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New LED fixture has Black, White, Green (Hot, Neutral, Ground). Box has two black wires connected to each other, two grounds connected to each other, two whites connected to existing socket and one red connected to socket. I am guessing that the red is the hot from the switch and the 2 whites connect to the single white on the new fixture.

Does this seem right? I haunt the Computer area, first-timer over here.

Existing Wiring

2 Answers 2

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Yes, that seems correct.

The ceilling red wire is a switched hot, it goes to the fixture black hot. The ceilling white is neutral, it goes to the fixture white. Pigtail all three white wires together with a nut. The bare wire is a ground, it goes to the fixture green.

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  • @ John White. just to be clear. You do not need to do anything to the black wires from the box in the ceiling, leave the wire nut on them.
    – Alaska Man
    Commented Sep 10, 2018 at 20:22
  • I did. Figured as much since the red was hot. And it works. Thank you both.
    – John White
    Commented Sep 10, 2018 at 20:42
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Yes, what you're seeing there is the neutral terminal also being used as a splice. Neutral comes from supply, and also goes onward to other unrelated equipment. They are just making the splice at the lamp screw rather than up in the box at a wirenut, which is a little weird.

I'd pull the two white wires off, clean them up and strip them (they might be one continuous wire looped over the screw, nothing wrong with that but it won't work with your new fixture) and join them with on a wire nut, yellow is the right color and Ideal brand is electricians' favorite. Your new lamp has pigtails so just add its white to these whites.

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