How do you add more lights to an existing circuit?

Do you want to add more recessed lights to your room?  Do you already have a switch circuit (2-way, 3-way, or 4-way) that controls an existing light?  Do you want the new lights to be illuminated with the existing light?  If yes, than adding more lights to the existing lights can be very easy.

 Since the wiring of the switching circuit is already done and the existing light works, all that is required is connecting the new lights to the existing.  This is generally done by wiring in a daisy chain configuration. This means that the wires start at one light, connect to the next light, leave this light and connect to the next, leave this light and connect to the next, etc.  The wiring for these lights is very simple.  The black (hot) wire from the existing light should connect to the hot terminal or wire of every light.  The white (neutral) should connect to the neutral terminal or wire of every light.  The ground connection should be connected to the ground at every light.

Whenever adding a lot of lights to a switch, especially a dimmer, it is important to pay attention to the amount of power being consumed.  You should identify the maximum wattage that each light fixture can consume (not the size of the bulb that you currently have installed).  If you do not know, a good rule of thumb is to use 100 Watts.  The most common dimmers are rated for about 600W.  This means that if you are using more seven light fixtures (7 x 100W = 700W) you are overloading the dimmer.  You should then upgrade to a 1000 Watt dimmer, or split the lights up into multiple circuits.

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