Installing Lighting with Stranded Wire: A Step-by-Step Guide

One common challenge when installing lighting is dealing with stranded wire, which can make it difficult to twist and secure. However, there are some workarounds that can help overcome this issue. One approach is to lay the stranded wire alongside the solid wires, using a voltage tester to ensure safety. The stranded wire should then be connected to a junction box, where the wiring will be secured.

The Junction Box Installation

When installing a junction box, it's essential to choose the right housing for the job. There are different styles available, each with its unique features and benefits. One common style uses simple clamps to hold the housing in place. These clamps come out from the side of the housing and can be adjusted to fit snugly over the drywall or ceiling tiles. Another style uses screws with a clamping system that slides into place, providing additional security.

To install the junction box, begin by measuring the space where it will be placed. Mark the area with a pencil, ensuring accurate placement of the housing. Next, remove any old fixtures or wiring to create an open space for the new installation. The housing is then screwed into place using the chosen type of clamp or screw system.

Securing the Wires

With the junction box in place, it's time to secure the wires. Begin by twisting the stranded wire with the solid wires, taking care not to damage any of the electrical components. If this proves difficult, try laying the stranded wire alongside the solid wires and securing them using the voltage tester.

Once all the wiring is secured, use a tool to gently tuck the wires into place within the junction box. Ensure that there are no exposed wires or loose connections. The housing will then be closed up, providing a secure and safe electrical connection.

LED Lighting Installation

When installing LED lighting, it's crucial to choose the right type of fixture for the job. Some fixtures come with a socket for traditional bulbs, while others have built-in LED lights with transformers and wiring on the back.

For this example, we'll be using an LED light with its transformer and wiring on the back. To install this fixture, simply plug it into the harness that connects to the electrical source. The LED light is then secured in place using friction-fit spring pieces of metal. These can be a bit tricky to get into position, but once they're in, they usually hold quite well.

To secure the LED light in place, push it gently against the side of the junction box and use your fingers or a tool to fold the other spring pieces onto themselves. Hold the tile down while doing this to prevent any movement or shifting. Once the LED light is securely in place, make sure there are no exposed wires or loose connections.

Finishing Touches

After securing all the wiring and fixtures, it's time to add the finishing touches. This includes tucking the wires into their designated spaces within the junction box and closing up the housing. The lights should now be powered on, ensuring that they're working properly.

