I have an electrical question.

[Montresor]

So I want to build myself a light fixture, with this type of socket.

My question is,

Can these be wired in series?

Say I have a 4 foot 2x4 where I want to mount 5 bulbs in a straight line.

W = white lead
B = black lead
a, b, c, d, e = socket a, socket b, socket c ...
"main" = extension cord plugged into wall

W main ---> aW aB ---> bB bW ---> cW cB ---> dB dW ---> eW eB ---> B main

Is this going to make a proper type of circuit?
Does it really matter if the colours are matched?

 

[Nick]

Forgive me if I'm wrong, but you can't wire AC in series. It would have to be parallel.
What you've described is parallel wiring.

If you cross hot with neutral you'll trip the breaker and create some cool sparks!


In this image; first is series, second is parallel:

 

[Montresor]

Judging by the pictures you posted, I'm describing a series circuit.

The first picture is a perfect analogy to what I want to build.

you can't wire AC in series.

- that's what my web browsing is sort of telling me as well. i guess each bulb would lose 80% brightness because the same voltage is spread across all five.

I wish I knew a little more about electricity. I'd welcome some more opinions as there isn't much urgency at this time.

Then again, I think you are right (about the type of circuit) and I just can't see it. I just found this information at this website:

Let me explain:
In series means that the hot from the switch feeds the hot at the first light, the neutral from the first light feeds the hot wire on the second light, and the neutral from the second light feeds the hot the third light, and the neutral from the last light comes back to neutral at the panel.

- This is fundamentally different from what I described, as I was talking about hot to hot, neutral to neutral connections.

Now, you want the next light to be in PARALLEL so you take the black from the cable feeding the next light and connect it to the two black wires (the hot from the switch and the black from the first light). So you will have three black wires in one wire nut.
The white wire from the cable feeding the next light will be connected to the two white wires (the one from the switch and the one for the first light) and you will have three white wires in a single wirenut.

Continue this same procedure right down the line. You will have three blacks and three whites at each light until you get to the last light and that will have only two blacks and two whites.

- same website.

DAMN this is what I wanted to avoid ... it's a lot of extra work!

 

[Meer]

This is fundamentally different from what I described, as I was talking about hot to hot, neutral to neutral connections.

Erp, nope, that's not how it works. As far as I know, it doesn't really matter which direction you wire lightbulbs, at least incandescent ones.

Your last quote is how you want to do it.

 

[Etheri]

I don't know how american wiring works, but we have a double wire. (Black and white end in one wire.)
This means that you'll be putting everything in parallel, but you treat this double wire abit as you would in a series cirquit, you just connect everything to the diffrent ends of the wire. Black and white doesn't matter.

(Actually, there's three wires, a yellowgreen one too, but lets just ignore that, since it's not relevant to lamps.)

 

[Montresor]

Thanks for replying people I think I've pretty much got 'er.

I'm just going to do a traditional parallel circuit, instead of trying to do it my own way.

If I crimp the wires it won't be so bulky.

 

[Architect]

If you did series the ones on the end would look might dim, not what you're looking for I'm sure.

It depends on the bulb type however. Christmas tree lights (the cheap ones) are wired in series, which is why the whole line goes out if one goes out. This is because the drop over one bulb is only a volt or two, and the bulbs only care about differential voltage (well everything only cares about differential voltage). More expensive tree lights have another wire (drain presumably) so that one can go out with the line staying up.

This is done with diodes (LED's) too. Oftentimes you'll see a couple wired in series, because each only drops 1.2V IIRC so you need a couple if you need to dropout of more than a few volts.