Smoke & Carbon Monoxide Alarm has red, black & white wires and trying to connect to black, white & green wires
Question:Which wires do I connect to what? Black to black and then what? White to white and red to green?? Instructions are vague but do say if only connecting a single unit (which I am) not to connect the red wire to anything. So do I just leave the green wire from the power source disconnected too?
Answers:
The red wire on the alarm is for communicating with other alarms in the house so when one goes off, they all go off. If you are only installing one the red wire is left alone. Fire alarms don't usually have a ground wire (green) so you can leave the house' ground wire (usually bare) alone or if you have a metal junction box, you should use a grounding screw to connect the house' ground wire to the metal box. The hardware store sells the screws (they're green and in the electrical dept.) check to make sure the box has a threaded hole for the screw - if not, don't bother.
black to black red to white and green to green
the green wire from the power source is a ground wire. There may be a screw on the alarm to connect it to.(it would be a green screw or have a ground symbol next to it ) if not, leave it off unless you're attaching the alarm to an electrical box. If so, attach the green wire to the box. Black to black , white to white. Don't attach the red.
Connect the black to black... the white to white... and leave the red and green alone... The red wire on the detector is used when multiple detectors are connected in series... This basically means that when one detector goes off in one part of the house, it will send power through the red wire to all the other detectors in the house, if they are wired to be in series...The green wire is a ground which is not needed because the detector is made out of plastic and will not conduct electricity...
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