Help! (Iinstalling a light fixture)

[Seventy7]

Hello, sad to say...but I just had my first experience with installing a light fixture. : )

I did a bit of reading up on the topic, bought myself a tester and so on. I was expecting to find a white wire and a black wire. However...when I took off the existing fixture (nothing more than a simple piece of metal with a bulb), I noticed that there was a white wire coming down from the ceiling that was twisted on to the white wire belonging to the fixture (expected), however..instead of a black wire attached to the fixture, there was a single red wire coming down from the ceiling and screwed into the fixture itself (no 2nd red wire).

There was a black wire however....it just was not being used.

In any case, I attached the new fixture, connected the white to the white again, and figured to continue using the red.. I attached the red from the ceiling (since it was attached to the previous fixture) to the black wire in the new fixture.

Put everything back on...and presto, it worked fine. However....around half an hour afterwards, the breaker shut itself off!!

Am I doing anything wrong? Should I have attached the black wire (previously unused with the first fixture) to the black wire on the new fixture? And if so...what about the red wire that was attached to the first one? What is the reason that the breaker shut itself off?

Any help would be GREATLY appreciated.

Thanks! S

[Seventy7]

Hello, sad to say...but I just had my first experience with installing a light fixture. : )

I did a bit of reading up on the topic, bought myself a tester and so on. I was expecting to find a white wire and a black wire. However...when I took off the existing fixture (nothing more than a simple piece of metal with a bulb), I noticed that there was a white wire coming down from the ceiling that was twisted on to the white wire belonging to the fixture (expected), however..instead of a black wire attached to the fixture, there was a single red wire coming down from the ceiling and screwed into the fixture itself (no 2nd red wire).

There was a black wire however....it just was not being used.

In any case, I attached the new fixture, connected the white to the white again, and figured to continue using the red.. I attached the red from the ceiling (since it was attached to the previous fixture) to the black wire in the new fixture.

Put everything back on...and presto, it worked fine. However....around half an hour afterwards, the breaker shut itself off!!

Am I doing anything wrong? Should I have attached the black wire (previously unused with the first fixture) to the black wire on the new fixture? And if so...what about the red wire that was attached to the first one? What is the reason that the breaker shut itself off?

Any help would be GREATLY appreciated.

Thanks! S

[3GCPO]

how is this fixture grounded (bare copper wire)?

does this fixture work on 2 different switches (red wire)?

[B]

A ceiling box wired for a ceiling fan often uses white, black, and red (and ground), such as black and white for the fan and red and white for the light (or B and W for the light and R and W for the fan). So, if you saw white and red in the ceiling, you should have seen black, also. And if you saw white, black, and red in the ceiling, you should see two switches on the wall. If you didn't see everything I mentioned, a previous ding dong did something funky and you should be totally careful. (Call an electrician if you have any doubt).

It can work with white and red, and it's possible the breaker tripped because you didn't make really tight connections with wire nuts. Make sure the bare ground wires are connected too. Call an electrician if you have any doubt. It is my duty to tell you that the internet is no place to get safety or electrical advice.

[3GCPO]

and who has sworn you in to this so-called "duty"?

your advice was good until that (stupid) statement.

what a putz!

[Seventy7]

Hi. Thanks very much for the reply.

Well, I did see black, white and red; however the black was tied up in a wire nut and wasn't used with the previous fixture (which worked correctly). Also, there is only one switch in the wall for this particular light (although there is another light near by that uses two switches)

One of the wire nuts we used was probably smaller than should be, could that really make the difference? If not...I suppose you may be right and something funky is up.

Thx again