I want to hardwire my plug-in lighting?

Question

I just bought some plug-in string lighting at home depot.
Instead of having to plug these in, I would like to wire them to my wall switch which has a dimmer on it.

When I removed the old light from the wall it has 3 wires, black, white and brass. The plug in lights have 2, the "hot" wire and the other one (i have no clue about this stuff)

Any help on making this happen would be great!

Thanks

Answer 1

Just have a go, its all trial and error.

Answer 2

When you buy "portable" lighting it is generally approved by Underwriters Laboratories to be plugged into an outlet or other approved device. When you buy a light fixture it is approved to be hardwired.

The standards for the wiring in each are different, specifically in regard to resistance to heat/flammibiliy. Typically cordsets for portable lights are more flexible and assumed to have air moving around them. While unlikely, it is possible that you could hardwire the lamp in such a way that it could present a fire hazard.

DO NOT DO THIS!

Answer 3

Hook the black (hot) wire to one of your fixture wires, white wire(neutral) to the other. Shouldn't matter which goes to which.
The "brass" wire you are referring to sounds like the bare wire ground wire. If you don't have a ground wire on your lights, you don't need to hook it up to anything..
Just hook the 2 wires to black and white.