I am trying to replace a construction light fixture with a permanent one in my basement. When I took down the construction bulb, the box had 2 sets of wires and was wired to the bulb with whites connected from each wire source and both blacks connected from each source. My new fixture is a 2-bulb fixture with 2 sets of wires (black/white) and the ground. I determined one set of wires from the box goes to the switch. There are also several canned lights that run off of another switch but only come on after the main light is switched on. So what would be the correct wiring connection to maintain the chain here? I'm fumbling through this and tried to wire one set of wires from the light to one set from the box (black to black, white to white) so I have half the light fixture connected one set of wires in the box and the other half of the fixture to the other set of wires in the box but this only turns on one bulb and the canned lights do not come on (yeah, I know...I'm a girl). Basically I have 4 black wires and 4 white wires between the fixture and box (copper from both box wires are twisted together). I didn't realize the other lights were tied to the main light when I started this, so I could use some help! Thanks!

The old dimmer switch in my dining room is beginning to fail, so I bought a new one and tried to install it last night. Both switches are the kind with knobs that you push in to toggle off and on and turn left and right to adjust brightness. The old switch has two black wires. One was connected to a black wire inside the box, and the other was connected to a red wire. From the box, the red wire just went downward, while the black wire went both up and down. (A white wire also ran by the back of the box, but was not connected to the switch.) The new switch has two black wires and a green one. The diagram that came with the switch said to connect one black wire to the hot wire leading back to the circuit breaker, the other black wire to the wire leading to the light, and the green wire to the ground wire. I cut the black wire in the box to produce one black wire to the light and one black wire to the circuit breaker. I then attached one black wire from the switch to each black wire in the box, and I attached the green wire from the switch to the red wire in the box. (The diagram also indicated that the white wire should be right where it was and should not be connected to the switch.) When I turned the power back on, I found that the little LED nightlight in the switch worked when the switch was off, but the ceiling light would not turn on under any circumstances. I tried switching which black wire on the switch went to which black wire in the box, but (not surprisingly) got the same result. After that, I gave up and put the old switch back on, and that switch worked the same as before. The house was built in 1937. So, did I install the switch wrong? I thought I knew what I was doing, but the results say otherwise.