Wiring Switches

[stevea101]

Hi everyone. We are finishing our basement, and recently had an electrician come out to do the rough wiring. He is very good (used him in the past). He did the wiring of outlets and a bunch of recessed lights, and also wired into the sub-panel. I (average Joe homeowner) wired the outlets, recessed lights and switches.

Well, I tried to "fire it up" last night. All the outlets work, but NONE of the recessed lights work. I have 32 recessed lights, and they are on a bunch of circuits in the breaker box, and controlled by 8 or so different switches. So I can't imagine I messed the ALL up. The breakers did not pop.

Are there different types of switches, and maybe I'm using the wrong kind? I just can't imagine why NONE of my lights work! Please help!!
:wall:

[racraft]

Tell us how you wired the lights and the switches.

[stevea101]

I guess that would have been a useful piece of info to initially post, huh?

For majority of them (non-3-way), my electrician had the 2 white wires wirenutted together and the 2 grounds wire-nutted together. Which left me with 2 black wires. On my switches are 4 places to attach wires: 2 light colored screws, 1 dark screw (which was labeled 'common'), and 1 green ground. So I attached the 2 black wires to the 2 light colored screws.

[racraft]

You are using three way switches. You can use a three way switch instead of a two way switch, but you have to connect the wires to the common screw and one of the travelers. Connect one black wire to the dark screw (common), and one black wire to either of the light colored screws. You will have to experiment to get the lights on in the up position and off in the down position (either use the other light colored screw or turn the switch over.

[stevea101]

Thank you sooo much!!!