What Is the Red Wire for When Installing a Light Fixture? Home Guides. Home wiring may entail different colored wires for different reasons. Wire- color conventions prevent wiring errors that could cause electric shock, start a fire, or damage appliances or fixtures. Wire manufacturers supply wire in a wide variety of colors, and it is up to the electrician to use the correct wire color in home wiring. The purpose of a red wire for wiring a light fixture varies, but is easily determined in most cases. National Electrical Code. Welcome to the forums! Do you have any access to the area above this fixture? Some LED's just screw into the light socket and are held in either via friction or wire. The NEC reserves certain wire colors for specific purposes. Green is reserved for ground, and may have yellow stripes. The ground wire often is bare copper. White wires are reserved for the grounded conductor - - often referred to as neutral. Gray also is allowed for neutral, but is rarely used. Other colors are left to the discretion of the electrician, but black, red, and other colors are either always live or carrying current from a switch. Sheathed Cable. The most common home wiring uses non- metallic sheathed cable with three wires in it: black, white and bare. Some sheathed cable includes a fourth red wire, which makes it useful for wiring fixtures with three- way switches, or a ceiling fan with separate light and fan switches. Sheathed cable with a red wire always is accompanied by a black wire, a white wire and a bare wire. Very old homes may have cable that excludes the bare wire. Conduit Wiring. The wiring in some homes is encased in conduit. The metal conduit is allowed to serve as the ground conductor, so bare or green wires are not used. ![]()
The white wire is the neutral, and all other colors are hot. Electricians often use black, red or blue wires to deliver electricity to a circuit from the main panel. They may use other colors for switch wiring, such as yellow or tan. Orange wires frequently are used to interlink smoke detectors. Fixture Wiring. The exact purpose of a red wire for a light fixture can vary. Except in rare cases, it is a hot wire or a switched hot wire. Check the wire with a non- contact voltage tester with the power and switch turned on. If the tester indicates the wire is hot, turn the switch off and retest. If the wire still is hot, the wire is a hot wire that delivers electrical power to the branch circuit. If turning the switch off turns the wire off, the red wire delivers power from the light switch. Note: Never touch wires or their connection points while the circuit is energized. Before working on electrical wiring or devices, turn off the power to the circuit and confirm it is off using a non- contact voltage tester. About the Author. Michael Logan is a writer, editor and web page designer. His professional background includes electrical, computer and test engineering, real estate investment, network engineering and management, programming and remodeling company owner. Logan has been writing professionally since he was first published in "Test & Measurement World" in 1. Photo Credits. Brand X Pictures/Brand X Pictures/Getty Images.
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