I am trying to take 4 lights in the basement that currently all have to be turned on independently and wire them all in series to a single switch. I just took the wires and put them to the switch and then to the first light. it came on but when i held the silver metal shielding piece that houses the wires, I got a tingle. I think that would mean I need to connect the third wire. The grounding one. The light did come on which I think means I had the pos and neg connected right. Where do I connect the ground wire and what caused the tingle? by ground wire I mean the third wire that is nothing but copper. I think I just put it to the case or the light or whatever looks like a good spot to get grounded. any extra knowledge or advice is a big help! In the mean time I will be searching the web for how to's.
If you got a tingle then something is wrong other than the open ground. Something is shorted out
Do yourself a favor. Hire a handyman or electrician. Be smart. If you are asking these questions you shouldn't be doing the work.
The guy above me helpful, but you have an existing problem with the wires shocking you. No doubt you can run the series yourself, but don't monkey around and burn your house down by trying to save the cash on this DIY. Get someone to find the short and fix it. DIY the next job. BTW purchase the Black and Decker Advanced Home Wiring book. It has color pics and shows you the layouts of several ways to do stuff. By the way, if your name is Bob Villa my wife is looking for you to marry her. LOL.
Why do you have a clean change with 4 terminals? It seems such as you have a three/way change w/floor rather of a single pole change? verify THIS 4 TERMINAL change until now YOU proceed. A single pole change would desire to have 3 terminals. Line, load and floor. you're saying the change container has only 2 wires. it quite is all you would be able to desire to connect a single pole change working a easy from one region in older installations. interior the change container - the white one is warm to the change and is a runner, (criminal). The black is the load cord lower back to the ceiling easy. Sounds as though the independent is already interior the ceiling junction container ,(2 white wires taped jointly and linked to the lamp). the two black wires are warm and taped jointly to the white to the change. would desire to be waiting to connect the white and black, interior the change container,to the recent change. because there is not any floor on the change - the floor terminal heavily isn't used. Disconnect the breaker or fuse for this circuit until now attempting to connect this change!
You have your hot wire insulation striped and touching the Greenfield (the metal covering). You need to find the striped area and tape it. Or Buy some Romex wiring 14/2 with ground and replace all the Greenfield in this circuit. You can run the wires from light to light to light. Attach the black wire to the black wire (hot), white to white (neutral or common), bare copper wire (ground) to bare copper wire. Attach black wire to switch, White wire to white in switch box, bare copper to green wire (ground).
