[auggie77]

Hi,

We have a 1920s home with old wiring. When we bought the house we hired electricians to add switches to the wall (since the rooms all had those walk up and pull the string issue). We installed recessed lights in our bedroom but now they go on but the switch does not work. It seems that there are 2 old black wires that are twisted together and 2 old brown wires that are twisted together from the old light. There is a newer cable with a white, black, and ground that goes to the switch and the cable that we installed that connects all of the recessed lights which has a black, white, and ground. We thought the 2 old black wires should be connected to the white wire of the switch and then the black wire coming from the switch should be connected to the black wire of the cable running to the recessed lights. Then we connected the white wire from the recessed lights to the old brown wires. This turned the lights on but the switch did not work. We tried a couple of things before this setup, could we have burnt out the switch? Does this sound like it should work?

Thanks for your help.
Auggie

 

[auggie77]

Thanks. We will try a new switch out. Since we are not sure if the power is coming from the black or brown we tried it both ways. Neither worked. Maybe this burntout the switch? How do people tell which is the power line?