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So here is the deal. When we moved in to our house some 32 years ago I think I remember them tell us that the garage was wired for a opener. Now I could be wrong but that is what I think I remember.

I've never had a garage door opener. Now I'd like to have an electrical outlet where the light is, pretty much in the middle of the garage. So I take a look in/at the ceiling box today. What I find is the following:

Light socket with a black wire pigtailed to a yellow wire (tip).
Light socket with a white wire pigtailed to two white wires.
Pigtail with two red wires.
Pigtail with two blue wires.
Pigtail with two blue wires.

There are three conduits into the box.

1) yellow, one each from each pair of blue total 3 wires
2) white, red, one each from each pair of blue total 4 wires
3) white, red total of 2 wires

At the switch I find:

A loop through white wire
Two red wires connected to bottom of the switch same pole.
Two blue wires connected to the top of the switch different sides/poles?

Box has two conduits

1)red, white total 2 wires
2)white, red, blue, blue total 4 wires

Panel has no breaker listed as garage door opener.

I have no wiring diagram of house. Code would be very early 1980's.

No idea where color change happened with yellow wire....

So what do you people think?

Ed

reible wrote:So here is the deal. When we moved in to our house some 32 years ago I think I remember them tell us that the garage was wired for a opener. Now I could be wrong but that is what I think I remember.

I've never had a garage door opener. Now I'd like to have an electrical outlet where the light is, pretty much in the middle of the garage. So I take a look in/at the ceiling box today. What I find is the following:

Light socket with a black wire pigtailed to a yellow wire (tip).
Light socket with a white wire pigtailed to two white wires.
Pigtail with two red wires.
Pigtail with two blue wires.
Pigtail with two blue wires.

There are three conduits into the box.

1) yellow, one each from each pair of blue total 3 wires
2) white, red, one each from each pair of blue total 4 wires
3) white, red total of 2 wires

At the switch I find:

A loop through white wire
Two red wires connected to bottom of the switch same pole.
Two blue wires connected to the top of the switch different sides/poles?

Box has two conduits

1)red, white total 2 wires
2)white, red, blue, blue total 4 wires

Panel has no breaker listed as garage door opener.

I have no wiring diagram of house. Code would be very early 1980's.

No idea where color change happened with yellow wire....

So what do you people think?

Ed

I think you gots a nice puzzle!

More serious answer after sketching all that out.

More info on where those conduits go will likely provide additional clues.

I think the 'yellow' wires were likely white when installed. IGNORE THIS, I MISUNDERSTOOD THE QUESTION!!!

"TIP"? - A T&T influence fer sure!:D

I had a bit of a puzzlement when I installled new fixtures in my garage. When I pulled the original fixtures down I found three wires where I expected only two from the switch line.
It seems that the electricians took the supply from the breaker panel to the switch box and then to the upper garage outlet box for a 110 supply in the ceiling. Then they used three wire and ran the three wire back to the switch where they used the red and black leads as a switch leg. I think that the reasoning was that they would have 110 constantly available in the garage overhead for the outlets for the garage door openers. Really had me confused until I found that when I opened the neutral in the box I was working on the lights on the opposite of the garage went out and I got a shock from the neutral return from the far side of the garage. That's when MY lights went on!! Figured it out from then and completed the task. I would have run the 110 to the box directly and used two wire as a switch leg and still had the constant 110 in the ceiling for the door openers as well as the lights and saved a bunch of wire. More than one way to skin a cat of course.
Bill V

reible wrote:So here is the deal. When we moved in to our house some 32 years ago I think I remember them tell us that the garage was wired for a opener. Now I could be wrong but that is what I think I remember.

I've never had a garage door opener. Now I'd like to have an electrical outlet where the light is, pretty much in the middle of the garage. So I take a look in/at the ceiling box today. What I find is the following:

Light socket with a black wire pigtailed to a yellow wire (tip).
Light socket with a white wire pigtailed to two white wires.
Pigtail with two red wires.
Pigtail with two blue wires.
Pigtail with two blue wires.

There are three conduits into the box.

1) yellow, one each from each pair of blue total 3 wires
2) white, red, one each from each pair of blue total 4 wires
3) white, red total of 2 wires

At the switch I find:

A loop through white wire
Two red wires connected to bottom of the switch same pole.
Two blue wires connected to the top of the switch different sides/poles?

Box has two conduits

1)red, white total 2 wires
2)white, red, blue, blue total 4 wires

Panel has no breaker listed as garage door opener.

