I'd almost bet that the lights are designed to be mounted to a box. In this case, you'll need to install a box at each place. It's no big thing for someone who knows what they are doing.

Installing additional boxes was my first thought, but I'm not "someone who knows what they are doing," nor can I afford an electrician. That's why I asked about wiring the three pendants together and then wiring the result to the existing box. That, I can handle. Could that be an option for me? I'm not concerned about the weight and the actual mounting. I have that figured out.

I bet if you used chain pendant lights, you could wire them all into one box and attach the chains to three different locations.

Sofaspud,

Here are three pendant lights that must be wired together in some way, as they are only attached to a single box.

Here is the look where someone created a box that held three separate pendants, but all three received power from a single box.

The following image was posted by the creator to show how the lights were wired - BUT I'm not perfectly sure of what I'm looking at, and want to get someone else's opinion.

It seems to me that all the green/copper wires coming from the three pendants were wired together, all the black wires were wired together, and all the white wires were wired together as well. Then each resulting single, thick wire was treated as one wire and attached to the outlet box.

At any rate, can anyone make an educated guess as to whether or not that's what is going on in the wire picture? Thanks.

oldalgebra-

Yes, as far s it goes, those wires are connected together properly, although the required wire nuts are not showing, and we don't know what's in the box they'd be connected to and whether everything will be properly grounded. In addition, it may not be obvious how to make the connections in the box as there is more than one way depending on how the switch wiring is run. But I'm not going to give you any more info because this need to be done safely and to code and you are admittedly not familiar with basic wiring requirements. Please at least get a friend involved who knows a bit about wiring.

Thank you, kudzu9 and sofaspud!

Actually, I'm not completely in the dark about all of this (pardon the pun). I do know a little bit. But, as my father used to say, "There's nothing more dangerous than someone with a little bit of information."

I'm 70, so working overhead for any length of time has started to be out of the question. I'm calling an electrician for sure. I will be making the box that you see in the second and third pictures that I included in the post above. It's just that I didn't want to go to the trouble and cost of constructing it, just to find out that no electrician would feel comfortable completing the wiring.

Again, thank you all for sticking with me.

P.S. Love your screen name, sofaspud. It took me a couple of reads before it dawned on me, but when it did, it brought a smile to my face.

oldalgebra-

Your wooden box should work fine as a facade, but, to be to code, all the connections must be inside a proper electrical box, and that electrical box should have a cover on it. That means that you should leave a bit of length to the lamp cords as they need to go into the electrical ceiling box so they can be clamped, and code requires that all wire ends being connected need to protrude from the open electrical box by 6" while they are being worked on. If the ceiling box is already in place in the ceiling, I suspect that the electrician may install an extension ring to accommodate all the wires legally, and use a cover with a hole and cable clamp in it.

In addition, the electrician needs room to work with the wooden box not in the way, so additional slack in the fixture cords is also necessary for that purpose. I'd install a couple of long screw eyes in the ceiling and into a joist and then hang the wooden box temporarily from these so that someone doesn't have to try to hold the box up while someone else does the electrical. If it were me, I'd have about an extra 2' of lamp cord for each of those fixtures to make it easier to do the electrical properly.

By the way, how do you intend to securely fix the wooden box to the ceiling?

Thanks for all the detail, kudzu9.

Everything in the first paragraph was on my checklist, except the extension ring. I hadn't thought about that. Perhaps the electrician would have realized it needed more space, although you can't always be sure. I might suggest that to him/her.

I am planning on hanging the box from large screw eyes (in joists), just as you described in the second paragraph. Two, located on one long side of the box, will hold it up until the electrician has finished all the wiring. In addition, two more located on the other side will help hold the box in its final position. In other words, the box won't be completely flush to the ceiling. And just in case I need to check or change anything in the future, I'll be able to unhook one side and take a peek.

Once again, thank you so much for all your expert input.

oldalgebra-

Sounds like a good plan. Whether you need an extension ring or not will depend on the capacity of the existing box, what's already in it, and the fact that you will be adding 3 more pairs to it. Light fixture wires don't have to be counted into box fill calculations only if they satisfy all of the following: 1) they are less than 14 gauge (yours likely will be less), 2) total 4 wires or fewer (you will have 6); and the box has a domed canopy. Since you have more than 4 wires, you will have to count all the wires, and I suspect you will need to add an extension ring.

oldalgebra did you end up building your own? These are called canopies (as I've recently learned) and I'm debated about whether I would be able to build my own vs. buying one. How did yours turn out?

oldalgebra did you end up building your own? These are called canopies (as I've recently learned), and I was exploring whether to build one myself or buy one. How did yours turn out?