My electrician wired a single bulb light fixture with 220vac instead of 110vac.There are two 110 vac wires and the Ground.How can i reduce this to 110vac at the fixture?
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1Are you in the United States? Or another country? Electrical systems, wiring methods, and voltages vary worldwide.– TysonCommented Nov 7, 2018 at 14:42
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3@CrossRoads No! That will get you 110 VAC for the fixture but is not safe! (a) ground should be separate from neutral, (b) ground is not designed to carry large amounts of current for a long time and therefore can be bare wire/connected to metal box/undersized compare to hot & neutral. Don't do that!– manassehkatz-Moving 2 CodidactCommented Nov 7, 2018 at 15:06
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3@CrossRoads no! Bootlegging neutral is an amateur hack, and will cause no end of grief in so many ways - starting with safety. If anything goes wrong with your grounding electrode system, that miswiring will pull up the grounding system to 120V and shock anyone who touches anything grounded! Last week someone said "I touched my panel and got a shock that knocked me onto the ground" - how does that happen? One guess.– Harper - Reinstate MonicaCommented Nov 7, 2018 at 16:40
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2Can you expand on why the fixture is supplied 240V? (might not have been that electrician that did the wiring). Is it out at a shed or pump location with 240V power only? These days wiring a light 240V isn't so unreasonable, as most fluorescent and LED fixtures work on 120-277V.– Harper - Reinstate MonicaCommented Nov 7, 2018 at 16:48
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1@Harper While plenty of integrated LED fixtures work fine on 120 - 277, at least some of the Edison base LED bulbs (I just looked up specs. on a Cree) are strictly 120V, and the OP wrote single bulb light fixture. Plus if it is a standard Edison base then the next owner might say "I need an outlet" and put in an adapter and ZAP.– manassehkatz-Moving 2 CodidactCommented Nov 7, 2018 at 17:38
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1 Answer
Note: This assumes you are in the US or an area that follows US electrical standards. If you are someplace else then this may be totally incorrect.
You need to connect hot, neutral, ground. Currently you have a second hot instead of neutral.
The catch is that this requires moving a wire at the panel. Assuming you have "normal" wiring, you should have white for neutral, green or bare wire for ground and some other color, usually black, for hot.
If the cable from the panel to the fixture is black/white/green-or-bare then you need to move white from a hot connection to the neutral bar. WARNING: If you have never worked inside a breaker panel before then this is probably NOT a good idea to do yourself.
If the cable from the panel is black/red/green-or-bare (i.e., designed for a 240V circuit with no neutral) then the cable should be switched to one that includes a white wire.
If the cable from the panel is black/red/white/green-or-bare (like for a stove or dryer or other circuit) then you should already have neutral in the cable (the white wire) and either the wires were connected wrong at the panel or at the fixture - should have white to neutral on both ends.
My personal recommendation (I am not an electrician) is to hire an electrician to do this. But probably a different electrician because while it should be "you messed up, you fix it", I would worry that if they messed up on such a basic thing that they really can't be trusted to fix it properly. In particular, the comment someone else made about "connect to one 110 VAC and ground" is a bit scary: Doing that would make the light work properly, but would absolutely violate code and would not be safe. If your "electrician" decided to do a quick fix like that then I'd be really worried...
answered Nov 7, 2018 at 15:05
manassehkatz-Moving 2 Codidactmanassehkatz-Moving 2 Codidact
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1I guess the short answer is, I shoudn't do this at the Light fixture, and as I have minimal Panel expertise, I will best call a proper electrician to correct. Thanks for quick turnaround, appreciate it.– RupertCommented Nov 7, 2018 at 16:02
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1Actually, it depends on the problem. If the electrician actually ran a /3 cable (hot/hot/neutral/ground) then you could fix it at the fixture. But far more likely is that he ran a /2 and did it wrong - in which case it is a panel problem and can only be fixed inside the panel. Commented Nov 7, 2018 at 16:22