Exterior fan/light box to flood lights

Kelly Durfey

We bought a new house last year that was pre-wired for a fan/light under the back porch. The box has the four basic wires coming from it (black, white, copper, and red) that you would expect with a fan/light box seeing that you need to power two items. There are two switches by the back door that are designed to turn on/off the fan and light independently.

We also invested in a large back yard and feel that these switches could be put to greater use if we re-routed the power to switch on a couple of flood lights. The flood lights would each use the 14-2 wire with a black, white, and copper.

I know that the black is the hot, the white is the nuetral, and the copper is my ground. But I need to make sure I wire this up right. I know that the three copper wires should be connected with a wire nut. Unfortunately, that's all i have any confidence about.

Is the red wire a second hot wire or a second nuetral wire?

I figure there are two possiblities:
1) The red wire is hot, so the black from the house goes to the black on light #1, the red from the house goes to the black from light #2, and the three nuetral whites get nutted together.
2) The red wire is nuetral, so the three hot black wires get the nut, sending power from one hot to both lights, the white from light #1 goes to white from the house, and the white from light #2 goes to (nuetral) red.

Which is it?

I'm nervous to proceed without being sure.

Thank you for your help.

Kelly Durfey
Red Rock, AZ

joed

White is always neutral.
Normally what describe would be black controlled by one switch and red controlled by other switch. They (black and red) are both hot wires.
Connect all the white together.
Connect all the bare(grounds) together.
Connect the blacks from one set of lights to the black wire.
Connect the black from the other set of lights to the red wire.
You will have two separate sets of switched lights. If you want all the light controlled by one switch connect all the black together and cap the red.

rjniles

If the wiring has been done by normal conventions, the white is neutral, the black is switched hot from one switch and the red is switched hot from the other switch. The bare copper wire is ground. So your #1 is correct.

Kelly Durfey

Thanks guys,

Lights are up and running (except for a bum light bulb). I appreciate your input and nearly instantaneous response. I've added this sight to my favorites.

Thanks again,
Kelly