For safety reasons, always double-check the electrical connections before turning the breaker back on. With these steps completed, you should have successfully installed your lighting fixture using stranded wire. If you encounter any issues or difficulties during the process, don't hesitate to seek help from online forums or electrical experts.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhi I'm Shannon here from host improvements.com and in today's video I just want to show you how to install a pot light or a can light in a suspended ceiling like we have in this room so we've already pre- ran the wiring and and that's pretty straightforward you can kind of see some of that in in our other videos um and what we've got hanging here then is the wiring that's going to go into this one pot light we've turned the power off at the breaker obviously so that's all done and the reason for the two wires is uh one is uh Supply coming in we've this room has four is going to have four lights in it so there's you know one coming in from from basically the power source and the other one going out to the next light okay so uh just basically have to strip these off to get them ready and then I'll pull the uh ceiling tile into place and drill the hole to drill the hole we're going to use a uh appropriate Siz uh hole saw in a drill so once you have your lights usually they'll State what size of hole it needs or they might have a template or whatever so you know just uh depending on your light I'm just going to tuck these out of the way for right now I'll pull the ceiling tile back down into position so you need to determine obviously the location of the tile or sorry of the light and also pay attention uh to what's above that area because you're going to need you know a little bit of room to maneuver this is the style light that we're using today so this is the part you don't see this all goes up above the ceiling so you can see you know you need to allow that you've got the room once you drill the hole in the location you want that there's not a joist or some duct work or maybe other wiring or something that's going to be in the way of this so you know take the time plan your uh light positioning out uh we've got this one marked right right here so it's all basically ready to go and uh I'm just going to drill it so I've got my hole saw I've got it in the drill you could take the tile right down cuz this does produce some dust but uh I'm just going to see if I can do it right in place better throw on some glasses I just went nice and easy and slow just so it makes a nice clean hole does create a lot of dust okay so now what I can do is uh reach up in there and hopefully just pull those wires down so we can re work on it down here one here's the other one okay so we got both our both our wires down so when you get your uh most of your pot lights there's going to be uh some type of a box on here for the electrc to be housed inside of um also something else to consider is if for some reason you've got a ceiling that's insulated or you know you've got some insulation in there for sound barrier you need to make sure that you've got the uh proper uh can light that can be next to insulation in our case it isn't a concern there's no insulation up there so I just took the uh uh the little cover off there this one has the moratz rate included with it we're going to find that there's a black white and a ground wire inside there so that's all normal and then there's going to be some locations on that box and a few spots that you can pop that little piece out which I've already done on this side and uh install the wire clamp okay sometimes you'll find uh when you pop that little piece out especially on these lights where the box is a little flimsy there's some little tabs on this one it be right there there and right there and that's where it's kind of spot welded on there when this is in there you just stick a screwdriver in that hole and bend it back and forth and twist and that until it comes out but sometimes those little pieces there don't break off real clean and they jut Down in the Hole too far so you may need a a round file just to clean those up a bit to make it easier to get this the little wire clamp in there I think this one's going to be all right maybe kind of tight now that I said that and I don't have my file right here these ones looked pretty clean there we go okay I got the little clamp in there just turn it so I can get out the the screw part that tightens it up and uh we can get my screwdriver handy I'm going to feed the wires in there I'll just loosen this off so there's more than enough room for them both to go in and this is just like any electrical when you're sliding the wire in through a clamp like that we only we want you know no more than a/ quar inch of the white insulation here showing inside the box so this is a pretty small little junk function box hooked on here so it takes a little bit of maneuvering to get them all in I'll just get it in there and and tighten down and then you can see I'll show you better what what's going on so you don't need that super tight just snug enough that you know can can hang there without pulling the wires out so up in there you can see coming in the top are are our W wires that we need you may only have one you know 142 wire but in our case we had two like I explained before and you can see I've got about an e/ inch or maybe 3/16 of the white outer Shield uh inside the box so wish this would just kind of hang that way so you can see better okay so uh now because of the way our wiring is this is really simple we just match the colors up uh I I don't know I always like to do my grounds first and then I tuck them right back in the box so in this case this one has like I said the green wire which is ground already attached to the Box uh the odd light you might find just has a screw in there to attach the grounds to so whatever whatever your style has I'm just twisting these two grounds together a bit just to make things easier I'll open up my RS that came with the packaging these should be big enough size to Inc case all the wires that I've got okay so I just hold the ground wire up against that one just give it a little twist with my fingers around the ones the bare wies I twist it together okay just give that a little tug make sure it's in there now we've got a really small uh junction box like I stated so just take a little bit of time get get this all folded back in there nice and out of the way so we have as much room as we can in that box for all the other wires okay so I got the ground all in there now the white s or all the other wires really I just simply do the same thing so I'm going to take my whites and uh just twist them together I'll do my blocks while I'm at it this just makes a nice tight connection when you can twist those with the pliers it's kind of hard uh most lighting comes with uh stranded wire so it's kind of hard to actually twist it in there with the solid ones it doesn't usually work well but if you can just take it and lay it in beside them and uh get the morat on and it usually works out all right okay so uh those are on there now it's just a matter of getting everything tucked back in here like we did with the grounds I don't know why this has to be so small trying not to Kink them too sharply kind of difficult okay so we got everything