I have a chandelier that has been rewired, and one that has not been rewired. Both have DC electrical wires have ridges down one side and not the other. Now I would think that whether or not a chandelier is originally wired or rewired, if the type of electrical wire that is used is the same, the answer would be the same; a half ribbed wire is a half ribbed wire, right? I asked a question previously about which side of a half-ribbed wire was positive and which side was negative, and one of the answers I got was, The ribbed side is supposed to be the hot or neutral side. I do not trust other peoples wiring so I always test it with a meter.Ok, so now I am wondering about this phrase other people's wiring and how a person can possibly change the positive to a negative inside a premanufactured wire. Can someone explain this to me please?
I tried to answer your question, I have now learned to re read my responses. I did make an error in my response and I am sorry. The ribbed wire is the neutral (NEC2008 400.22(f)), unless someone else made an error in wiring. Home chandeliers are 110 Volt AC items so a ribbed wire means nothing, it is an AC circuit. Although, I would connect the ribbed wire to the silver connector and the black to the brass connector to keep the phase consistent. If they are DC chandeliers they will have a phase inverter or bridge rectifier built in to change the household AC power supply to a DC power supply at the correct voltage. Please, if you are uncertain consult a professional electrician. The above code reference is pointing to the National Electrical Code (NEC) used in the USA. Please feel free to search it yourself. I have gone in to homes and found aluminum wiring mixed with copper wiring, switches or outlets. This is a very dangerous combination. Unless you know what you are doing hire a professional do it. It sounds as if you have rental properties. If you add a light fixture and it causes a fire and someone is injured you may find yourself in a bad place legally, both from litigation and lack of insurance. Food for thought.
Both of these answers are correct, whoever gave a thumbs down is jerking you wire.
There is no wire that is DC.Wire can be used on AC or DC.Won't matter to the wire. The Ribbed wire is generally considered the + Or Positive Wire.The plain one would be the neg. or ground wire.I would suspect that the fixture wiring is designed to use A/C as its power supply In the US you would need to use a DC Generator or Rectify a/c to use on the light.Neither would be practical.I believe that the light is probably 125 volt a/c Use a good meter to check the voltage.Like a Fluke 620
I assume your chandeliers are hanging from the ceiling, attached to an octagonal metal electrical box in the ceiling itself. The wiring coming into that box from your circuit breaker box should contain three wires: a black one, which is hot, a white one, which is neutral, and a bare copper wire, which is ground, and attached to the box with a screw. The metal cap on the chandelier that goes over the electrical box will connect to ground by means of its own screws, as will all other metal parts (the chain, the bulb sockets). Two wires will come from the chandelier itself to connect to the black and white wires in the box. If the chandelier has been rewired properly, one of these wires would connect to the bases of all the bulb sockets. The other wire would connect to the threaded part of all the bulb sockets. This is called a parallel connection, putting all the bulb sockets at the same voltage as the line (110V). It really doesn't matter whether the wiring to the socket bases is all ribbed or not, as long as the connections were made correctly. The wiring used is probably standard two-conductor lamp cord, where one conductor is ribbed and one isn't, but this is mainly to keep track of the circuit. A good electrician would, after pulling the two wires apart, use all-ribbed wire for, say, the lamp socket bases, and all non-ribbed wire for the lamp socket thread connections, but this isn't really necessary. All this wiring is AC, not DC wiring, by the way.
