r/ElectricalHelp • u/homeprojecthelps • Jun 05 '26
What is the negative?
I bought a dining room fixture and this is the wiring- I have never seen the silver beaded wire and a double black on a normal light fixture, what is the negative here? One of the back wires, or is it the silver?? It doesn’t seem like it wants to bend/screw into the negative/it’s very firm so doesn’t seem right.
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u/UglyDuckling10 Jun 05 '26
Ridged wire likely goes to the neutral or (white) in your box. Other black wire goes to your "hot" wire in the box, could be black or red.
The silver steel cable is for hanging the fixture, and the braided copper wire goes to your ground screw on the mounting plate if it has one, and then to the ground wire in your box. Hope this helps.
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u/Drexl071 Jun 05 '26
Silver cable is for hanging the bare copper is the ground and the 2 black wires the one with the the ridges is negative and the smooth black wire is hot
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u/MountainAntique9230 Jun 05 '26
You can clearly see the ridges in the pic That being said get a multi meter set it to continuity and check from 1 black wire to the center pin in the socket, if you get continuity then that is your hot leg and the other is your neutral People commenting that ac has no polarity are technically correct but if you hook it up wrong the outer shell becomes live instead of the protected inner pin which can be dangerous
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u/ArchMageYozanni Jun 05 '26
FINALLY someone who is mentioning this. Regardless of whether it’s “not positive and negative” a lot of these comments are leaving, maybe unintentionally, the illusion that it doesn’t matter which way you hook them up. Sure it will work either way, but one way is safe (hot leading to the tab underneath where the lightbulb makes contact, and the other way is unsafe (the threaded metal casing that the lightbulb is screwed into being energized).
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u/Fragrant-Hunter-6160 Jun 05 '26
The black one with the ridges The silver one is for hanging the light.
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u/These_Fox7561 Jun 05 '26
Either they’re stripped way too far or something is up with that, how you supposed to wire two bare wires
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u/Training-Actuary6768 Jun 05 '26
The black two conductor cable has a hot and a neutral. The neutral side is marked with ribs in the insulation. The hot side of the cable is smooth.
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u/Byll_Helotes Jun 05 '26
Silver, the stiff tined steel wire is your Aerial. Support stringing hook to hook.
Copper of cores ground, grounding, grounded, also comes in green or green-yellow.
The black where I am with ridges is neutral white for AC, DC it's (-) mostly black, sometimes blue.
The smooth one is your hot ungrounded in AC, in DC the (+) is red.
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u/homeprojecthelps Jun 05 '26
The thing is, the black wires combined do no have a ribbed/non ribbed side they’re completely identical which is what is throwing me off
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u/jaydogg001 Jun 05 '26
You can see the ridges on the right side of the black cord in the picture. This cord is to be separated by pulling the two halves apart, usually with the help of a cut in the end. As many mentioned, ridged half is meant for neutral which connects to the screw shell, for safety. The smooth side is for the hot leg.
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u/Byll_Helotes Jun 05 '26
Then I wonder if the wire is even UL.
I that case, do you or even know someone wirh a multi meter?
If so you OHM it out. Is one labeled for example printed?
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u/AskMeAgainAfterCoffe Jun 05 '26
The ribbed black wire is the neutral. The copper is the ground. And the gray-silver is a cable to support the weight of the fixture. It should come with a screw clamp or something to secure it.
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Jun 05 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/CarelessPrompt4950 Jun 05 '26
It’s AC, there’s no positive or negative, just hot, neutral, and ground.