Natwerk Designs

I am trying to add a new overhead light fixture. How do I tap into the existing power? ?

The wires in attic are easy to access, but old with no color code. They have a cloth cover and I don't want to mess with them. There is one modern wire that goes from bathroom fan to it's switch. Can I tap into that? If so, how.

Public Comments

1. If you don't know how, you shouldn't be doing it by yourself. Find a qualified friend, or hire it done (which might make you have to update your old wiring???)
2. before doing anything follow one of the cloth wires to a light or whatever they lead to and look at the wire, if it is a lot of little wires i wouldn't touch them they can get overloaded and start a fire(i found out the hard way). if it is a solid wire then you can probably tap into it, but for safety i would have a electrician double check that the wire can handle the power your light will be using, also the wire from your fan wont work because when you switch the fan off there is no power in that wire so your light wont work.
3. You can connect to old wires but the cloth insulation is typicaly dry rotted and just moving the wires around makes the insulation flake off and then the cable will need to be replaced. As for the color coding, you will need a proximity tester to find out which wire is the hot and which wire is the neutral. The problem is that you have really old wires and when ever you do renovations they will need to be replaced. I would suggest hiring a licensed electrician, safety first.
4. call some that know how to do wire you shouldn't do that on your own
5. USA If there is only one 2 conductor (plus ground) wire from the bathroom fan to the switch, then the power for that line is turned on and off at the switch. If there are several wires going to the fan, and only one drops down to the switch, then you can use one that does not go to the switch. If the attic wires are easy to access, they are the ones to use. Hire a licensed electrician to do the work.