going from 2 to 3 lights on a switch?

Question

i have 2 ceiling lights in my hallway but need to put in another,it is about 5 ft. from the light switch so i figured on using wire mold and just connecting to the switch,but the light has a black ,a white and a ground,and the switch has a red(hot) on one side and a black and a white on the other, so how should i hook my light wires to the switch? bl. to bl. and wh. to wh. or bl. to red and wh.to wh.? help.

firm_shake · Accepted Answer

You should connect your 3rd light to one of the other two.  Usually this will mean connecting the black going into light #2 to the new black for light #3 and the same with the white.  There's a chance that the hot wire going to light #2 is red instead of black.  That's fine, just connect the black for #3 to this red.

Trying to connect your new light directly from the switch can be problematic.  It does sound like you have a 3-way switch.  Even if you didn't there are several ways to wire a wall switch... and several of them do not involve having a neutral wire (usually white) that passes through that junction box.  In other instances the white wire is actually acting as a surrogate hot wire.  A multi-tester can be used to figure out how things are wired.  Regardless of all of this, it's almost always better to tap off of an existing light to add another that will be controled by the same switch.  

Good luck.

Darren · Answer

You have a three way switch for your lights.  You should have two switches for those lights.

Your easiest bet is to tag off on one of the exisiting lights.  I can't think of anyway to get power from the switch to operate your light.

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going from 2 to 3 lights on a switch?

2 Answers