I'm in the process of building built in shelves and cabinets for my wife's office since she is 99% WFH.
There will be 3 picture lights at the top of the shelves that need to be wired in. My plan is to use an outlet that will be inaccessible behind the base cabinets and run the wire up behind the shelves and make a harness for the three lights.
Does my "diagram" look correct? Am i right that the green screw on the baseplate goes to the 3rd prong on the outlet in this case or just direct wire? I'm also going to install a switch that will turn on all 3 lights. Which wire should that go on?
Thanks!
Wires should be white, black, and green (or bare). Green is correct as shown. Switch interrupts black wire.
As long as the wire is not open air were they are spliced together. Each light needs a box behind it for the splice to go into. You also will need a non-flamable chase through the wood to the base plate.This is based on it being 120v.
Now if you decided to go with say a 24v or 12v system you can splice those in the open and have them run free-air stile like your drawing.
OK. Made some improvements from your feedback and others. But I'm stuck.
I am pulling power from a plug. I want to go to a dimmer switch that will then go to the lights.
Left side is the wiring to the lights, white, black, ground. Middle is the switch, red, black, ground. Right is the 3 prong plug cord, black, white, ground. I would expect for the switch 3 wires in, 3 wires out but it only has 3 total. How do I wire the switch in or do I need a different switch?
(It will be in a box mounted to the cabinet wall, BTW, and the plug is pulled so I could get the black and white wires correct on my plug cord.)
Thank you!
The whites tie together. Ground goes to the green and bare wires. Black from the plug in should go to the black on the switch. The red goes to the black wire going to the lights. The red/white is probably for a threeway connection.
Thank you! I knew I was missing something. Nuts and bolts, no problem for me. Sparky stuff, I get lost.
I appreciate the assistance!
You know you could have tapped into the outlet direct vs having the plug come out, then into an actual plug, but at this point, it's run, so why switch now? As long as she's happy, job well done.
In reply to Steve_Jones :
I know. There were a couple reasons. I still need that plug for a surge protector for the charging station in the cabinet next to it. I also didn't want to deal with turning power on and off for the first floor since my family is usually doing something while I'm working. And I had already planned it out and hindsight is 20/20. :)
Does it work? Not all lights are compatible with dimmers, and some dimmers are special purpose. Check the red/white wire, cap it if it's hot.
You may have trouble connecting all three romex light wires with the romex supply wire in one box. There is a legal limit, along with having enough room to actually do it. It should have been fed to the first light, and then daisy chained to the middle and then the last. Your pencil diagram actually had it correct.
It looks great! Hope she likes it and appreciates the work it took.
