Yeah, in auto and all other electronics, black is "ground" and red or white or orange is positive or "hot", but house and commercial wiring has Black for "hot" and white for "neutral" and "ground" is green or bare.

I started out in electronics and when i first messed with house wiring, I had a heck of a time getting used to black being "hot" and white being "neutral" and at "ground" potential.

 

"L" is for "Left". Look at the wires coming out of the ceiling. One of the wires will be to the left of the other one. Attach the one marked "L" to that one. You only have one more wire to hook-up, and you do that one next. "N" is for "Next". Attach that one next. If there's any more wires, don't worry about them, nobody else hooks them up either.

MR

 

Yep, I'm familiar with the ground wire, in this application some were Green and some were bare.
I didn't mention it because I didn't want to muddy the water.

Anyway, I learned something L & N (Load & Nuetral).

I would have guessed right but, rather than do that I Googled Electrical Definitions for L & N.
If it was there it was buried in too much info.

I said, "Screw this, I'm going to General Discussion.".

 

I found the hot wire in my light switch last night..It was easy. It's the one that shot sparks and smoke out as I touched it to the metal box



BREW

 

bwahahahaha

 

Depending on the application the "L" can mean "Line" as well. On this one it would mean "Load"

This would not have helpped in this situation, but a good rule of thumb to keep the wires in the right places on household current is..."Black to Brass". If your outlets and switches do not have a brass screw, chances are they are cheap crap and you don't want them anyway.

 

cool, then ill man up and say i stand corrected... Good info... I really like the (L)left and (N)next

 

No problem Patman.

Of course I'd be whistling a different tune if you had been the only one to respond.

I keep a 'reliabilty list' with Members names for various areas (social, political, mechanical, etc...)

I didn't have you down but, I have added you under a new heading:
Do not take electrical advice from this guy

 

That's how my bro-in-law wires...

Ever hooked up 220 to 110 outlets and have equipment plugged in? Those stories of VCRs spitting out tapes aren't jokes...his shot out the tape then blew up.

 

I keep that Black to Brass; Green to Grd; White to silver saying in my head when doing outlets.
Raoul - I bet if you had look one of those black wire would have had a white stripe. That would tell you it is the nuetral connection even if it wasn't labeled.

 

I got a L for load for ya!!!!!

 

I got wires out the Ying-Yang.

My pool table was under a ceiling fan with a light kit.
The light kit was a five light cut glass model that was terrible for direct lighting.
You put your hand under it and the shadow on the table had about 30 fingers.
It had to go.
I could not find a suitable fan light.
I bought a six foot long light designed for pool tables that is suspended by two chains that go straight up.
The wiring went up one chain and is like a lamp cord(two black wires stuck together).
The chains are five feet apart (60 inches) which is good because the fan in between has a 52" span.
The blades will clear each chain by 4 inches.
The fan and old light kit each had a pull chain and could be controlled by a single light switch.
The object was to install the new 6 foot suspended light into the system and have it operate as the old light kit did.
The new light came with no (On/Off) mechanism.
I cannibalized the pull chain mechanism from the old light kit and installed it into the bottom of the fan like the fan blade chain mechanism.
I then wired from the pull chain mechanism up thru the downrod and over to the wiring of the new light.
I remembered to break at the original ceiling fan lightbox or whoever has this house after me will never get the fan down.
Then I had a drink.

That's it, except I'm afraid to throw the switch.

 

^^^^^ ^^^^^

I hope the fan doesn't ever wobble.

 

Don't get me started on the fan.
It's a nice Hunter model that never wobbled before.

Problem was it was antique brass and didn't match the decor.
I took it down, scuffed it with steel wool, primed it, and painted it black.

It saved me some bucks from buying a new one.
Infortunately, I have to keep repainting it because I keep taking it down and beating the hell out of it with all these wiring convolutions.

It may wobble now.

Just for reference, do not do wiring with a hammer.

Another just for reference:
Do not go at something with black spray paint that has white wires in it until you finished wiring.

 

fuccer. Im sure there are lots of people that dont trust your humorous posts. Its actually scary when people take you serious

But thats okay, you can trust me on automotive wiring, im a champ at that