tucked back in there no be wire showing on the black or the whites and uh we can put this little lid back on here just kind of closes everything up okay so that's your junction box for all the wiring now uh on the housing itself as far as what holds it in there's a couple different styles you'll find this one just has these simple little clamps and to get it up in the hole I've got to get them inside the housing like that when they're out like this that's what it would look like when it's up inside the drywall or the the ceiling tiles in this case these clamps come out and and clamp down tight to the top side of the drywall to kind of pinch it in there the other style you're going to find will basically have some screws way up in there and a little clamping system that would slide there's usually two that slide on each side and you just simply tighten or loosen that screw depending what you're doing but like I said these ones this is a little simpler version uh although they can be a little bit finicky to uh get tight into place Okay so we've got that all in I'm uh going to tuck the wires get the wires started up in the hole the junction box and then basically got the housing in there I'm going to step up here a bit okay so just just make sure the little clamps are inside the housing till you get it up in the hole and then you'll notice there's kind of a bottom foot on each one of these clamps and as the clamp turns that foot turns as well and that's going to basically be what hits the bottom side of the tile and helps put pressure on the uh on the tile itself I might just need to get my hand up in here hold that tile down like I said these these ones here can be a little bit tough to maneuver if you can get them kind of started sometimes you can just push them with a screwdriver and finish them off so they fold up in there I'm not too sure if you can really even see all this up in here so give that a push there okay just make sure sure all three of those are engaged it looks like they are okay so that's that part then uh these are an LED uh light you might just have a socket up in there for a bulb like I said these are an LED with their uh Transformer and everything on the back so this one just simply plugs in to that harness right there push that wire up in there and then there on the side there's these little friction fit kind of spring pieces of metal there and again these can be a little tough to get in but once they're in they usually hold quite well so usually if you can get one side against the box and then if I push that direction I can fold these other ones a little bit with my fingers just to get it started up in there and give that a little push and I need to hold the tile down while I do it okay so there that's all that's all that holds that in there it's nice clean finished look close this put these tiles back in here sit down and that's really all there is to it now I'm just going to turn the breaker on and double check that uh you know everything is powering up and then we should be good okay so we got those right there you can see we're all good to go okay so uh hopefully that uh will help you on your project that you might be working on and uh assist you in any questions you might had about it and if it doesn't you can always go to The Forum and post up any questions you have there and uh you know myself or we've got a couple guys on there helping out that are really good with all the electrical type stuff if you have questions in that regards um you know we can help you out from the Forum and uh if uh you if you want you can follow me on Facebook follow me on Twitter uh we've got patreon going on if you want to check that out all that fun stuff and of course we've got a whole whole whack of videos on YouTube so uh go right to our channel uh click subscribe click the thumbs up button and uh you'll really help us out thanks a lothi I'm Shannon here from host improvements.com and in today's video I just want to show you how to install a pot light or a can light in a suspended ceiling like we have in this room so we've already pre- ran the wiring and and that's pretty straightforward you can kind of see some of that in in our other videos um and what we've got hanging here then is the wiring that's going to go into this one pot light we've turned the power off at the breaker obviously so that's all done and the reason for the two wires is uh one is uh Supply coming in we've this room has four is going to have four lights in it so there's you know one coming in from from basically the power source and the other one going out to the next light okay so uh just basically have to strip these off to get them ready and then I'll pull the uh ceiling tile into place and drill the hole to drill the hole we're going to use a uh appropriate Siz uh hole saw in a drill so once you have your lights usually they'll State what size of hole it needs or they might have a template or whatever so you know just uh depending on your light I'm just going to tuck these out of the way for right now I'll pull the ceiling tile back down into position so you need to determine obviously the location of the tile or sorry of the light and also pay attention uh to what's above that area because you're going to need you know a little bit of room to maneuver this is the style light that we're using today so this is the part you don't see this all goes up above the ceiling so you can see you know you need to allow that you've got the room once you drill the hole in the location you want that there's not a joist or some duct work or maybe other wiring or something that's going to be in the way of this so you know take the time plan your uh light positioning out uh we've got this one marked right right here so it's all basically ready to go and uh I'm just going to drill it so I've got my hole saw I've got it in the drill you could take the tile right down cuz this does produce some dust but uh I'm just going to see if I can do it right in place better throw on some glasses I just went nice and easy and slow just so it makes a nice clean hole does create a lot of dust okay so now what I can do is uh reach up in there and hopefully just pull those wires down so we can re work on it down here one here's the other one okay so we got both our both our wires down so when you get your uh most of your pot lights there's going to be uh some type of a box on here for the electrc to be housed inside of um also something else to consider is if for some reason you've got a ceiling that's insulated or you know you've got some insulation in there for sound barrier you need to make sure that you've got the uh proper uh can light that can be next to insulation in our case it isn't a concern there's no insulation up there so I just took the uh uh the little cover off there this one has the moratz rate included with it we're going to find that there's a black white and a ground wire inside there so that's all normal and then there's going to be some locations on that box and a few spots that you can pop that little piece out which I've already done on this side and uh install the wire clamp okay sometimes you'll find uh when you pop that little piece out especially on these lights where the box is a little flimsy there's some little tabs on this one it be right there there and right there and that's where it's kind of spot welded on there