I have a bathroom light fixture in a 1950‘s house. I took off the old fixture and found two copper wires. I assume one is hot and the other is neutral. No ground wire.I hooked up the new fixture, which only has a white and black wire. I hooked up the black to the hot (I think) and the white to the neutral (I think). When I turned on the light, it sparked then stayed on. I used 25 watt bulbs in a 100 watt-recommended fixture. I then tried to reverse the wiring, but nothing happened when I tried to turn on the light.Do I need to use more appropriate wattage light bulbs?Do I need to create a ground wire and hook it from the new fixture to the bracket in the wall? What kind of wiring do I need for the ground wire?Or is this a job for an electrician?Any thoughts on what I am doing wrong?
Were did the sparks come from, the fixture itself or in your wiring. You need to make the connection with wire nuts. The light should have worked wired either way, but the electrician is right, you don't want the hot side of the line on the neutral side of the fixture.
you need an electrician to fix the sparking problem. BAD WIRES WILL A HOUSE BURN DOWN.
It is important to wire lamps correctly. If you look at the lampholder, the outside shell should be wired to the white, and the inside button on the bottom should be wired to the black. This is because you are most likely to come into contact with the shell which would then be at ground potential with the white wire going to the ground bar in the electrical panel. One way I can think to tell which wire is which is with a meter. Check to make sure your house has copper plumbing all the way to your bathroom sink. Place one lead from the meter to the copper pipe and touch the other wires one at a time with the other lead (with the power on, of course). You should get 120 volts on the hot (black) wire, and 0 volts on the neutral (white) wire. This is because the white wire is electrically connected to the copper piping through the ground bar in the electrical panel. Your new fixture still needs to be grounded. You should consider running a new cable from the panel, through the switch, to the light fixture replacing the existing wiring. With the sparking you described, this might be the best course. Your new fixtures should be marked with the maximum wattage light bulb that can be used in it. Be sure not to exceed this or you may start a fire.
