1) simple question answers that read call a certified electrician, please earn your points with other questions! 2) QUESTION: I have a light switch it has three black wires(hot), 2 white wires(neutral),and 1 red(?). here is how it appears the switch has a place for one neutral/and one hot. so I have the three black wires twisted together, and the 2 white twisted together, then plugged into the switch. the red i just capped and shoved back. now this works in the fact that all my sockets work and its not tripping them, but when I put the light bulb in it is always on, and if i turn it off it trips all the circuits. Does anyone know what i'm doing wrong or what can fi it. I bought he house as a foreclosure, the dump use to have a ceiling fan that the light remained on all the time and it was turned on and off with the pull line from the fan! please help
Answers & Comments
Verified answer
From the things you said I believe you have a three conductor line going to the electrical box that the fan was mounted to. Look in the box where the switch is located and you should have two pairs coming in from the bottom and the three conductor coming in from the top of the box. The first thing you want to do is connect all the white wires together with a wire nut. Neutral wires never get attached to a switch terminal ( they do to receptacles). Next, connect all the grounds if they aren't already. There only needs to be one ground wire to attach to the switches ground terminal. Next separate all the black and the red wire. The two black wires that are paired with a white should be attached with a pigtail to attach to the bottom terminal on the switch. The black wire from the three conductor goes to the top terminal on the switch. The red can be capped or just cut off any stripped wire and put in box. What you have done is to supply power to the switch as well as continuing the circuit to the receptacles. The three conductor is acting as a simple switch loop. Most of the time, ceiling fans that are wired this way have power going to the fan motor which you control with the chain, while the switch controls the light. Also make sure that you have the light fixture attached to neutral and black wires in the ceiling box, although it sounds as though you already do.
You really need a meter to sort that out. The red was probably a hot for the fan. One of those blacks should be a hot feed and one should go to the light. Therefore to operate the light they would have to go across the switch. The neutral wires are never switched. Without being able to run the wiring out visually and with a meter I can't give you a hookup. There are just too many variations. The hot can be run into the light and then transferred to the switch(usually with the black but sometimes the white side of a pair) or can be directly wired to the switch box. Without knowing which way it's run there's no way to give advice. You need to determine how many cables come into that box.
One of your black wires and one of your white wires are going directly to your fan/light. Someone just did not label the wires as switch wires. You need to determine which black wire is going to the fan/light. This will be the wire you will put on the switch. The other two need to be connected together with a pigtail out this will be your other switch wire. Leave the whites connected and not on the switch. This will have your fan/light switched and the other plugs on all the time. Good luck...
dont put the white wire on the switch. thats a dead short.take them off the switch. find the main hot wire and connect that to one side of the switch the put the other 2 black wires on the other side of the switch then see what happens
best if you can get an electrician to do it but if you really wana DIY.
1. get a voltmeter.
identify the fuse for that particular cct and isolate.
2. open up switch and see how many wires coming there.(sound like u have 3 cables : 2x blk/wht 1x blk/red)
3.separate all your wires especially the wht and red. they must NOT touch each other.
4.open lite fixture see what cable comes there. (blk/wht or blk/red)
5.identify the cable that go from switch to lite fixture and mark that cable.(cable 1)
6.replace fuse and check the cables using the voltmeter which cable is from the fuse and mark cable(cable 2).
7.remove fuse again. the remaining cable is cable 3.
8. twist all black wires together. and cap it. connect remaining wire of cable 1 to lite switch.
9.twist remaining wires of cable 2 & 3 and put to lite switch.
10.reassemble all and secure lite fitting, put a bulb in and replace fuse.
wishing you luck!!!cheers
need more info, Is it romax? dont know how you have 3 blacks and 2 white. If romax tell me what each romax wire contains. Which comes in the top and what comes in the bottom of the box. Then i can make a 85% guess as to the right configure wire.- turn off by switch trips ckt or main breaker. / Ps. what are the color of the screws on you switch/
Sometimes one white wire is connected to a switch, never two.
(When a white wire is used as a switch leg it's not a neutral.)
A neutral is never to be wired to a switch.
I'm willing to bet that it trips the circuits when you turn it on,
not when you turn it off.
Since you've been shorting the circuit with that switch,
it should probably be replaced.
You told us too little to solve the problem,
and you know too little to be messing with it.
PLEASE - Hire an electrician before you hurt someone.
Call an electrician...this requires knowledge of the internal wiring.