Hi, I just bought a cool used hanging ceiling light fixture, but the
wires coming out of the fixture are confusing. There are two covered
wires and one naked copper one. I assume the copper wire is the
ground, but the two other wires are both white. How can I tell which
is connected to the house's hot wire, and which to neutral?

I've seen the reverse of this question here, where both house wires
are the same color, and I know you'd use a voltage meter in that
situation, but with no power to the light fixture, how can I be sure
to hook it up correctly?

Thanks for any help you can give me!

"Capricious" wrote in message
om...
Hi, I just bought a cool used hanging ceiling light fixture, but the
wires coming out of the fixture are confusing. There are two covered
wires and one naked copper one. I assume the copper wire is the
ground, but the two other wires are both white. How can I tell which
is connected to the house's hot wire, and which to neutral?

I've seen the reverse of this question here, where both house wires
are the same color, and I know you'd use a voltage meter in that
situation, but with no power to the light fixture, how can I be sure
to hook it up correctly?

Thanks for any help you can give me!

use an ohm meter. The white will be the one that connects to the threaded
portion on the light socket. The black will be the one that connects to the
small brass point in the bottom of the socket.

Capricious wrote:

Hi, I just bought a cool used hanging ceiling light fixture, but
the wires coming out of the fixture are confusing. There are
two covered wires and one naked copper one. I assume the copper
wire is the ground, but the two other wires are both white. How
can I tell which is connected to the house's hot wire, and which
to neutral?

I've seen the reverse of this question here, where both house
wires are the same color, and I know you'd use a voltage meter
in that situation, but with no power to the light fixture, how
can I be sure to hook it up correctly?

Thanks for any help you can give me!

If you do have a multimeter, set it to Ohms. Put one test lead
on the center conductor of the light socket (where the tip of
the light bulb makes contact) and check for continuity to each
of your wires. Whichever one shows 0 is the hot side. Wrap a
turn of black electrical tape around the wire to identify it.

Note: you don't even need an Ohmeter if you can visually trace
which wire goes to the center conductor.

It's wired this way to give you a fighting chance should you ever
stick a finger into a live empty socket. If you touch the outer
conductor (the threaded sleeve) you won't get zapped. You have to
poke all the way in and touch the nub at the bottom.


--
No more big'uns for me, now I'm a 'Venture Capitalist'.
I've learned to totally appreciate 'Small Firms'.

Capricious wrote:

Hi, I just bought a cool used hanging ceiling light fixture, but the
wires coming out of the fixture are confusing. There are two covered
wires and one naked copper one. I assume the copper wire is the
ground, but the two other wires are both white. How can I tell which
is connected to the house's hot wire, and which to neutral?

I've seen the reverse of this question here, where both house wires
are the same color, and I know you'd use a voltage meter in that
situation, but with no power to the light fixture, how can I be sure
to hook it up correctly?

Thanks for any help you can give me!

If these two wires are plastic webbed cord ("lamp cord" or "zip cord"), one
of the wires will have some small ribs and the other will be smooth. If the
lamp was wired correctly the ribbed wire is the neutral and goes to the
white supply conductor.

If you have an ohmmeter, that is a more reliable test, as already described.
You'd be amazed how often fixtures, including new ones, are wired wrong.

--
Best Regards
Anthony Straight
http://dotznize.com/electric

This posting is an opinion only. The reader must use his own judgment and
assume any risk for following or ignoring my advice.

If you do have a multimeter, set it to Ohms. Put one test lead
on the center conductor of the light socket (where the tip of
the light bulb makes contact) and check for continuity to each
of your wires. Whichever one shows 0 is the hot side. Wrap a
turn of black electrical tape around the wire to identify it.

Note: you don't even need an Ohmeter if you can visually trace
which wire goes to the center conductor.

It's wired this way to give you a fighting chance should you ever
stick a finger into a live empty socket. If you touch the outer
conductor (the threaded sleeve) you won't get zapped. You have to
poke all the way in and touch the nub at the bottom.

Thank you very much for the help! I can't actually trace the wires
because the two white wires are actually connected together (or their
plastic covers are) lower down in the fixture, and the light is a
complicated sputnik design, so I can't see the wires for most of their
length, and can't tell if they twist around in there. But I will see
if I can get my hands on a multimeter. That's a big help. Thanks
again!