Re: Ceiling lights wiring plan -- paint black wire white?

Oops, sorry, please disregard my entire post about marking a black wire to be white.

I just went to the property and the guy who told me that his electrician friend told him to mark the black wire as white now says that he thinks his "friend" must have been playing a joke on him. He said he figured out what he was doing wrong in the wiring plan at the ceiling box and he fixed it. Apparently this "friend" must have been messing with him and playing some kind of sick joke on him.

"N8N" <njnagel@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:80eeb08d-cf7b-422c-ab26-e99a0c6e4a81@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
On Mar 24, 2:01 pm, "Len56" <Le...@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I started this thread on 03/17/2009 with the post shown below. Now, another
question has come up.

The wiring is being done with the feeds going to the ceiling fans in 3
different rooms, and a 12/2 wire "switch loop" being dropped from each
ceiling fan to the switch for that fan. I know that the white wire in the
switch loop gets coded black on both ends using black tape.

But, here's the question: The person who is doing the wiring plan is saying
something about ending up with "two black wires" in the ceiling box, and
that one of the black wires needs to be coded as white(?). I really can't
follow what he is saying. He did say that all of the white wires are
connected together as they should be, but that there is somehow an extra
black wire that will confuse the next person who opens up the box because it
should be white. He claims he called a licensed electrician friend of his
who told him he needs to spray paint that black wire white. He said the
electrician told him that's just how it is, and you need to get yourself a
can of white spray paint and paint that wire white. Supposedly, the
electrician said, "That's just how it's done, and that's what we do".

Unfortunately, I don't understand any of this, so I probably can't explain
it any better. But, my question is, with the wiring plan that I described
below (using the switch loop method), is it possible that the ceiling boxes
end up with a black wire that now needs to be coded (painted) as white?



Len56 wrote:
> I have an apartment that is being rewired and I am trying to find
> sample wiring plans for wiring the ceiling lights/fans. There are 5
> rooms that will have ceiling fixtures -- LR, 2 BR's, a kitchen, and a
> bath. The apartment is being renovated so the ceiling is completely
> open and it will be sheetrocked later on and the apartment is over an
> open basement with an open ceiling -- so there is complete access
> from below as well as above. The circuit breaker panel is in the
> apartment, so the wiring can go up or down from there.

> I've been looking on the Internet for sample wiring plans for ceiling
> fixtures in multiple rooms but I can't find any. All I can find are
> diagrams for wiring single rooms.

> The person who is going to be designing the wiring circuits says his
> plan is to do it this way: run a feed from the panel box to the
> first switch from below, then drop down from that switch and go to
> the next switch, then down and to the next switch, etc. At each
> switch, run a wire from the switch up to the ceiling fixture that it
> controls.
> My question is: Is there another way to do this where the feed would
> go from the panel box to the first ceiling fixture, then to the next
> ceiling fixture, then to the next, etc. Then, from each ceiling
> fixture, run a switch loop wire to the switch that controls it and
> code the white wire in the switch loop to black.

> Is this an option? Do some people do it that way? To me, this seems
> like a more direct wiring plan with less wiring being used and fewer
> connections in the switch boxes.

I can't imagine why you would need to color a black wire white, and
I'm also pretty sure that it's against code. That is, you can color a
white wire to be a "hot" wire (black, red, blue, etc.) but not vice
versa. A typical switch leg would be a 2-wire (with ground, of
course) cable between the ceiling box and the switch. The black wire
would be connected to the "hot" (normally black) wires in the ceiling
box, the white wire would be marked with colored tape (to distinguish
it from the white neutral(s) present in the same box) and then
connected to the black wire of the light fixture. At the switch, the
white wire would again be marked with colored tape and both black and
useta-be-white would be connected to the two terminals of the switch.
There is no neutral in the wall box for the switch in a standard
switch leg configuration.

nate

.

Loading