Thank you up front for the help.
So yesterday I went to wire chandelier in our home. What I discovered after removing the cover plate is that there are two switches on the wall for the same location. One is a simple rocker and the other is a rocker with a dimmer. There was a hot black wire for the simple rocker, a hot red wire for the rocker with dimmer, a white wire, and a wire with no cover.
The chandelier only has two wires. I wanted to use the dimmer but was unable to make it work. I tried the combination of red and white and that tripped the breaker. I tried the red and ground but the light flickered when the switch was off. I ended up using the simple rocker with the black and white and it worked.
What did I do wrong? Any help is greatly appreciated as I'm wiring another room today with the same setup.
Remember not to work on live circuits, cut the breaker so that you can free up whatever wires you might need to measure.
PJacs- funny and I'll have the wife record it for you.
Jim - there are 4 wires in the ceiling j-box. Hot black that is turned on and off via the simple rocker, hot red via the dimmer, white (common?) and a bare wire (ground?).
What wires do I need to connect to the light to use the day dimmer?
Describe every wire in every location and maybe with that information we can give you a little help.
A voltmeter would help you greatly.
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gidie, if you see this can you ask Peter to email the links to his youtube videos on smoking? I can't find them on youtube (if they're still there) and I have a friend who just got a smoker and he's looking for beginner advice and when I got mine I found Peter's advice invaluable when I started - my email is pjcas18@aol.com or you can post a link on here. Thanks.
he made no reference to jcn -- : )
he made no reference to jcn -- : )
Exactly this. Peter emailed me about his youtube videos and wanted to make sure you know:
A couple of times, Ive seen two different phases coming into the SAME box; one time I got zapped working a three-way because in the original install they made the white wire not neutral but hot.
When I suspect that I do the wise thing, give up and call an electrician.