I just installed 4 6 inch recessed lights in my Kitchen and I have them wired to the switched that the ceiling fan was wired to but the problem is that when I turn the lights on they are very dim. The wattage is 65, so what could the problem be?

 

You wired them in series.
Tell us all the connectoins in each light and switch. Tell us where the power comes in.
I'm guessing that power comes into light 1 and switch connects to light 6 and you only used 14/2 wire.

 

My guess is that you ran a new cable from the new lights to the switch, and that there was just one black/white cable in the switch box before that, and that both the black and white wires were attached to the switch. If so, you attempted the impossible. Tell us exactly what you did as Joe requested, and we'll try to help you find the least painful way out of this.

 

Ok. Last night I tried to connect the lights to a different switch and got the same results. So I disconnected all but one light and that light worked perfectly then I added a second light to the series and they both were dim, the more lights I added the dimmer the lights got. So I disconnected them all but one and ran wires of 2 lights directly to the switch (not in a series), then the other 2 I took the wires from each and connected then to one long wire then ran the one long wire to the switch and they all worked perfectedly. But I am not sure if this is safe. But they WORK!!! Would that be considered parallel?

 

You have apparently miswired the fixtures. But until you tell us exactly what connections you made, we cannot tell for sure. It is possible that the way you have it now is okay, but we don't have enough information to tell.

 

OK. When you say connections, do you mean which wires are connected to what and how? If so. I took some 14/2 cable and connected it to the original light switch, black to black, white to white and ground to ground, then I ran the other end of the cable to the 1st light and did the same thing black to black, white to white and ground to ground but I added an addition cable to run to the 2nd light (meaning there were now 3 blacks, 3 whites and 3 ground wires) and continue to a 3rd light and a 4th light but with the forth light I only had 2 blacks to connect, 2 whites to connect and 2 ground wires to connect. When I finished all the lights came on but they were very dim.

 

Does this mean that the switch had wires coming out of it rather than screws? Can you further describe the switch, because it is not therefore an ordinary wall switch. And didn't the switch already have some wires connected to it? Didn't it already control something? You left those other wires out of your description, but we need them included.

 

Yes the switch already already had wires to it. I though I would just have to unscrew th e switch and connect the recessed lights from there. It was a light switch with an outlet on the top half. There was a light fixture in the center of the ceiling but it was taken down before I moved in and the wires wasn't connected. So I am thinking that the switch was for the light fixture., which is the switch I used to turn the recess lights on.

 

What wires?

 

where does the power come in? at the switch or the light?
i don't think you wired it as you described. Because if one light worked Ok and you connected the second light to the black and white at the first light matching black to black and white to white it would work.
Please try again decribing all the wire connections except the grounds.

 

I just installed 4 x 4" Halo housings in a "daisy-chain" method. In other words, light 1 housing has 3 black, 3 white, and 3 ground wires (1 each from switch, light 1, and light 2). Light 2 has 3 black, 3 white, and 3 ground (1 each from light 1, light 2, and light 3). Light 3 has 3 black, 3 white, and 3 ground (1 each from light 2, light 3, and light 4). And finally light 4 has 2 black, 2 white and 2 grounds (1 each from light 3 and light 4). My power comes into my switch then to my lights as discussed above.

When I turned on switch, all but light 4 came on. After some investigation, I discovered that light 4 only had 62 volts.

Any suggestion?

- roberto

 

Moderator: Please move roberto's post and this reply into a new thread:

Roberto, the solution is simple. You have a poorly-made connection at either light 3 or light 4. Recheck your connections at both of those fixtures. Something is not making good contact. The 62-volt reading should be treated the same as if it had read zero.

 

Thanks John!

You were right. The white neutral wire from light 4 had liberated itself from the wire nut within the light 3 housing. They all work perfect now ... dimmer switch and all.

Thanks again!

- ra