So, why are there two black and two white wires in your outlet box? There are two black and two white wires in an outlet box because the outlet is in the middle of a series circuit, accepting power from another source and sending it on. Two cables are hot wires, bringing the power in and carrying it onward to the next.

How do you wire a light with two white and two black wires?

Take your always hot black and put it on your light switch, than take the other black in that box and put it on the light switch. Take your white that is in the same cable as your always hot black and wire nut it with your other white. Now go up to your light box.

Why does my ceiling fan have two black wires?





That is, when two wires are connected, the connection must be accessible, (not behind drywall) and in a properly rated box. The blacks are always hot, and it carries on to another outlet or switch in your home. If you want your ceiling fan and light to be controlled by the pull chains, then it’s simple.

What happens when you have two black wires?

Black means hot, white signifies neutral, and green indicates ground. However, if you need to rewire a light switch or a plug socket, you may occasionally come across two black wires. It’s essential that you determine which black wire is hot before proceeding.

Which wire is positive on two black wires?

If both wires are black but one has a white stripe, the striped wire is negative, while the plain black wire is positive.

Can you put two black wires together?

This is the typical way to connect a switch. The 2 blacks connected are “power in, power out” to the next switch in the circuit. The pig-tail to the dimmer connected to the two blacks is also typical.

Why does my light switch have 2 black wires?





STEP 3: Identify the terminal and ground wires.



Observe the layout of the wires. You should see two black wires, each connecting to a different screw on the side of the switch. These are called terminal screws. You will also see two white (neutral) wires that connect to one another in the box.

Which wire is hot when both are same color?

In most modern fixtures the neutral wire will be white and the hot wire is red or black. In some types of fixtures, both wires will be the same color. In this case, the neutral wire is always identified by some means. In some cases, there will be small writing on the wiring case.

How do I wire a ceiling fan with black and white wires?


Quote from Youtube video: So when you have one black wire coming out of the ceiling. You have to use your switches. Now so we have our ceiling fan switch. And our light switch.

How do you wire a light with two sets of wires?

Connect the lead wires from the fixture to the black hot wire in the electrical box by twisting a wire connector to the ends of the lead and hot wires. Repeat these connections with the two white neutral wires from the light fixture and the white neutral wire in the light fixture box.

What happens if you connect the wrong wires on a light fixture?



But here’s the catch: If you connect the circuit wires to the wrong terminals on an outlet, the outlet will still work, but the polarity will be backward. When this happens, a lamp, for example, will have its bulb socket sleeve energized rather than the little tab inside the socket.

What happens if you mix up hot and neutral wires?

This happens when the hot and neutral wires get flipped around at an outlet, or upstream from an outlet. Reversed polarity creates a potential shock hazard, but it’s usually an easy repair. Any $5 electrical tester will alert you to this condition, assuming you have a properly grounded three-prong outlet.

Why are the black and white wires connected together?

Because the neutral is re-tasked to be a hot, it must be marked with a few wraps of tape. White is used for always-hot because another rule requires this. That’s so when you’re at the other end, it’s easier to detect that the white Is hot, because it’s always hot.

How do you pigtail two black wires?



Quote from the video:
Quote from Youtube video: About 3/4 of an inch on both sides of both pieces of wire and this is going to be our pigtail.

What happens if black and white wires touch?

A short circuit happens when a “hot” wire (black) touches another hot wire or touches a “neutral” wire (white) in one of your outlets. When these two wires touch, a large amount of current flows, creating more heat than the circuit can handle, so it shuts off.

Why are there two hot wires?

The reason for multiple hot/neutral wires for one outlet is that the outlets are daisy-chained together. This means hot/neutral is only coming from one of the wires and it is being sent to the other wire.

Why are both black and white wires hot?

Here’s a rundown of electrical wires: The black wire is the “hot” wire, it carries the electricity from the breaker panel into the switch or light source. The white wire is the “neutral” wire, it takes any unused electricity and current and sends it back to the breaker panel.

Why are neutral and ground tied together?



If you touch the casing, and some real ground (like a water pipe) at the same time, you will close the circuit and carry all of the current. So, connecting the ground to neutral totally defeats the purpose of having a ground, and actually makes it more dangerous than not having the ground at all.

Can 2 hot wires share a neutral?

What is a multiwire branch circuit? A multiwire branch circuit is a branch circuit with a shared neutral. This means there are two or more ungrounded (hot) phase or system conductors with a voltage between them and a shared neutral.

Can 2 circuits share a ground?

The code requires each branch circuit to have an equipment ground (either a wire, or conduit, or cable tray as in 250.120A), they can be shared when they are in the same raceway. If all the 20A circuits are in one raceway then you just need one ground.

What is a shared neutral wire?

A shared neutral is when more then one circuit uses the same neutral wire instead of its own wire for each circuit. If you are using a shared neutral the two breakers need to be on a common trip breaker or also known as a 2 pole breaker.