i have a problem with a wall outlite running my two switches for my porch lite and back to wall outlite?

Question

when i moved in my house my wall out lite did not work i have two switches on the wall one for porch lite and one controols the walloutlite to turn it off and on i have for wires in the wall otlite two white and one black with power and one red taped to gether the switches on the wall suppose to work the outlite and porch lite what am i doind wrong nothing works

Answer 1

Bud I'm not sure what you are talking about! But I will tell you how it is supposed to be connected.

TURN THE POWER OFF FIRST! BEFORE YOU DO ANYTHING

The black wire in the Romex Cable which is hot; is the wire comig from your breaker box.

You should have two more Romex Cables coming into the box as well. ( I am assuming it is a double gang box) with both switches in the same box.

Your hot black wire from the breaker box: You hook it to the top of one switch, then you run a jumper to the top of the other switch. That makes both your switches hot.
NOTE IF THE SWITCHES HAVE PLUG IN's FOR THE WIRES STRIP BACK THE AMOUNT AS per THE GUIDE ON THE SWITCHES. THEN PLUG THE WIRES IN MAKING SURE THEY MAKE GOOD CONTACT AND ARE ALL THE WAY IN. You can tell by trying to pull them back out. It in good you can't pull them out.

Next you connect the black wires in the other two Romex Cables to the bottom of the switches. Normally you will want to connect the wire going to the porch to the switch closest the door.

Next you connect the grounding wires to the grounding lugs on the switches if they have one. Make sure that all the grounding wires are tied together in this case. i.e. connect the ground wire from the breaker box to the first switch then connect the ground wire from the light to the same lug. On the same lug run a jumper to the secon switch. Tie it and the ground wire from the light to the grounding lug on the second switch.

If the switches do not have grounding lugs tie all the ground wires together using a wire nut.

Now you tie all the white wires together using a wire nut.

turn the power back on a check out.