Remote Diagnose My Wiring Issue.

I'm not good with electrical wiring. At. All. This is the guy who got 98% in Thermodynamics,  2nd year physics, but only a 73% in simple electrical circuits.  Talk to me like I'm 5 years old.

I'm re-doing the garage. My brother disconnected the wires before I got a good look at the box, but he did manage to take a few blurry pictures. The original set up was a 1900 box , with black wire (hot) and white (neutral) and an orange wire from the switch. The hot and neutral were spliced to feed continuous power to the garage door. The florescent light had it's power plug stripped and hard wired directly. I bought some LED fixtures that have standard wall plugs, so I want outlets so I can simply plug them in.

My understanding: The orange wire is hot, like the black wire, but controlled by the switch. White is still neutral. All I should have to do is hook the orange (hot) to the positive side of a polarized outlet, the smaller slot on the right side of a plug when looking at it straight up and down and splice into the white neutral from the bigger slot on the left side, to run the outlet with the switch.

Because I love ya, first and foremost, before you start berkeleying about with things, have you got good circuit breakers? 

In the event that something goes wrong, you don't need to burn your house down or die.

Also consider investing in a contactless voltage detector, it will help you determine if a circuit is live or not and also aid in future diagnostics. I consider them a cheap form of insurance.

Now, in the interest of trying to get a better understanding of what you've got going on, I have a couple of questions. 

1, garage door wiring. By hard wired are you talking wire running from wherever it's spliced directly into the door motor? No switch, no surface socket, nothing?  Whilst not super relevant to what you're doing, I'm curious.

2, light wiring. Have you removed the switch? I assume you have 2 wires at the switch, correct? At the current fluro fitting how is the active sent to the switch? Is there a loop connector at the back of the fluro? Or has the active been spliced in the roof cavity and then run to the switch that way?

3, earth/ground? Do you guys not have an earth circuit in your domestic electrical?

You're more or less on the right track. White wire to the neutral connector, orange to the active. The black should be looped down to the switch by means of an insulated terminal. This assumes your wiring is done with twin core and both your white and black wires end at the current fluro fitting.

In reply to Appleseed :

This thread is worthless without pics!

What happens when you put your meter on these wires?  You have a meter, right?

In reply to daeman :

A separate (dedicated) grounding conductor was not required by the electrical code for a very long time here in the US.

I don't know exactly when it became a requirement- I'd guess in the 1980's?

Orange wire? That is not typical in wiring methods here in New England at least . Not saying it's illegal or anything, but if it's non-metallic sheathed cable (romex) then I'm skeptical that it's orange. Maybe it's pipe and wire? I'd suggest posting pics, or just hiring someone. Wiring is not a hobby. Also, why lights with plugs on them? I feel hard wiring stuff is always best, but maybe you have a reason I'm not grasping. My garage was wired with fluorescent lights randomly scattered around and plugged into outlets on the ceiling (what I picture you are attempting to do) when we moved in. It was terrible, and one of the first things I fixed. 

Dr. Hess said:

What happens when you put your meter on these wires?  You have a meter, right?

Right? You need to find out when electrons  are present and from what source. 

Red is a common conductor color for switched hot leads. Some reds are more orange than others. 

Sorry. Forgot to mention this is 14 ga. wire in 1/2in conduit. 

Hess, I do have a meter. That's the first thing I'm doing  when I get home. It was late last night and it slipped my mind to check.

Mazdax605 said:

My garage was wired with fluorescent lights randomly scattered around and plugged into outlets on the ceiling (what I picture you are attempting to do) when we moved in. It was terrible, and one of the first things I fixed. 

Slight dissenting opinion here:  It may not matter as much for a garage, but the overhead lighting in the shop is like that.  When we moved in, there were multiple florescent fixtures hanging from the steel beams and they all have regular electrical cords with 1-15P or 5-15P plugs.  Down the middle of the ceiling there's EMT with metal boxes every few feet with 4-gang 5-15Rs.  I haven't figured out the rhyme or reason but they're on at least two, maybe three switches and, I believe, separate circuits. Since nothing is hardwired, reconfiguring the lighting or adding more lights, fans, or drop-down extension cords is super simple.  And it can be done with the lights on since we don't need to flip the breaker in order to unplug or plug in a light fixture.  Maybe a residential garage doesn't need that kind of flexibility, but I sure do like it in a 20x70 shop space.

I do know that every residential electric garage door opener that I've ever had the opportunity to look at, including brand-new professionally-wired construction, uses a 5-15R two-gang mounted in the ceiling into which is plugged the garage door opener(s).  So I can only assume that having outlets in the ceiling doesn't intrinsically violate NEC, even though I'm sure there are a few provisos, a couple of quid pro quos and all that.

In reply to Appleseed :

If it's 14 gauge wire that's a lighting circuit only if you want to run an electric outlet it should be 12 gauge

In reply to TRoglodyte :

The only thing that will ever be plugged in will be 45W LED lights. This is in a 12 ft. ceiling. 

SUCCESS! 

I had the power and neutral wire mixed up. Everything works as it should.  90% done, 50% to go