I have no wiring diagram of house. Code would be very early 1980's.

No idea where color change happened with yellow wire....

So what do you people think?

Ed

Ed
Get yourself a cheap Electric voltage detector. With your wife/helper flipping the switch see what wires are switched and which don't carry a current.

Electric coding is color carries the juice. That means the white wires will be neutral.

All you need to find is the wire that stays hot whether the switch is off or on.

Wire your plug to it and to a white wire and you are good to go. Hopefully there is at least one green wire or bare wire so you have ground and can use a grounded plug.

A voltage checker is less than $10 and when you touch a live wire it lights up and buzzes.

Editted to correct my use of white and black wire. I said color carries current which is correct and then said black is neutral which is wrong. Black is color so black carries current and white is neutral. My bad

Get a voltage detector you can also use it on Christmas lights to find the bad bulb. Well worth the money!!!!

I've done a lot of rewiring and electrical work in houses I've owned over the years and I can't say I've ever seen yellow or blue wiring…I've wrangled with everything from knob and tube to old ungrounded romex to newer variations of romex and things have always been black and white, with an occasional red wire when dealing with 3-conductor cable (which in my case was usually installed for things like ceiling fans that typically have two switches). If jpg is correct and the yellow is just weathered white wire, I'd think that would be fairly easy to identify - in most cases I have found that wiring stuffed in walls and behind junction boxes etc. looks pretty much the same as when it was installed, but to my eyes true yellow wire would look yellow and white wire that "yellowed" would look more like a tan or light brown. No explanation for the blue, other than someone got a good deal on some discount wiring in non-standard colors.

It's always been a challenge to figure out the wiring in a house I've bought - I usually make a map of sorts to figure out what is on what circuit. I do this by first mapping all receptacles, switches, lights etc., and then shut of the breakers one at a time and check each to see if hot or dead and map accordingly. A bit time consuming but it has paid off in the long run to simplify troubleshooting, upgrades etc. Otherwise I'm left at the mercy of whoever labelled the breakers in the box. Doing this mapping has always told me volumes about the quality and attention to detail of the electrician who did the original install, as well as what sorts of modifications were made over time.

First guess!

Switch box conduit is the supply feed. Wh = neutral, Red = hot.

Second switch box conduit goes to the light box. Wh = neutral, Red = hot, Blue(2) are switched hot(controlled by switch).

Light box All whites are neutral, yellow is a light(hot/'tip') that is controlled both by the light switch and the garage opener that is likely at the other end of the 3 wire conduit and maybe the two wire conduit. This is where the other end of the conduits is 'illuminating'.

The two wire conduit is feeding something else with the white neutral and a red hot. Maybe supply to the opener?

The 4 wire conduit likely goes to a junction box intended for attaching the opener. The yellow is the switched hot to the light. The two blues are switched hot. Why there are two, I do not know. Again the other conduit end will shed light upon this. If the switch turns the light on/off, the yellow is attached to one(?) of the blue wires.

Are there other light bases in de garage?

I assume there are recepticles also.

I would look for 'garage' on yer breaker panel.



As for installing an 'outlet' at the light box, pigtail off the yellow wire(insulate the stripped end), connect the two white wires from the lamp base to the neutral side of the 'outlet' and conn a 'new' red(or black) wire to the red wires and the other end to the hot side of the 'outlet'.

That would be the minimalist approach(puzzle be damned).

reible wrote:Panel has no breaker listed as garage door opener.

I have no wiring diagram of house. Code would be very early 1980's.


Ed

My first thought is that you should find out what breaker controls EACH power source in the house. What I did was to draw a diagram of the first floor and basement of the house. Marked each outlet and light of both floors. Number each breaker in the panel. Then turn off the #1 breaker and check EVERY outlet/light to see which ones are off. The ones that are off I marked the diagram with a 1. Then turn on #1 and number #2 off and repeat till all are done.

Is it possible the colored wires are simply the wiring for a garage door opener ? Pre run and waiting to be used? Mine was like that and they simply pushed it back into the box. Just a thought.

What wiring does a garage door opener have? The two I have both plug into receptacles that are ceiling mounted and otherwise they have something like 18 ga wire running to the open/close switches that are mounted on the wall. I can't see what blue/yellow/other non-standard wiring color would have been mounted up there? I assume this wiring is all standard 12 or 14 ga solid core copper and just the insulation color is diferent?