4-Inch 12-Volt IC Recessed Lighting Installation Instructions

Disconnect the circuit you intend to use to power your recessed lighting by turning off the breaker inside the panel box that corresponds with the circuit. Consider using the current lighting circuit to power your new 4-inch 12-volt IC recessed lighting.

Flip the wall switch to the lighting currently in the room. The lighting won’t turn on if you turned off the correct breaker.

Remove the screws from the current wall-switch cover plate to release it from the wall and the switch. Place a non-contact voltage detector next to both black wires connected to the side of the wall switch. The sensor only lights when it detects a current.

Find the two screws at the top and the bottom of the current wall switch. Remove them and pull the switch out of the electrical box in the wall.

Identify the black wire connected to the bottom screw on the current switch by wrapping a piece of electrical tape around it. This lets you know which wire carries the electrical current from the breaker to the switch. Loosen the screws on the side of the switch to release the wires connected to it.

Look inside the electrical box in the wall to find the wire connector holding the care copper wires together and the connector holding the white wires together. Untwist the connectors and pull apart the two sets of wires.

Run a stud finder over your ceiling to locate your ceiling joists. Mark each joist with painter’s or masking tape. Mark the locations on the ceiling where you want to install the new 4-inch, 12-volt recessed lighting fixtures between the joists.

Place the template provided with each 4-inch 12-volt recessed fixture against the ceiling at the new lighting locations. Attach a 4-inch, recessed-lighting hole saw to a power drill. Line the hole saw up with the trace lines to create the holes for your new lighting in the ceiling.

Access your attic and find the wall’s top plate that currently holds the electrical box for the original light switch. Look for a hole in the top plate where the current electrical wires feed through and into the attic. Thread electrical fish tape down through this hole and into the electrical box in the wall. Attach a 3/4-inch drill bit to your drill to make a hole through the top plate if one does not exist currently.

Attach 12-2 nonmetallic electrical cable to the hook at the end of the fish tape at the electrical box in the wall. Wrap the cable and fish tape in electrical tape to secure them together. From the attic, pull the fish tape back into the attic. This pulls the 12-2 NM along with it.

Cut the electrical tape to release the 12-2 NM from the fish tape with a utility knife. Pull the NM cable over to the nearest recessed lighting hole you cut in the ceiling. Drop the NM cable through the hole, feeding about 12 inches of cable into the room beneath. Cut the NM cable at the box in the wall with wire cutters, leaving about 8 to 10 inches of cable protruding from the box.

Feed additional lengths of NM cable from the first 4-inch recessed lighting location to the next nearest location. Connect each consecutive hole to the preceding hole with NM cable in daisy chain fashion. Each hole in the ceiling will have two lengths of cable sticking through them except the last hole, it should have only one piece of cable exposed.

Remove the exterior sheath from each end of exposed NM cable. Insert the cable ends into a cable ripper. Squeeze the ripper handles together as you pull the cable from the ripper. This slices the cable open without damaging the interior wires. Use utility shears to remove the ripped-open sheath.

Strip away 3/4 inch of the insulation from each of the wires you exposed when you remove the exterior sheath with wire strippers. The 12-2 NM has three wires inside the sheath, a bare copper wire that serves as a ground wire, a white and a black wire.

Push on the tab located on the side of the junction box connected to the 4-inch, 12-volt remodel recessed light fixtures. This releases the cover from the box and exposes the wiring connections inside.

Stick a flat-head screwdriver into the slot in the one of the 1/2-inch knock-out tabs on the side of the junction box. Pry the knockout tab from the box. Remove two knockouts from each 4-inch 12-volt recessed fixture except for last fixture in your lighting run. Only remove one knockout from this fixture.

Insert the threaded ends of 1/2-inch NM squeeze connectors into each knockout from the outside. Use the locknut, provided with each squeeze connector, to secure the connectors to the junction boxes.

Thread the wires from each cable at the lighting locations in the ceiling through the squeeze connectors in the junction boxes. Only one set of wires threads through each connector.

Connect all the black wires together inside the 4-inch, 12-volt recessed lighting junction box, and all the white wires together inside the box by twisting a wire connector onto each set of wires. Locate the green wire inside the box and connect it to the bare copper wires with a wire connector. Repeat these connections for each new fixture in your ceiling.

Snap the covers onto the junction boxes once you complete the connections. Tighten the two screws on each squeeze connector to secure the NM cables in the box.

Insert the 4-inch, 12-volt recessed lighting fixtures, junction box first, into each hole you cut in the ceiling. Hold the lip of the fixture against the ceiling. Push up on the black clips inside the fixture with a screwdriver until the clips pop into place, securing the 4-inch fixtures into the ceiling.

Connect all three white wires together and all three bare wires together inside the electrical wall box. Secure each set of wires with wire connectors. Push the sets to the back of the box.

Cut an 8-inch length of NM cable. Pull the black and white insulated wires from the sheath surround the cable. Use the set of wire strippers to remove insulation from each end of the wires. Wrap a piece of black electrical tape around the insulation on each end of the white wire. This identifies this wire as a "hot" wire. Connect these two wires to the black wire you marked with electrical tape at the switch location with a wire connector.

Wrap the two wires you connected to the original black around the two brass screws on the right side of a combination double-toggle switch. Wrap the remaining black wires inside the box to the two screws on the left side of the combination double-toggle switch. Tighten all the screws to secure the wires.

Push the new switch into the wall box. Connect the bottom and top of the switch to the wall box with the two switch screws that came with the combination switch. Cover the new switch with a duplex receptacle wall plate. Turn on the lighting circuit to power the original lighting and the new 4-inch, 12-volt recessed lighting.