My wall switch plate had two switches, one switch had a black that went to the dining room light, the other switch had a red that went to the same light box but wasn't connected to anything (it was however capped), but was for a fan assy. that was never installed.

we did black to black / white to white and capped the the RED - the light went on but STAYED ON - so we put the red to the two blacks - now it's working - but just worried that IS IT ACTUALLY OK (we didn't see where it was when we pulled it from the wall)

Okay I'm unclear about some things. Is this a light fixture that's controlled by a switch somewhere else, or is it a fixture that has its own internal switch? It makes a difference because if there is a switch somewhere else I'd pull off the cover there and see what's there and how it's connected. Also I don't know when you said it stayed on, whether you mean it stayed on when you turned a wall switch on, or the circuit breaker.

light fixture controlled by a wall switch - the switch and light went on / but stayed on - until we put the red to the two blacks - it's working fine - just not sure if that was the safe and only way to do it. NO we did't check the wall switch - but will check now and get back to this forum. tks for fast reply.

Bill

Normally in a situation with a wall switch the red wire would be the wire controlled by the switch, and the black wire would be hot all the time. I cannot tell you why it's working right at this time because if you had two hot wires connected to the light, one switched and one not, I'd expect the switch still not to control the light.

If it were me I'd turn off the power at the circuit breaker box, and connect just the red wire from the wall to the black wire from the light fixture. Cap the black wire from the wall.

Ok everyone - this is at my son's house & I'm not there right now - he told me (that's what he did) kenjwy & everything's working fine - our only question is then what is that extra black wire from the wall for?

thanks all again for the quick response. Bill