I'm installing a new light.

The ceiling box has a black wire and a white wire.

The new light has two black wires.
One wire is labled 'L'
The other wire is labeled 'N'

I was expecting one black and one white and instead when I get two black.

I am not familiar with 'L' and 'N'.

I know I got a fifty/fifty chance but, this is a ten foot ceiling and since I don't have a ladder it's a hassle stacking all these kitchen chairs.

please help.

 

Have you looked at the directions that came with it? Seriously...I ran into this last year when I put some new fans in my family room...DO NOT QUOTE ME..but I think I hooked one black to the black and the other black to the white, but whatever I did, it was right in the installation manual for the fan.

If nothing else, just twist all the wires together, stand back and flip the switch...I bet it lights up and makes some cool noises for about 15 seconds



BREW

 

as a general rule of thumb, Pos is light, and Neg is dark

 

Oh yeah, the instructions were great.

It explained in detail all about the brackets and screw depths.

Then Step Eight says:
"Connect the power cord"

Maybe it doesn't matter what goes to what?
Seems like it should though.

I was guessing that N = Neutral and L = Live....

So I should screw the White wire to N
and the Black wire to L

and stand back and watch my house burn down.

 

I think that the "L" means Load and the "N" means Neutral, but i'm not 100% sure about that

 

That's OK, my house ain't 100% paid for.

 

"Live" and "Neutral" ?

Kitchen chairs, lol

If it is just a light fixture, it shouldn't matter - I mean lights just need two wires and as long as neither is connected to the fixture housing, it doesn't matter which is hot and which is neutral, but for safety sake, the one going to the threaded part of the bulb socket should be hooked to white (neutral) and the one to the center pin should go to hot (black).

 

That would be my guess too.

 

Well it's in, thanks guys.

Oh, and don't do electrical work while standing on metal chairs.


Only in America, Baby!

 

Another Mattineer moment avoided....Damn!!!!!

This place is getting boring.

 

Hey no problem, I'm glad I was such a huge help and your house didn't burn down due to my expertise


BREW

 

Are you sure about that? Being in the remodeling/new home construction trades, it was always explained to me like this; "Black is hot, think of how your skin will look if you touch it" (honest to God).

 

Well yah, i know almost all automotive wiring is that way. And ive played around with some household wiring a bit too. But as someone mentioned, with AC current, its a different beast then DC. so maybe im wrong

 

The L means Load and should be connected to the Black wire in the box. The N means Neutral and should go to the white wire. There also should be a bare wire in the box and that will be your fixture ground. It will connect to the body of the lamp someplace. The significance of the wires depends on how your house is wired. Most of the time there is a string of Romex (the bundle with the three wires) going in and out of the switch box. One of the hots (black or red) from a strand will connect to a terminal; the other hot wire from the other string will connect to the remaining terminal. Then the neutrals are tied together as well as the grounds. Sometimes the switch will also be grounded. If you were to connect the neutral wire of the fixture to the hot wire from the switch, you will create a dead short and check how well your circuit breakers work. The other possibilities are a three-way switch that will be wired the same way or a switched neutral (think of old British car electrical systems with a positive ground). The switched neutral is only found in older homes because modern electrical codes forbid using it.

 

Houses and cars are opposite. In a car Red is hot, black is ground. For houses red and black are hot, white is neutral and bare is ground. That is for romex. Once you get into running conduit white is neutral, green is ground and everything else is hot.