OT: Residential electrical help Options

[flipb]

I replaced a chandelier in my house today and it didn't go quite as smoothly as planned. Help me figure out how badly I screwed things up.

Our house was built in 1959, but the wiring to this fixture appeared newer. There was a chandelier on a dimmer switch in our dining room, and I bought a new one to replace it. The new one weighs less than the old one, so I wasn't worried about the fixture box holding it - and the mechanical side of the install went fine.

I was expecting it to be simple enough... to find Hot, Neutral, and Ground inside the fixture box. Discovering that it was more complicated, I tried to wire the new one the same way I found the old one wired.

Inside the box were FOUR sets of hot & neutral. The way I found it wired to the old chandelier (and the way it's now wired to the new chandelier) is as follows:

1. 3 Black wires and one White wire were connected with a wire nut.
2. A Black, a white, and a lead to the chandlier are connected in a wire nut
3. A white, another white, and the other lead to the chandelier are connected via a third wire nut

I've also tied the grounds together, and I'm fairly sure that's done properly.

Once I had it wired, the first time I tried to turn on the light, it blew the circuit breaker. I decided that I must've accidentally reversed the white wires from B and C, above, so I switched them and tried again.

Now the fixture works, but the dimmer doesn't dim... as soon as it comes on, the bulbs are at full brightness. The other strange thing is that until I installed a light bulb in the chandelier, nothing else on that circuit was getting power. I can tell because the Oven is on the same circuit and the display was blank until I put the first bulb into the chandelier.

Did I blow the dimmer switch when I had it miswired? Or do I have it miswired now, preventing the dimmer from working? And why are there four sets of wires coming through this box?

Need help from any electrical geniuses to determine whether I can repair this myself or if it's time to call an electrician.

Thanks.

Flip

[windforfun]

Can your chandelier be controlled by more than one switch?

Your chandelier J-box serves more than one circuit. Ideally, these additional circuits should only be for more lights.

If you have metal J-boxes, they should be grouned too.

Buy yourself a decent VOM (volt ohm milli-amp) meter & follow ww914's directions. He assumes, however, that the previous "electrician" complied with the color code. Hots are easliy detected with the volt meter. Your other circuits are easily identified with the ohm meter (provided they're loaded).

Since your house was built in 1959, you may have "knob & tube" wiring or two-wire Romex without a real ground. Your ground (green or bare) & your neutral (white) should show 0 ohms if you have a true gound (they're connected via a bus bar in your main breaker box).

Some of your wiring may actually be useless. Tear the wiring apart in the J-box & clean it up. Determine the always-on hot (black) wire & what goes to & from the switch J-box. One white will go to the switch j-box & the return will be black (maybe). The power feed isn't necessarily at the switch j-box. It sounds like the chandelier's j-box has the power feed.

Get the light circuit working first. Dump the dimmer for a regular switch for now. Similarly determine what wires drive the oven j-box. Hook these up to the always-on hot wire & the neutral. Now identify which outlets or circuits are no longer working. Once you've done this, open up the respective j-boxes, & using a long piece of wire (one half of lamp zip cord perhaps) with your ohm meter, determine which circuit is which.

I've done alot of home wiring over the years & you wouldn't believe the crap I've seen. Are your j-boxes at least mechanically secure?

I'm confident you can figure it out. Draw simple diagrams as you go.