I am adding a new room in my basement. My current basement layout has all lights turn on and off by 2 switches. I have unhooked the light from the current wiring in the new room and ran a line to a switch and a line back to the main line.
The rest of the lights turn on and off from the normal switches. When I turn on the new switch I always blow the breaker. I have tried a 3 way and a single switch.
I then gave up and found a wire to an outlet and cut into it and tied in a different line. Now when I hook up the single switch, I either have a light that always stays on even when I switch the light on and off, or I wire it and the breaker blows to the outlet.
I need some suggestions I have a white neutral, black-hot, and ground wire.
If you are not using the appropriate breakers for your wiring, then you need to get the appropriate breakers. If you are using the appropriate breakers, and they’re blowing, then you need to upgrade all of the wiring on that circuit, and then get the breakers appropriate for the new wiring. If you don’t know what breaker is appropriate for your wiring, then you need to put down the tools, back away slowly from the job, and call a professional, because doing electrical work without knowing what you’re doing is likely to kill someone.
Although we know that alternating current goes both ways, think of it as a pipe where current runs from hot/black to neutral/white. The ground is just that - a connection to ground.
Now consider that the current has to travel to the light in the black wire via the switch and then directly back to the breaker by the white. At no time should either wire touch the ground.
While I am generally in favor of people figuring out things on their own, based solely on what you have posted here, I strongly recommend hiring an electrician to sort this out for you.
If you insist on doing this yourself, you need to tie your black hot into an existing hot line that isn’t overloaded and has plenty of spare capacity for a light, or into a new circuit back to the breaker box. That wire then goes to your switch, and the other side of the switch becomes your switched hot, which goes to the light. From there, the neutral goes back to the neutral on whatever you used for your hot feed. If you tied into an existing line, then you attach your neutral to the line where you attached your hot to the line’s hot. If you went back to the breaker, then you bring your neutral all the way back to the breaker. The light fixture and the switch both get grounded to the safety ground, which also gets brought back and attached to the safety ground wherever you got your feed from.
It’s fairly common for people to make a “switch loop” since this makes the wiring easier. You bring your hot and neutral from your feed (along with the safety ground) into the light fixture. Attach the neutral and the safety ground to the fixture. Attach the hot and the hot from the light and the safety ground to another wire, so you essentially have two hots in one wire (one is going to be your switched hot) and run that wire to the switch. Wrap black electrical tape around the white wire in this wire that goes to the switch (at each end, both the switch end and the light fixture end), to indicate that it’s not a neutral wire and is in fact being used as a hot wire. At the switch, the two hots go to either side of the switch, and the safety ground goes to the switch ground.
Seriously though, I think you need an electrician.
ETA: Three way switches are wired differently. You end up with two switched hots. I’m assuming that you want a regular single switch in your new setup.
I agree. It sounds like in the first instance, the OP has managed to somehow create a dead short. In the second, has managed to run the hot wire through the light fixture before getting to the switch. In either case, it indicates a lack of knowledge of electrical work. Get help.
Trying a 3-way switch in place of a single switch on the same circuit as if they are interchangeable also indicates a rather dangerous lack of knowledge of how all this stuff works.
I too recommend you hire an electrician. Fires can result from improper wiring. Your insurance may not cover the loss if the wiring was not done to code and inspected by your local electrical inspector. And why should they cover it?
There are also books on electrical wiring (home improvement stores) which you should read cover to cover before doing ANY wiring. And then only do so by applying for an electrical permit and having your work inspected by your local electrical inspector. Then you will be sure the work is safe and that you will be covered by insurance, should a fire result from the wiring (or someone get electrocuted - small child, etc.)
By the way, here is a diagram of how to connect the wires if your power is coming from the feed, to the switch, and then to the light fixture:
And here is a diagram on how to connect the wires if you are making a switch loop (note - black tape on both ends of the white wire going to the switch):
With the breaker off take the light out of the fixture, turn switch off. Then turn breaker on, turn light switch on if breaker trips. PUt the tools down step back and call an electrician. 120 VAC can kill you or burn your house down.
I bet you’re wiring the hot and neutral wires on opposite sides of the switch, so when you turn it on, you’re creating a dead short that pops the breaker.
I recommend an electrician as well. These problems you’re having sound too fundamental for me to think that you have a good enough handle on electrical work to safely wire up devices even if you fix the shorting problem. It’s not that hard to have an unsafe hookup that still functions.
Anyone else think we’re beginning to need an Electrical Help subforum?
It’s tough enough to sort out new, clean work done according to code and standard. Switches in older existing work can be a real bitch if you can’t figure out what the prior guys were doing. I’ve had to sort out and box-rewire whole house wings that have had too much cleverness applied by various owners over the years…
It’s technically illegal to do plumbing and electrical and other “code” work in a lot of places. Home Depot still sells as many switches, boxes and wirenuts there.
“Like for like” is a pretty reasonable DIY standard. New work… well, if the DIYer is truly experienced or knowledgeable, it should be tolerated.
Don’t mean to be offensive but you really need an electrician, or at least someone who is more in the know than you appear to be. Please don’t fumble around with hit and miss ideas. I do not think your problem will be difficult to fix for someone in the know. If you choose to continue to work on it yourself, please make sure your smoke detectors have good batteries and you have a fire extinguisher available.
To some extent it is a money making scheme. A state licensed electrician installed a load center for me, and I still had to pay a company certified by the state to examine it. He took the cover off, peered inside and said, “That’s great. Seventy five adollars”. :dubious:
I don’t know if it is legal or not in North Little Rock, where we moved. I installed a GFCI in an aquarium cabinet. I wonder if I was working on my house wiring or an electrical device?
I apologize for the Geeky digression.
Hire an electrician, OP, and lie about it to us and your friends.
In most locations I’m familiar with, it’s a town/county inspector whose services are nominally free, but only after a permit for the work is filed and paid for. So, yeah, on the one hand it’s good to have such work done properly and overseen, so that crappy work doesn’t kill someone a few years later, but… revenue.
