and the two whites connected only to each other.

 

From the breaker box there is one outlet and the light switch itself, I tested the outlet and it worked fine and the switch works as it should. Would the user of an AFCI breaker be the cause?

 

You didn't say how you delivered power to the lights.

Does the wiring go like this:

- black and white from receptacle into switch box
- black from receptacle to one switch terminal, white from receptacle tied to white to lights with wire nut
- black to lights attached to other switch terminal

If so, this is correct. You will have to open up each light wiring box to ensure the wires were not over twisted. When connecting wires with nut, sometimes they can be pulled up into wire nut too far, causing a lost connection. Basically the insulation gets pulled up into connection.

 

How did you determine that. If you mean you used a non contact tester then you don't know. Where does power come in? Is it at the switch box?

 

Let's go back to the beginning. You opened the breaker box & you installed a 15 amp breaker. When you ran the Romex, where in the box did you connect the white wire & what was the next stop after the breaker box, on the white wire? Was in a junction box or the outlet?

 

OK.. From the breaker I ran Romex to an outlet(attaching to silver screw using a pigtail) from the outlet I ran to the switch (attaching the neutrals with a wire nut) then ran from switch to the lights.

 

Then it is not a switch loop for the lights. Are you saying you put the receptacles on a switch loop? How did you wire it at the switch.

Confusing because you wrote: The light would not be on a switch loop if power comes in at the switch.

 

So both the black & the white wires went to the outlet. Then a second white wire continued to the lights & a second black wire went to the switch. Then a 3rd black wire went to the lights. Is all that correct?

 

Black and white went to outlet then black and white went to switch then black and white went to lights

 

Is there any way to put a picture on here? I could show the wiring clear any confusion

 

No. That is wrong. As I previously wrote:

 

@ray2047
I apologize for the confusion didn't mean to call it a loop ,the power does come in at the switch after an outlet

 

Is this how you wired it:

Attachment 50574

 

Correct ray, the two neutrals are connected only to each other with a wire nut and the hot from the outlet is connected to bottom terminal and the hot going to lights is connected to top terminal and the ground are connected together and attached to switch via pigtail with wire nut

 

Then start at the first light and redo all connections.

 

According to your diagram I have my hots mixed up..

 

The location of the hots does not matter on a single pole switch. The two are interchangeable.