Installed a flood light on my pasture gate but something is not right!!

[blackrat]

Hey guys. I am sure I will be embarrased when I see wht is actually wrong. Here is what I have.

Hot wire running from house to gate switch for the barn lights with a non switched line feeding 2 recepticals in the barn (these stay hot). So when I turn the switch on at the gate the barn lights come on.

Now I added a flood light to the gate post above the light switch. I "thought" all I had to do is run a line from the flood to the switch connecting white to white and black to black..... WRONG!!!! With the light switch in the "OFF" position I turned the breaker back on. The flood light immediately came on. I then switched the light switch to "ON" and the flood at the gate went off and the barn lights come on!!! What do I have wroing here???

Thanks
Wade

[blackrat]

Before I added the flood light the wires at the switch that control the on and off of the barn lights are a white wire to the top post, a black wire to the bottom post and then the solid copper to the switch body. This was how it was wired before. I "thought" all I needed to do to make the flood run off the same switch is to run the white lead to the top or the switch with the other white and then the black lead to the bottom of the switch with the other black wire.

Now I notice that when I turn the switch "OFF" and the barn lights go off but flood comes on, the barn lights all have a very dim orange to them so some how the power to them is no longer getting shut off.

So if I take the flood back out of the equation all works fine. So how do I wire the flood right to make it work???

[vwnotrunning]

It sounds like you only have the switch leg going to the switch. One side of the switch (typically black wire, but not always the case) has a hot wire. When the switch turns on the other wire sends power back throught the wires to the light. Your flood light will need to get a neutral wire and switched leg from the existing light to operate on the switch. With the switch off the flood light is backfeeding some voltage to the existing lights.

[CNC Dan]

It sounds like you only have the switch leg going to the switch. One side of the switch (typically black wire, but not always the case) has a hot wire. When the switch turns on the other wire sends power back throught the wires to the light. Your flood light will need to get a neutral wire and switched leg from the existing light to operate on the switch. With the switch off the flood light is backfeeding some voltage to the existing lights.

that's exactly it. There is power to one side of the switch. The switch,when on, connects the two terminals sending power to the other wire. There is no nutral needed so it may or may not be present. The new light needs a swiched hot, a nutral, and a ground for safety. You have the swiched hot, but you will need to add the nutral and ground.

[blackrat]

Thanks guys! So my only option the way I understand this it to install a second switch for the flood and use the power from the origional to feed it???

[CNC Dan]

Thanks guys! So my only option the way I understand this it to install a second switch for the flood and use the power from the origional to feed it???

you will still need to run a nutral wire. you could run romex with a hot/nutral/ground from the existing light over to the new light.

[SPIKER]

Sounds like the Barn Lights are HOT the Neutral leaving the barn lights goes to the switch and when the switch is turned ON it makes the connection to the Neutral Line letting current flow and the lights to come on. when you hooked up the FLOOD you connected the light across the switch so the FLOOD needs 1 amp to run and the barn lights need 4 amps to run so 1 amp of current is flowing evenly thru ALL of the barn lights making them glow dim that current continues thru the FLOOD making it bright (when the switch is OFF) when you turn the switch ON all of the barn lights now get the 4 amps of current flowing and they come on. the 4 amps flow thru the switch (short circuit) and since the switch has no resistance the flood light gets bypassed and does not come on.

NOTE the 4 amp and 1 amp are just numbers that depend on the value/wattage of the bulbs and number of bulbs in all of the fixtures.

In the past switching the Neutral was somewhat common but left the light fixtures all HOT all the time so you take out a bulb and check for power it will be there when the switch is on or off.

Mark