I own a 1973 house and want to do a little remodeling. It has a 25foot hallway with 3 (old fashioned) ceiling lights that I want to replace with recessed lights. I went into the attic to look over things - looks like each e-box is made of bakelite which makes sense due to its age, attached to a rafter. However, there appears to be a transformer with what looks like low voltage wires -redwhite- on top of the box.Can a qualified electrician please tell me what this is and do I need to worry about it when I retrofit to recessed cans?
That is probably the transformer to your door bell.
I'm not an electrician, but I have a few ideas. First, Do these lights use standard incandescent bulbs, or something else? If they are plain ole incandescent bulbs, I'm left wondering what is going on. If I understand you correctly, each of the three lights has an old bakelite electrical box with its own transformer, with regular wiring coming into it, and low voltage coming out of it feeding one light fixture below. If thats the case, then you are going to remove the transformers along with the fixture. However, if its one transformer that feeds the three fixtures, then you have a low voltage light system and will want to remove the fixtures and transformer and run new electrical wire (Romex) to each of the three new fixtures. The previous answer was correct in that most houses only have one low voltage transformer that powers the doorbell buttons and chime(s). Some homes back then had intercom systems and/or security systems that would require a transformer. Another point: check the smoke detectors. If they are over ten years old, replace them. They only work for about 10 years (even the new ones).
