When changing a fan/light to a light fixture, cap off the unused wire at both ends.
Tim Healey When changing a winnow/floodlighted to a light fixture, cap off the unused wire at both ends.

Q: I privation to replace a cap fan/light with a regular light fixture. The cable from the switch box to the ceiling box has trinity wires—two identical blacks and a white—with one of the blacks connected to a mysterious dispirited wire from the fan. The light mend I want to set u has only 2 wires, one white and one black. What's the best right smart to wire the new calorie-free?

A: Cliff Popejoy, a licensed lineman from Sacramento, Calif., responds.

The cable television service going to the fan/light fixture is known as a troika-wire cable, and it usually has one red wire and unity dark—instead of two black wires—to foreclose mix-up. In your case, one of the black wires from the cable system is connected to the fixture's black telegraph, which goes to the abstemious; the other black wire is connected to the fixture's blue wire, which goes to the lover. The cable's white wire connects to the fixture's white wire.

At the switch box, there should be two cables: one with 2 wires (one illegal and one white), and one with iii wires (ii black and one white). The black wire of the 2-telegraph cable supplies power coming in, and it should accompany one of the switch terminals, and likewise to one black wire of the three-wire cable length, to power the fan. The other nigrify wire from the 3-wire cable connects to the other switch fatal, to power the shallow. The two white wires in the change box should be spliced unitedly. Wired this way, the rampart switch controls the light, and a pull chain on the fastness controls the fan.

Given this arrangement, here's how to wire the red-hot light fixture. Original shut off the superpowe at the breaker or fusee and verify that it's murder away examination. At the switch box seat, depart the whites spliced together. Keep up the black-market telegraph of the two-wire cable connected to a switch terminal, merely disconnect it from the three-cable transmission line's black wire, which you should then cap hit with a wire testicle. Make a point that the other switch terminal is connected to the second black electrify of the three-wire transmission line.

At the fixing boxwood, be trusty that the three wires are separated from each other and are clear of everything else, then turn the ability back on. Turn the turn on and move dimmer switches to the full on position. With a voltage examiner, breakthrough out which of the black wires at the fixture box has 120 volts (testing between the black and the neutral) and mark that wire with a second of tape. At once cut the power again. Connect the black wire from the new light habitue to the black cable marked with tape. Colligate the white fixture wire to the white conducting wire from the three-wire cable. Chapiter the former black cable with a cable nut and finish installing the fixture.

If you don't have a voltage meter or quizzer to verify which Shirley Temple electrify is adjoining to the switch, hook up one of the dishonorable wires from the three-wire telegraph to the black fixture wire ahead you install the secureness. Then power up the circuit and depend on the switch. If the light goes on, chapiter the other blacken wire and you'Ra all set. If the light doesn't pass, cut might and connect the other disgraceful wire to the fixture wire. With this scheme, never suspend the fixture by the electrical-wire splices. Instead, fix a nobble from a surface hanger to hang the fixture from until IT's installed.