when this is in there you just stick a screwdriver in that hole and bend it back and forth and twist and that until it comes out but sometimes those little pieces there don't break off real clean and they jut Down in the Hole too far so you may need a a round file just to clean those up a bit to make it easier to get this the little wire clamp in there I think this one's going to be all right maybe kind of tight now that I said that and I don't have my file right here these ones looked pretty clean there we go okay I got the little clamp in there just turn it so I can get out the the screw part that tightens it up and uh we can get my screwdriver handy I'm going to feed the wires in there I'll just loosen this off so there's more than enough room for them both to go in and this is just like any electrical when you're sliding the wire in through a clamp like that we only we want you know no more than a/ quar inch of the white insulation here showing inside the box so this is a pretty small little junk function box hooked on here so it takes a little bit of maneuvering to get them all in I'll just get it in there and and tighten down and then you can see I'll show you better what what's going on so you don't need that super tight just snug enough that you know can can hang there without pulling the wires out so up in there you can see coming in the top are are our W wires that we need you may only have one you know 142 wire but in our case we had two like I explained before and you can see I've got about an e/ inch or maybe 3/16 of the white outer Shield uh inside the box so wish this would just kind of hang that way so you can see better okay so uh now because of the way our wiring is this is really simple we just match the colors up uh I I don't know I always like to do my grounds first and then I tuck them right back in the box so in this case this one has like I said the green wire which is ground already attached to the Box uh the odd light you might find just has a screw in there to attach the grounds to so whatever whatever your style has I'm just twisting these two grounds together a bit just to make things easier I'll open up my RS that came with the packaging these should be big enough size to Inc case all the wires that I've got okay so I just hold the ground wire up against that one just give it a little twist with my fingers around the ones the bare wies I twist it together okay just give that a little tug make sure it's in there now we've got a really small uh junction box like I stated so just take a little bit of time get get this all folded back in there nice and out of the way so we have as much room as we can in that box for all the other wires okay so I got the ground all in there now the white s or all the other wires really I just simply do the same thing so I'm going to take my whites and uh just twist them together I'll do my blocks while I'm at it this just makes a nice tight connection when you can twist those with the pliers it's kind of hard uh most lighting comes with uh stranded wire so it's kind of hard to actually twist it in there with the solid ones it doesn't usually work well but if you can just take it and lay it in beside them and uh get the morat on and it usually works out all right okay so uh those are on there now it's just a matter of getting everything tucked back in here like we did with the grounds I don't know why this has to be so small trying not to Kink them too sharply kind of difficult okay so we got everything tucked back in there no be wire showing on the black or the whites and uh we can put this little lid back on here just kind of closes everything up okay so that's your junction box for all the wiring now uh on the housing itself as far as what holds it in there's a couple different styles you'll find this one just has these simple little clamps and to get it up in the hole I've got to get them inside the housing like that when they're out like this that's what it would look like when it's up inside the drywall or the the ceiling tiles in this case these clamps come out and and clamp down tight to the top side of the drywall to kind of pinch it in there the other style you're going to find will basically have some screws way up in there and a little clamping system that would slide there's usually two that slide on each side and you just simply tighten or loosen that screw depending what you're doing but like I said these ones this is a little simpler version uh although they can be a little bit finicky to uh get tight into place Okay so we've got that all in I'm uh going to tuck the wires get the wires started up in the hole the junction box and then basically got the housing in there I'm going to step up here a bit okay so just just make sure the little clamps are inside the housing till you get it up in the hole and then you'll notice there's kind of a bottom foot on each one of these clamps and as the clamp turns that foot turns as well and that's going to basically be what hits the bottom side of the tile and helps put pressure on the uh on the tile itself I might just need to get my hand up in here hold that tile down like I said these these ones here can be a little bit tough to maneuver if you can get them kind of started sometimes you can just push them with a screwdriver and finish them off so they fold up in there I'm not too sure if you can really even see all this up in here so give that a push there okay just make sure sure all three of those are engaged it looks like they are okay so that's that part then uh these are an LED uh light you might just have a socket up in there for a bulb like I said these are an LED with their uh Transformer and everything on the back so this one just simply plugs in to that harness right there push that wire up in there and then there on the side there's these little friction fit kind of spring pieces of metal there and again these can be a little tough to get in but once they're in they usually hold quite well so usually if you can get one side against the box and then if I push that direction I can fold these other ones a little bit with my fingers just to get it started up in there and give that a little push and I need to hold the tile down while I do it okay so there that's all that's all that holds that in there it's nice clean finished look close this put these tiles back in here sit down and that's really all there is to it now I'm just going to turn the breaker on and double check that uh you know everything is powering up and then we should be good okay so we got those right there you can see we're all good to go okay so uh hopefully that uh will help you on your project that you might be working on and uh assist you in any questions you might had about it and if it doesn't you can always go to The Forum and post up any questions you have there and uh you know myself or we've got a couple guys on there helping out that are really good with all the electrical type stuff if you have questions in that regards um you know we can help you out from the Forum and uh if uh you if you want you can follow me on Facebook follow me on Twitter uh we've got patreon going on if you want to check that out all that fun stuff and of course we've got a whole whole whack of videos on YouTube so uh go right to our channel uh click subscribe click the thumbs up button and uh you'll really help us out thanks a lot\n"