Trying to match Canadian wiring with American lamp wires.?

Question

In my Canadian-built house, the ceiling hook-up has black, white, and red wires. The Ikea/USA hanging lamp has black, white, and green wires. The wiring diagram that came with the lamp has black, white, and striped wires. I'm lost. Which wire goes where?

Answer 1

The green and the stripped are usually the Earth connections

Black is Positive and the white is the Negative

Answer 2

Always use black to black, and white to white.  There are some things that are standard.

Answer 3

Two answers, both wrong. Do NOT follow those instructions !!!

Electricity is nothing to play with if you don't know the answers. Not giving an answer is better than giving a wrong one. Also British wire codes are different than U.S. codes. The difference can kill an unknowledgable DIY person.

In the U.S. Black is hot, white is neutral, and green or bare is ground. If your light and your house wiring had this color code, you would just connect each of the three wires to the corresponding color on the fixture.

You have a red wire that one answer completely ignored. It is dangerous to answer when you don't know. This is one place where assuming can get you killed.

Since you specified that you do NOT have those colors in the house, you obviously can't do that. This is one place where an electronics background is not good enough for electrical work. They are different disiplines.

Anyone in the U.S. who terms the wires as positive and negative knows nothing about home electricity, i.e. alternating current or ac. While I cannot speak of the U.K. terminology, I would hope they wouldn't say that either since it is totally wrong. There is no positive nor negative wire in alternating current (ac). There is a positive and a negative in direct current, dc, like that used in motor vehicles.

I cannot help you on the wiring in the house because it is not the U.S. color code, but you could look inside your service entrance panel (breaker box). The wire going from each breaker to a circuit is the hot wire. The wire going from the bus bar to each circuit is the neutral. The ground also is on a bus bar. It may be tied to the neutral bus bar or both the ground and neutrals might be on the same bar.

You can verify that at the fixture wiring. Put a voltmeter between the two wires that you think are hot and neutral. You should read between 110 and 125 volts ac. Now put the probes of the meter between the hot and the ground. That should also read the exact same voltage. Lastly, put the probes between the neutral and the ground. That should read EXACTLY zero volts, exactly. All this is with the light switch on the wall turned on.

If you do not get those readings, do not pass go, do not collect $200 and do not go any further. Call an electrician, something is wrong. Also, measure between each wire with the switch off. If any reading is above 5 volts, call an electrician.

Whatever comes from the individual breaker, the hot wire, goes to the black of the fixture. Whatever comes from the neutral bus goes to the white of the fixture. Whatever comes from the ground bus goes to the green wire of the fixture.

A green or a bare wire is common for ground, but that is not what you have in the house wiring. In the U.K. green and yellow striped wire can be used for the earth connection. The British call ground, earth.

There are also multiple color codes for England, depending on when the wires were installed. That is because they changed the color code around 10 years ago.