Replacing a flourescent fixture in an older house

[Tim Miland]

Hi,

I'm in the process of replacing a ceiling fixture in my kitchen. My house was built in 1952 and has the original wiring. When I removed the old fixture I see it was wired to a red and a white wire with a black wire not used in junction box. It was taped up and looks like it was taped to another black wire that continued on to another fixture.

When reading the instructions on installing the new fixture I have a few questions.

1. It says if the wiring is within 3 inches of the ballast the wiring needs to be rated for 90 degrees C and that houses built before 1985 typically have wire only rated for 60 degrees C...how do I handle this situation and is it critcal?

2. It also states that the fixture needs to be connected to a grounded electrical circuit and has a green ground wire fastened to the fixture...which wire in the juntion box do I attach it too?

3. The current wires in the junction box are red, white and black. The previous fixture was attached to the red and the white...what are each of the wire colors for? hot/ground/neutral?????

I'm a novice using older wiring so your help would be appreciated!

Thanks!

[John Nelson]

1. Yes, it is critical to reduce the risk of fire. All you really need to do is replace the final segment of wire with new wire. Of course, all splices must be permanently accessible.

2. The grounding wire may only be attached to a green or bare wire from the ceiling, or to a metal box. Don't even think of connecting it to anything else. If you have none of these, you'll have to leave it unconnected, but your fixture may not reliably start.

3. When using cable assemblies, we have a limited number of wire colors to serve a wide variety of purposes, so there isn't a wire color assigned to each possible purpose. Just connect the new fixture to the same wires that the old fixture was connected to and you'll be fine. Chance are that the black is unswitched hot and the red is switched hot.