black wire is the hot wire. when wiring light fixture?

Question

i have gotton different answer about this. one answer was sometimes the white is hot. NEVER should this be unless it is wired wrong. this should be resolved to keep it safe for do it yourselfers. one with 40 yrs experiance gave out different colors. VERY DANGEROUS

Answer 1

If you insist on DIY, buy a good wiring book. Home Depot has a few good ones. Electrical work is not a hobby, call a licensed electrician when in doubt. I can't believe some of the answers I read from people that think they know what they are doing.

Answer 2

Nothing will happen UNLESS that black wire happens to make contact with the shell of the fixture and someone touches that while grounded elsewhere on their body. As well, if someone touches the threaded part of the bulb during a bulb-change, they could get a shock - that part is normally wired to the neutral side. In one case, an improperly wired fixture in a mobile home caused the entire metal exterior of the structure to become electrified. Then, one day, when the resident was outside on a hot summer day washing his car in bare feet on wet grass, he went to open the front door with wet hands and, well... he's not with us anymore. :-( The reason the manufacturer color codes the screws is so that the hot wire is as far from being contactable as possible. Usually that ends up being routed to the center contact, deep inside the socket. That way if someone unscrews a burned-out bulb and touches the threaded part, they don't contact the hot side and get electrocuted.

Answer 3

All good answers, but in wiring a light fixture, remember that the 14/2 running from the fixture to the switch, the white will be connected to the black at the fixture to feed power to the switch, and the black will be power coming back to the fixture, therefore the white from the fixture to the switch will always be hot

Answer 4

Yes, black is "always hot", but, sometimes, the white can be also, when you are hooking up a 220 circuit, and only use 12/3 wire.

The black, and white are the hots, (of course, you put black tape around the white, until it reaches the fuse box top, where it comes in, so that everyone will "know" that its a hot wire), and then connect the ground wire to the neutral post, which is the bare wire.

I always check with the continuity tester (a pen like divice that emits light and sound when you come into contact with "power")., to prevent accidents, even if I think its dead, I still check.

And then you have the overseas codes, where they have the red and black and blue, but, lets not go into that one,eh :)

I wish you well..

Jesse

Answer 5

Black Hot

Answer 6

Black is hot, white is neutral. Red is hot also but only when you're running a 3 way switch. Sometimes they will use an extra white on 3 ways but they will always be marked so you know it's hot also

Answer 7

YES THE BLACK IS ALWAYS HOT UNLESS THERE IS ALSO A RED WIRE IN WITCH THE RED IS ALSO HOT THE WHITE WIRE IS ALWAYS NEUTRAL

Answer 8

Here are 2 sources for basic electricity, I think you can use them.http://www.reprise.com/host/electricity/...
http://www.outlawnet.com/~oclass/electri...

Answer 9

120 volts black is hot .......... in a/c white is neutral ........in d/c white is hot leg