Hi all,
Let me start off by saying I'm absolutely NO electrical expert and do plan on having all wiring checked by a licensed electrician (which happens to be a family friend). As a first time home owner, I'm enjoying learning new things, so I decided to install the potlights myself.

I recently installed 4 pot lights in my kitchen, replacing and old ceiling mounted light fixture. This house was built in the 40's (bungalow in Canada).

Upon removing the old light fixture I found 3 wires that were:

1x red
1x black
1x brown

My goal was to use the existing wires and on/off switch, and simply wire to the new pot lights (IC rated, vapour barrier added, airtight with LED bulb) .

So I went up to the attic, installed the pot light cans and pulled up the now disconnected wires from the old fixture to wire above ceiling to new pot lights (using the included quick connectors).

Here's what I found with my non-contact tester:

WITH LIGHT SWITCH OFF
� black wire had power
� red wire had NO power
� brown wire had NO power

WITH LIGHT SWITCH ON
� black wire had power
� red wire had power
� brown wire had NO power

With this in mind, I wired up the pot lights like so:

NEW romex black to OLD red
NEW romex white to OLD brown
NEW romex ground to junction box screw

OLD black = cut, capped, taped and unused.

The new pot lights operate correctly. All other outlets on the same circuit are also working as normal. I believe the kitchen light was the "end of the circuit", meaning there was nothing else connected afterwards.

So my question is....what's with the 1 black wire that is unused?