Strange architectural lighting wiring

Hey all,

We moved into our current money pit about eight months ago. It was a foreclosure/eviction so many things were non-working including numerous 120v architectural lights in the front yard/drive area.

Saturday we had nice weather and I got a wild hair to try and trace out what was wrong and after pulling the first light was surprised to see SIX wires and a rainbow of colors below. I got out my Fluke and figured out I had at least two circuits. This is what I found:

Blue - Hot #1
Green - Ground
White - Common
Brown/Yellow - Hot #2
Red/Orange - ?
White w/orange tape - ?

Now I found a loose wire from the lights and got them working but my questions is: Is this kind of multi-color wiring normal?! When I first saw the colors my first thought was that they were running the well wiring through this post! (it's in the vicinity)

Also there is a GFCI outlet in the area (showing a "brownout"...about 60 volts) so could all these wires be for that? Do you normally wire 120v architectural lights up to a GFCI?

There could be multiple hot wires and a common nuetral (should be larger), especially if they're individually switched. Can you follow the conduits and open up a few more of the lights or junction boxes and trace it out?

Backglass said:

Hey all,

We moved into our current money pit about eight months ago. It was a foreclosure/eviction so many things were non-working including numerous 120v architectural lights in the front yard/drive area.

Saturday we had nice weather and I got a wild hair to try and trace out what was wrong and after pulling the first light was surprised to see SIX wires and a rainbow of colors below. I got out my Fluke and figured out I had at least two circuits. This is what I found:

Blue - Hot #1
Green - Ground
White - Common
Brown/Yellow - Hot #2
Red/Orange - ?
White w/orange tape - ?

Click to expand...

Your guessing, you need to open everything up and make a map of what is doing what, check inside your house to see if they are switched or hot, the hot ones could possible be for receptacles... but your the one that has to do the homework...

Chris75 said:

Your guessing, you need to open everything up and make a map of what is doing what, check inside your house to see if they are switched or hot, the hot ones could possible be for receptacles... but your the one that has to do the homework...

Click to expand...

No, I'm asking. Is this kind of multi-color wiring normal for the electrical professional?

Thanks all.

Backglass said:

No, I'm asking. Is this kind of multi-color wiring normal for the electrical professional?

Thanks all.

Click to expand...

Sure, for ungrounded conductors any color will work except green which is only for grounding conductors, and you have gray and white for grounded conductors...

You should feel lucky to have so many colors, makes the job easier figuring out what does what...

Makes sense to me. Thanks!

Backglass said:

Makes sense to me. Thanks!

Click to expand...

Hope you can figure it out... it really should not be too bad...