Please help: 3 way light switch hanging a light fixture

15 years ago

We have 4 wires coming out of our ceiling: a ground wire, a black wire (hot), a white wire (neutral) + a red wire (also hot?)

We have a 3 way switch, but because my husband left out red wire (didn't connect it to anything) while hanging our chandelier, we can control it only with 1 switch.

I've tried to "google" this problem, but I couldn't find clear instructions on what to do with that red wire. Lowes suggested remembering how everything was connected before removing the old fixture, which is not very useful advice in our case as we never had any fixtures there.

Please tell us what we should do with the red wire. Thank you!

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Comments (3)

normel
15 years ago
Are those the ONLY wires coming out of the ceiling? If so, then they have nothing to do with the 3way switching. Sounds more like it was setup for a ceiling fan/light combination... one switch controls the black wire (fan) and one switch controls the red wire (light).
azilove
Original Author
15 years ago
Yes, these are the only wires we have coming out... so if our 3 way switch doesn't work properly, it has nothing to do with the red ceiling wire, which is not connected to anything at the moment? TY
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terribletom
15 years ago
When you say that there are those "4 wires coming out of [the] ceiling", are those just the ones that presently "come out", or are they also the only wires in the box? (That is, have you peeked inside the box to see if there are any other wires that aren't "coming out of [your] ceiling"?) If there are other wires in the box, that would be useful to know.

My initial take was the same as Normel's--that the outlet was wired to control two things, such as a fan and a light.

I still think Normel's "analysis" makes sense, but I'm perplexed that there are apparently two three-way switches (purportedly) involved at different room locations. Am I correct in this interpretation? Did a pair of switches control a light there before you went to swap fixtures?

It's possible--though not terribly likely--that a pair of three-way switches used to control a light while only one switch controlled the other function (e.g., fan). If that were the case, and the black wire was the old "fan wire", then wiring the chandelier to the red wire rather than the black might work. (BTW, you need to cap off the unused wire with a wire nut, whichever wire ends up being unused!)

What happens when the red is swapped for the black?

Can you look at the switch that currently "works" and tell us how it is wired? Not counting any bare ground wire, does it connect with three wires or only two? Colors?

Any "history" might help.