How to Wire Downlights Into a Lighting Circuit
- 1). Examine your house circuit breaker box and locate the breaker that controls the existing lighting circuit you're augmenting. If the breaker is 20 amps you will need to use #12-2 romex wire for your jumper wires. If your breaker is 15 amps you will need #14-2 romex. Turn off the breaker that controls the circuit you'll be working on.
- 2). Measure and cut an opening in the ceiling for the new down-light fixture. Remove the fixture that is closest to the new down-light location. If it's recessed you can remove the bulb to reach the screws holding it in place around the inside of the can. Remove the screws and either push the recessed can into the ceiling or pull it through the hole and let it hang down into the room. You should now have access to the electrical box through the hole where the can was.
- 3). Install new romex cable from the existing light fixture to the new down-light location. If your adding more than one down-light add a jumper wire between each one. Each jumper wire has a black, a white and a bare copper ground.
- 4). Attach all the bare, and green if any, ground wires together in each location. Attach all black wires together in each location. Attach all white wires together in each location. Install the new down-light fixture.
- 5). Replace all of the fixtures, bulbs and trims and turn on the circuit breaker.
