A/C wire help

[HeXen]

I got a security light for garage. Wire from garage has white/black/light green.
The security light only has white and black wire and a 2 bare ground wires.

So what do I do with the light green wire?

I tried just leaving the green wire be and connected the white and black wires but light does not work. I know I have juice as I have a tester. There is no real junction box on the garage, just a hole for the 12/2 wire to poke through and a square plastic ring for the mount so there isn't much of a real ground for the 2 bare wires.

*google says the black wire supposed to be the hot? I always picture black as being ground.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Green wire is probably ground if it's wired right.

Though since the light does not work something might be wired wrong as it should still work without grounding (but it would be unsafe).

With the white, black and green wire loose I would turn power on and test with a multi meter between all of them to see what you get and go from there.

 

[olds]

Black = hot
White = neutral
Green = ground

 

[squirrel dog]

your avatar enlightens me .

 

[Greenman]

I got a security light for garage. Wire from garage has white/black/light green.
The security light only has white and black wire and a 2 bare ground wires.

So what do I do with the light green wire?

I tried just leaving the green wire be and connected the white and black wires but light does not work. I know I have juice as I have a tester. There is no real junction box on the garage, just a hole for the 12/2 wire to poke through and a square plastic ring for the mount so there isn't much of a real ground for the 2 bare wires.

*google says the black wire supposed to be the hot? I always picture black as being ground.

Since the basic instillation is incorrect (no junction box at the connection), I wouldn't assume that the rest of it is properly wired. Check it back to the switch, make sure everything is properly connected.

 

[Bowfinger]

If you have to ask questions like this, you should probably hire an electrician. Household wiring isn't that difficult, but it does require training to ensure safety.

 

[boomerang]

Is it on a three way circuit? Should be black, white and bare copper for ground if it was 12/2 but you're saying the wiring at the box has a light green. Are there four wires total including a bare copper or are there 3 wires total including a bare copper?

 

[Raizinman]

I had a friend wire a security light and couldn't get it to work. His problem was that the switch was light sensitive and motion sensitive. He had it wired correctly.

 

[boomerang]

I had a friend wire a security light and couldn't get it to work. His problem was that the switch was light sensitive and motion sensitive. He had it wired correctly.

This occurred to me also. The one's I have seen have an override switch for testing purposes.

 

[HeXen]

Green wire is probably ground if it's wired right.

Though since the light does not work something might be wired wrong as it should still work without grounding (but it would be unsafe).

With the white, black and green wire loose I would turn power on and test with a multi meter between all of them to see what you get and go from there.

As I mentioned, I have juice as I already tested it and there is only white/black and 2 bare but smaller copper wires. So do I just put those 2 wires to the green?

Since the basic instillation is incorrect (no junction box at the connection), I wouldn't assume that the rest of it is properly wired. Check it back to the switch, make sure everything is properly connected.

Previous light worked fine but was just rusted badly.

Is it on a three way circuit? Should be black, white and bare copper for ground if it was 12/2 but you're saying the wiring at the box has a light green. Are there four wires total including a bare copper or are there 3 wires total including a bare copper?

It's as I already mentioned. Green/white/black on the garage wire. The copper is not as big as 10/2 so I assumed it was a size smaller but could be 14 gauge I guess.

I had a friend wire a security light and couldn't get it to work. His problem was that the switch was light sensitive and motion sensitive. He had it wired correctly.

It has a test button and according to instructions, you use that button to test if the light works. It's not a complicated device as there isn't much to it. Perhaps the security light is bad or the bulbs are defective. I'll probably take it back to lowe's and try a different brand.

your avatar enlightens me .

That's super epic cool'n all but try to have an attention span longer than a gnat and stick with the topic please thanks.

 

[CraKaJaX]

Black = hot
White = neutral
Green = ground

This.

If you wired assuming the black was ground, it obviously wouldn't work. If you test the black, it should be hot. Test ground and you'll get zilch. If that's the case, tie the two coppers to the green, black to black and white to white.

 

[boomerang]

I've never seen a ground wire in sheathed cable that had green insulation on it. This is what is confusing me. OP, where do you live?

 

[DrPizza]

What type of tester do you have? Some are a lot more useful than others. Some will detect when a single wire is hot, but cannot detect if a neutral wire is indeed connected to the neutral side of your breaker box. The most useful is the 3 prong plug with lights that will tell you if you have correct polarity, if the ground is good, etc. They're only a couple bucks. Or, you could do this with a multimeter/voltmeter. You'll want to make sure that the voltage between black and white is 120 volts. Then, you'll want to make sure the voltage between black and green is also 120 volts. And lastly, that the voltage between white and green is zero. With the 3 prong plug, it's possible to connect the wires to the prongs (with power shut off) using some black tape, then see which LEDs light up when you turn the power back on. I do not advise you to do that though.

If you're seeing 120 volts between the black and white, and you connect the black and white wires, appropriately on your new light, it should be working.

Without testing, your old light could have been connected to black and green - and the neutral white wire might have a problem with it. This is very improper and potentially unsafe. A cheap tester that only verifies "there's juice" would be inadequate to detect a bad neutral wire.

