Light Only Works When Lead Is Wired To Ground?
I have an outdoor light fixture that I am trying to replace. The house was built ten years ago.
When I removed the original lamp, I noticed one of the two leads was wired to the ground, and one was wired to the black wire, which is hot per my current sensor. There are three wires in the box - black, ground (bare copper), and white or neutral, all from a single romex cable. Unfortunately, I do not recall where the white was when I removed the original. I wired the new lamp per the instructions, something I have done many times before - black to black, white to white, and bare copper ground to ground. Nothing. The lamp and bulbs are brand new, and I have tried four separate bulbs. I checked the black and neutral with my current sensor and with the switch on and the lamp installed this way, both show as hot. With the lamp not installed, the switch on, and the wires disconnected only the black shows as hot. The switch is single pole, and appears to be wired correctly with a black to each screw on one side and a copper ground on the other. Assuming the new fixture was bad, I reinstalled the old fixture correctly - black to black, white to white, and bare copper ground to ground. Still nothing. No light, and I confirmed the bulb is good by putting it in another lamp. The only way to get it to light is to connect the neutral in the lamp to the bare copper ground. I capped the wires, turned the circuit back on, and identified all the outlets, switches and fixtures on the same circuit. I opened every one of them up (four lights and eight outlets) and found three (one switch and two fixtures in another room) where multiple commons connect. All were properly connected. My outlet tester shows all outlets as "correct". I found no instances of grounds connected to commons or vice-versa. Any ideas? Is it proper to wire this thing the way I found it? Thanks for any and all advice! Similar Tutorials
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