Installing Light Fixture with Single Wire


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Old 07-03-22, 01:38 PM
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Installing Light Fixture with Single Wire

So, I bought a pendant light fixture with just a SINGLE wire coming from the fixture and a loose yellow/green wire (shown in the photo) that I assume attaches in the canopy between the lock washer and lock nut on the loop. The fixture takes a G4 LED bulb.

The instructions, which are crappy, say "1.Two wires do not distinguish live line and neutral line," "2. Connect live line to one of wires from the ceiling canopy," and "3. Connect neutral line to another wire from the ceiling canopy."

Based on that I'd connect the wire from the fixture to the live line and the yellow-green wire to the neutral line, (but I'm not guessing with electric).

Am I missing something or does what what I'm saying sound right? Any help much appreciated. We looked and looked for the fixture and really want to get it installed!

I'll probably just call an electrician since this is so weird, but want to understand this myself and can't find anything online (everything I saw was about finding a single wire in a junction box).


 

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07-04-22, 11:03 AM
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Welcome to the forums.

It appears you may have purchased a partial kit. The G4 LED bulb runs on 12vAC and possibly DC too.
That means you should have gotten a driver (power supply) to convert 120v to 12v.
It would be small and go in the box in the ceiling or in the canopy of the lamp.
The supplied canopy would have a miniature setscrew connector to hold the coax.

The wire coming from the pendant is a low voltage coax. You see the outside metal braid.
The "hot" lead is in the center of that. Can be a little tricky to strip.

 
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Old 07-04-22, 10:28 AM
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Based on that I'd connect the wire from the fixture to the live line and the yellow-green wire to the neutral line,
NO The yellow green is the ground. It gets connected to the other bare wires or the metal junction box.

You must have two wire for the light to work. If you don't then the fixture is defective.
 
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Old 07-04-22, 10:57 AM
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Are you sure the gray looking wire is 1 wire? Since it is an LED light it could be 2 24 gauge wires in a gray sheath. Can you slit the covering to see if it is 1 or 2 wires?
 
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Old 07-04-22, 11:03 AM
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Welcome to the forums.

It appears you may have purchased a partial kit. The G4 LED bulb runs on 12vAC and possibly DC too.
That means you should have gotten a driver (power supply) to convert 120v to 12v.
It would be small and go in the box in the ceiling or in the canopy of the lamp.
The supplied canopy would have a miniature setscrew connector to hold the coax.

The wire coming from the pendant is a low voltage coax. You see the outside metal braid.
The "hot" lead is in the center of that. Can be a little tricky to strip.

 
joshua_, rkbend voted this post useful.
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Old 07-04-22, 01:50 PM
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Hi, any model number or mfg. information, that definitely should not be connected to 120 VAC without a different power supply between them.
JMO
Geo🇺🇸
 
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Old 06-28-23, 02:08 PM
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Thanks all--I haven't yet got the pendant lights installed (I know it's been a WHILE) but your advice is amazing. Just purchased a couple of drivers small enough to fit in the canopy. I did take the fixture by a couple of electrical supply stores, and talked to an electrician at one. They all were stumped! Then I looked back at these replies, which I should have done in the first place
 
 

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