Another test that I have done, and again, I do not recommend trying it - I've taken a nightlight that's known to work, and carefully touched the black wire to the narrow prong on its plug and the white wire to the wider prong, and seeing if the nightlight turns on. Doing this while standing on an aluminum ladder would be a very stupid thing to do. (In my case, I didn't have my multimeter handy, and in a box that was to have a GFCI in it, I carelessly had forgotten to label which wire was the line and which wire was the load. Strip wires, spread them out so there are no shorts, breaker on, check one pair, then check the other pair, breaker off, 2 minutes later, the GFCI is installed.) But, if you're comfortable working with electrical wiring, and careful, it does provide another means to test - your OP indicates to me that you shouldn't even be considering it though.

 

[paperfist]

2 bare ground wires? There should be another wire for the sensor.

 

[natto fire]

I've never seen a ground wire in sheathed cable that had green insulation on it. This is what is confusing me. OP, where do you live?

Being in a garage, it might be MC cable, which usually has an insulated ground. Of course, the light is hacked in place without a box, and MC is even more dangerous than Romex (NM) to use without a box/connector combination, as the metallic sheath can cut into the THHN conductors inside the cable assembly. Although even a hack might use an anti-short bushing, since they come free with MC cable.

Although you are in Michigan, and I think most of your MC cable up there only has a bare aluminum bonding wire, and it is much more expensive, at least when I was working up there a couple years ago.

 

[HeXen]

Must have been defective somehow. I took it back to Low's and got a different brand, bit more expensive but works.
However, at first it turned on fine when I walked in front of it and a bit later when I let the dogs out, It didn't kick into high beam mode so after jacking with the sensitivity it doesn't kick on but the low (dusk till dawn mode) beam stays on, it just won't kick into high mode now where it did after I installed it. I flipped the switch to reset it and now wondering if this one isn't defective too....I'll give it a couple days and try playing with the settings again. Maybe I should just buy an $80 + model.

I've never seen a ground wire in sheathed cable that had green insulation on it. This is what is confusing me. OP, where do you live?

Indiana but I don't know how old the wire is. The house was remodeled and most of the wires in the garage are white on the outer most cover sheath but there are a few black ones and I'm thinking those might be older.
When I installed new lights on the front of the garage, those had 3 wires that matched the garage wire but I don't remember what color they were or if the ground was bare.

 

[natto fire]

Must have been defective somehow. I took it back to Low's and got a different brand, bit more expensive but works.
However, at first it turned on fine when I walked in front of it and a bit later when I let the dogs out, It didn't kick into high beam mode so after jacking with the sensitivity it doesn't kick on but the low (dusk till dawn mode) beam stays on, it just won't kick into high mode now where it did after I installed it. I flipped the switch to reset it and now wondering if this one isn't defective too....I'll give it a couple days and try playing with the settings again. Maybe I should just buy an $80 + model.



Indiana but I don't know how old the wire is. The house was remodeled and most of the wires in the garage are white on the outer most cover sheath but there are a few black ones and I'm thinking those might be older.
When I installed new lights on the front of the garage, those had 3 wires that matched the garage wire but I don't remember what color they were or if the ground was bare.

It was probably defective because it was made in China at the lowest quality standards. The Utilitech brand that Lowes carries is absolute garbage, and really all of Lowe's electrical department is garbage. Their move from good electrical tool brands to Southwire Chinese knock-off junk is why I avoid Lowes for electrical parts at all costs.

The best exterior fixtures I have ever installed are made by RAB. Might be overkill for most homeowners, and you can't get them at big box stores, but they are quality units, and have never had a failure out of the box.

That said, the likelihood of getting two defective units in a row, even with poor Lowes quality, is very unlikely.

 

[mariamintonwa]

Yes, it is ground wire, It seems something going wrong here, when I dont use ground wire my light still working

 

[pcgeek11]

The AC Circuit will work without a ground wire. Not to code and not as safe as having a ground wire, but the light will work. Many years ago houses didn't have ground wires at all. Just a Hot and a Neutral.

 

[CraKaJaX]

The AC Circuit will work without a ground wire. Not to code and not as safe as having a ground wire, but the light will work. Many years ago houses didn't have ground wires at all. Just a Hot and a Neutral.

Heh, yeah - and with a low-grade cloth material as the 'protective' jacket....

 

[NutBucket]

Many years ago there was also conduit between all the junction boxes....earth ground

 

[natto fire]

Many years ago there was also conduit between all the junction boxes....earth ground

That has never been a common installation residential method outside of Chicago area. The use of EMT and Rigid conduit is more common in commercial settings, but even most will still pull a green wire in for the EGC, instead of using the raceway as allowed by code.

That said, the EGC is not needed to make the circuit work correctly, it is just a safety device in case of a lost neutral.

All Romex installed now has a bare ground EGC in the cable which is supposed to be bonded to all metal parts in the electrical installation. In the panel, this EGC is supposed to be bonded to all plumbing and gas to prevent stray voltage. The EGC and neutral service wire are bonded at the first means of disconnect to provide an ideal path for fault current.