I understand how to connect wires together. Black to black and white to white. I have done several electrical jobs in my own home with success. However I am trying to connect my range hood to a main power supply and have been unsuccessful several times. I don't know what I'm doing wrong. In fact, I have undercabinet lights run to the same power supply and they work just fine. I know I am not overloading because I have even disconnected my lights and just tried the range hood. Any advice?
It is that simple you are right. The only thing I can think of is that maybe you are connecting the hood to the light switch and maybe the hood will operate only when the light switch is on? Find a direct source from your electrical box and go from there. Hoods do require a dedicated circuit, but sometimes running a jump wire to an electrical outlet is the only way.
By code it must be connected. My advice if the wire is too short to be grounded to the hood is to take an additional piece of 12 or 14 gage bare copper wire and wire nut it to the ground coming from the wall (or from where it comes) and attach the other end to the grounding terminal. Don't just use any screw to ground it, it must be grounded to a Bonded screw - one that has had the paint removed so you get a good ground. While it's not (QUOTE) necessary, it IS required by code. If you choose to ignore it you MIGHT get a shock. MIGHT! Not necessarily though. But keep in mind that if something goes wrong with the electrical wiring or with a fan motor or something else, the case (metal frame of the hood) can become energized. Should you touch that and something else that IS properly grounded - guess what you will get! Shocked. Better safe than sorry. Hope this helps. 'av'a g'day mate. )
My advice is call an electrician. Nothing in a home is easier than a hood if that is giving you trouble then you are unqualified to be working with electricity. As far as the other job you have successfully done , just because it works doesn't me you did it right it could be a fire or accident waiting to happen. It is very arrogant to think you could learn to do something like the wiring in your home. Most states agree to learn to wire safety takes four years of on the job training and four years of school.
Check the circuit print for another switching device, like a damper control or open/closed venting switch. Does it have a pilot light (red) (white) ? It may be controlled by supervisory circuit ?
sounds as if the under cabinet lights that you are connecting the range hood to are low voltage. Often kitchen under cabinet lights are. The first thing you want to do in any electrical trouble shooting situation is to test the voltage---- make sure you have voltage there. In your case, you are assuming there is voltage there because the lights light up. If they are low voltage you will need to get the wiring to another power source.
