What does that wire do?

[Wood_workur]

In my basement, where my son recently moved his room, we are going to build a wall, and re wire the room so he has a light switch by his door. I was trying to map out the wiring, but there seems to be an extra wire I can't figure out. Here is how it is:

Wire from the breaker panel to a GFCI outlet. The wire is tied to both the outlet and another wire that runs to a switch.

The switch runs to a light.

The light has 4 wires coming out: one from the switch, one going to another light, and one going to an outlet. Then there is the 4th, which runs to the breaker panel? What is it for?


And to run anouther switch, do you guys think it would be better to just have another circuit put in (an extra $30+), or just to splice it off the exhisting circuit.

[jwaterdawg]

Does the switch control the receptacles too?

[Stick]

Is the 4th wire capped off? Maybe someone ran a fan feed in case they put in a cieling fan later, or maybe there was one there before?

[LJR]

Alex, if you didn't put in the wiring yourself don't assume what's there is correct or makes sense. I've seen plenty of instances where a change or add was done and you come along wanting to do yet another change or add and end up going: WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?

[Wood_workur]

Does the switch control the receptacles too?

yes. it is just an extra wire in their misteriously...

And the ceiling fan idea is good, but wouldn't make sense, as the ceiling in my basement is 6'8"

And I didn't do it myself. (otherwise I would know what is does)

I'll pull open the light, and see that thatwire does.

[newbie2wood]

From your description, the 4th wire completes the circuit.

Breaker -> outlet #1 -> switch -> light #1 -> light #2 / outlet #2 / breaker.

You asked, "would be better to just have another circuit put in (an extra $30+), or just to splice it off the exhisting circuit"

It depends on what is plugged into the outlets. If the load is small, you can splice the existing circuit.
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[LJR]

Oooops!!! I forgot to add a link to a website that may help. If you go to the switch/outlet page it will show diagrams of typical work. http://www.selfhelpandmore.com/

[Wood_workur]

From your description, the 4th wire completes the circuit.

Breaker -> outlet #1 -> switch -> light #1 -> light #2 / outlet #2 / breaker.

You asked, "would be better to just have another circuit put in (an extra $30+), or just to splice it off the exhisting circuit"

It depends on what is plugged into the outlets. If the load is small, you can splice the existing circuit.

nope, because we are talking about 12/2 grounded wire here. there are hot and neutral wires in each wire.

[newbie2wood]

okay, 12/2 wiring. The switch controls the two lights AND the 2nd outlet. Is my understanding correct? The 4th wire from the light to the breaker panel makes no sense. Is the 4th wire connected to a circuit on the panel or ground?
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[scorrpio]

In my basement, where my son recently moved his room, we are going to build a wall, and re wire the room so he has a light switch by his door. I was trying to map out the wiring, but there seems to be an extra wire I can't figure out. Here is how it is:

Wire from the breaker panel to a GFCI outlet. The wire is tied to both the outlet and another wire that runs to a switch.

The switch runs to a light.

The light has 4 wires coming out: one from the switch, one going to another light, and one going to an outlet. Then there is the 4th, which runs to the breaker panel? What is it for?

Here's a hypothesis:
Those were originally two separate circuits.
Circuit 1 running to outlet 1 (GFCI)
Circuit 2 running to a light, and from there branching to another light, a switch, and outlet 2.

Most likely someone needed panel breaker space and combined two circuits into one - or someone wanted to GFCI protect both circuits, and rather than buying another GFCI outlet, just ran an extra wire.

The big question is, how are the two wires going to the panel are connected. If hots are connected to two separate breakers, this is definitely wrong. Liking circuits like that is not allowed. If hots are connected to same breaker, dunno. The real proper way would be to disconnect the wire coming in from the light and cap it off - so only wire from the GFCI is connected, making GFCI the first device on the circuit.

[Wood_workur]

this is all brand new wiring- done from scratch, by "professionals". might be a ground, don't know. (not pulling the panel apart). and there are still a dozen panel slots open, so that's the way to go.

[scorrpio]

I'd still remove panel cover and have a look-see.

[LarryG]

When you say, "The light has 4 wires coming out: one from the switch, one going to another light ..." etc. ... are you talking about four individual conductors, or that many runs of Romex? If the latter -- which I think is what you mean -- then that's eight conductors (wires), not four, and that may be where some of the confusion is coming in.

If you are talking about four Romex runs, and haven't pulled the light to see how the eight conductors are connected, there's no way you can know what's going on until you do that. It may be that the mysterious fourth run is feeding the second outlet, and the box at the light is merely being used as a junction box for that circuit.

[crokett]

Personally, I wouldn't do any changing of circuits until you understand where that wire goes and what it does. I've seen folks get into trouble (and gotten into some myself) not knowing about a mysterious wire.