Sorry, I never got back to folks to clarify my descriptions of wiring a light fixture to a switch.
I don't really have much to add, other than to say thanks to everyone for their descriptions, everything makes perfect sense. One thing I would like to say is that I am continuously surprised how you sometimes get an idea in your head and you find it hard to see that there is another way. In one of my descriptions, I mentioned running a wire from the power to the switch and a line from the light to the switch then plugging in the black wires to the switch and tieing the white lines together. I made some comment about that not being efficient wire usage. Some folks talked about not even having to cut the white wire, it just passes through the box. Where I got confused, but eventually clarified it in my own head. I had this picture of wires running up the walls from the basement to the attic. Then the power line would have to run down from the attic to the switch and a line would have to run from the switch, back up to the attic and over to the light. That is the way I would have to do it in my situation. However, what I hadn't thought of, which others were thinking of, is that in certain situations, you can run from the power source, directly up to the switch and then on up and over to the light fixture. So that would be efficient use of wire since you wouldn't have a line going down and up the wall. Just one going straight up. Does that make any sense? Anyway, this was long enough and I will now post another question. -- Blue skies. Dan Rossi Carnegie Mellon University. E-Mail: [email protected] Tel: (412) 268-9081
