Help with wiring new lights in my garage - Lateral-g Forums

**scherp69** · #1 11-07-2009, 02:34 PM

A few weeks ago, I decided to change my lights in my garage from single bulbs 100 watt bulbs to commercial fluorescent lights. Once they were hooked up, the lights worked fine. I then decided that I wanted to listen to some music and that is when all my issues started to happen. I had a new Sony ghetto blaster with an antenna and as soon as I turned it on, it was all static. In the end, I found out it was the fluorescent lights that was causing the problems. If I turned the lights off, my stereo got great reception, but as soon as I turned them on, static. I posted that issue on in another thread and got several suggestions. Get an inline RFI filter and plug it into the outlet that the stereo's plugged into, plug the stereo into a completely different circuit, make sure everything is grounded properly. Unfortunately none of these worked. This brought me to my newest issue....lights blow breaker.

My garage has never had the greatest lighting so I decided I was going to put in all new lighting. I went and got 6 fluorescent lights to add to the two commercial ones that I already have. I did the math and found that with a 20 amp breaker I would be able to handle 1920 watts, which is 80% load. The lights I am running are 32 watts a bulb and there are 16 bulbs giving me 512 watts....well under the 80% load and not a whole lot higher than the 400 watts I was running with the 4 single bulbs. I should be fine there.

Since the garage was built in the early 70's, I decided to replace all the wiring for the lights. I went into the attic and cut out all the old stuff. I then ran new 14/2 wire. I'm going to say that I ran "a wire" and by that I do mean the full 14/2 wire, not just 1 wire. Here's how I hooked it up. I ran 2 wires from the junction box with the incoming power. 1 wire went to a series of 4 lights and the other went to the other series of 4 lights. I put 4 lights on 1 switch and the other 4 on another switch. The power wire went from the junction box to the first light in one series, connected to the lights wiring, and then a new wire ran from the first light to the second light, a new wire from the second light to the third, and then a new wire from the third to the forth. So at the second and third lights I have 3 black wires (the wire to the light and the two new wires I ran) connected, 3 white wires and two ground wires. On the fourth light I only have 2 black and 2 white and 1 ground as that's where the series ends. Back to the first light (this is the exact same for both sides) I have the power wire, the wire to the switch, the wire connecting to light 2 and the light wiring. All the wires are connected using wire nuts and all blacks are connected to each other and all whites are connected to each other. I do not have any of the plugs in the garage hooked up to the outlets so it is all new wiring and just the lights.

When I went to turn the breaker on, the lights came on. As soon as I flicked the switch...the breaker blew. I went into turn it back on and it trips right away and I can hear a quick bzzz and it blows. The one thing that I can see that I may have hooked up wrong, but am not sure as this was how the original lights were hooked up, is the power wire. Can I run the power wires straight to the first light and then have a separate wire from the light to the switch or should I run the power wire to the switch and then go from there? Hopefully this all made sense. Basically I am trying to run 2 series of 4 lights off separates switches. Oh and back to my original issue, when the lights were on for that brief moment...my stereo lost its reception so I'm likely going to run a cable coax out to the garage and hook up an old amp.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I really want lights in my garage again. Thanks in advance.

eville · #2 11-07-2009, 03:11 PM

What's going on at the switch? Is your white and black hooked to the switch? If so, that's your problem. Is it hot to the switch or hot to the light?

for a 20A circuit, you should use 12/2. for a 15A you can use 14/3.

However, in this case, this is not your problem of the circuit blowing.

**scherp69** · #3 11-07-2009, 08:30 PM

Thanks Steve. Yeah I do have both black and white to the switch and realize now that the white shouldn't be hooked up. Will try that in the am and see what happens. Thanks for the help.

awesometool · #4 11-07-2009, 08:32 PM

That is correct you must us 12 not 14 for 20 amp. For lights you would use a switch leg. Run two separate wires to the fixture one from power and one from switch. The wire at the switch will be white and black attach both to switch. At the fixture attach the black power supply to the white wire going to the switch then attach the black wire coming from the switch to the black fixture wire. Attach the white wire from power supply to the white wire at fixture. When the switch is off the power to the fixture is completely off so if someone changes light if the future it is safer.

nvr2fst · #5 11-07-2009, 09:11 PM

Wow Mike, I see originally everything was grounded as I mentioned and still same BS. Now that you started over I drew your explanation in my head and ended up with a brain freeze which is probably way less of a headache than you have right now. I would definitely try rewiring per "awesometool's" post.
If that doesn't work you could buy some matches

awesometool · #6 11-08-2009, 03:49 AM

I like pictures better.

**scherp69** · #7 11-08-2009, 08:35 AM

Thanks guys...that will be an easy fix as I already have the wires running that way, I'll just need to switch the one white over and connect it to the black. From there, am I okay to run the next three lights in series?

With the 14 vs 12, my lights are the only thing that are on 14, I think all my outlets are on 12 (I will double check to make sure). If my outlets are still on 12, am I okay running the 14 to the lights??

eville · #8 11-08-2009, 08:39 AM

Technically, if you have 12ga wire, you should swap the breaker to a 15A.

awesometool · #9 11-08-2009, 09:08 AM

If you pull 20amps thru the 14 wire it will heat up and it is a great way to start fires. A 15amp outlet will not accept a 12 gauge wire in the back stab holes for this reason. The other fixtures can attach to the same wire as the first fixture. I have seen melted oulets with 20amp breaker-14/2 wire-15 amp outlets.

**GregWeld** · #10 11-08-2009, 08:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by awesometool

I like pictures better.

THIS DIAGRAM IS COMPLETELY INCORRECT!!! DO NOT WIRE YOUR SWITCH LIKE THIS!!!

The WHITE wire - should come from the panel to the switch BOX only and be junctioned there with the WHITE wire going to the LIGHT --- the SWITCH should have a BLACK wire from the panel to one screw (or push in) on the SWITCH with ANOTHER BLACK from the screw (or push in) to the LIGHT....

REMEMBER - You ONLY SWITCH ONE LEG OF ELECTRICITY!!

This diagram shows a WHITE CONNECTED TO A BLACK -- NEVER NEVER NEVER!!!!