How to Install Shower Stall Halogen Pot Lights

Shut off power to your bathroom lighting by flipping the circuit breaker at the household breaker box. Attempt to turn on the bathroom lights at the wall switch. If you have turned off the correct breaker, the lights won’t come on. Remove the switch plate cover for the wall switch. Hold a non-contact voltage sensor next to the black wires attached to the wall switch to verify the electricity is off. The sensor will not light when the electricity is disconnected to the switch.

Remove the two switch screws at the top and bottom that hold the wall switch to its box then remove the switch from the box. Wrap a piece of electrical tape around the black wire attached to the bottom screw on the switch. Loosen the two screws that secure the two black wires to the switch. Pull the wires off the switch and discard the original switch.

Reach inside the switch box and untwist the wire connectors that hold the white neutral wires together and the bare copper ground wires together. Pull the sets of wires apart.

Slide an electronic stud finder over the ceiling above the shower stall. Mark the location of the ceiling joists above the shower with a pencil or tape.

Trace the template that came with the low-voltage halogen pot light onto the ceiling between the joists. Carefully cut the drywall around the traced line with a jab saw. You can also use a 4-inch recessed lighting hole saw and a drill to cut through the drywall.

Go into the attic and locate the wall plate above the electrical switch box. Feed a fish tape down through the hole in the wall’s top plate and through the top of the switch box. Use a 3/4-inch drill bit to create a hole through the wooden top plate if one does not exist.

Cut a length of 12-2 nonmetallic electrical cable to reach from the switch box to the hole you cut in the ceiling. Add at least 24 inches of cable length to ensure you have excess cable at the box and above the shower stall to complete the wiring. Secure the end of the cable to the hook at the end of the fish tape with electrical tape.

Pull the fish tape with the attached electrical cable up through the wall. Disconnect the cable from the fish tape. Extend the cable across the attic to the hole above the shower.

Insert the ends of the cables into a cable ripper. Squeeze the ripper, while pulling the ripper off the cable, to rip the exterior sheath open. Use wire cutters or utility shears to cut the sheath from the ends of the cable to expose the electrical wires inside. Remove about 3/4-inch of the insulation from the ends of the exposed wires at both the hole above the shower and the switch box with wire strippers.

Push down on the metal thumb tab that holds the cover onto the junction box attached to the low-voltage halogen pot light. Remove the cover to expose the electrical lead wires inside the box. Pry one of the 1/2-inch knockouts from the side of the junction box with a flat head screwdriver. Insert the threads from a 1/2-inch NM squeeze connector through the knockout from the outside of the junction box. Twist the locknut that came with the connector onto the threads to secure the connector to the junction box.

Thread the NM cable through the squeeze connector. Twist a wire connector onto the two black wires inside the junction box to secure them together. Connect the two white wires with another connector. Connect the green wire from the low-voltage halogen pot light junction box to the bare copper wire from the NM cable with another connector. Tuck the wires inside the low-voltage junction box then snap the cover back onto the box. Tighten the screws on the squeeze connector so that the wires do not pull out from the junction box.

Insert the junction box connected to the low-voltage pot light though the hole above the shower. Hold the pot light against the ceiling as you push up on the four clips inside the pot light. The clips will snap into place and hold the pot light to the ceiling.

Insert a low-voltage halogen light bulb into the pot light. Squeeze the two wires of the butterfly springs, attached to both sides of the shower trim, with your thumb and forefinger. Insert the butterfly springs into the two U-shaped brackets inside the pot light. Push the shower trim into the pot light and against the ceiling.

Cut two 8-inch lengths of black 12-gauge solid wire. Strip both ends of each wire. Use a twist-on red wire connector to attach the two 8-inch lengths of wire to the black wire inside the switch box that you wrapped with tape. Twist another red wire connector onto the three white wires inside the switch box. Use another red connector on the three bare copper wires in the box. Push these two sets of wires to the back of the box.

Attach the two 8-inch pieces of wire to the two brass-colored screws on the side of a combination double switch. Attach the two remaining black wires to the screws on the opposite side of the double switch. Tighten all four screws.

Connect the combination double switch to the top and the bottom of the switch box with the screws that came with the switch. Cover the combination switch with a duplex outlet cover plate.

Flip up the circuit breaker for the bathroom lighting at the household breaker box then test the lights.