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I used one of the 12 gauge solid grounding wires to go around ground screw on crossbar. Ground screw isn’t tightened yet. Planning to connect 18 gauge stranded ground wire from pendant light w/ wire nut to the two 12 gauge ground wires. Will it be a hazard to have wire nut under cross bar (and NOT inside metal box) since ground wire isn’t long enough to push back in box?enter image description here

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  • Ground the box on the back (it's metal), you'lòl have less mess when working inside. Keep that gounding screw just for the light fixture. Get a self-drilling screw and fix the grounding wires on the back of the box Commented Nov 27 at 16:35
  • Is that green grounding wire twisted with another green grounding wire that goes to another fixture? Commented 2 days ago

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You have a metal electric box. If the box is grounded, by attaching the ground wire that is entering the box, then anything metal that is attached to the box will also be grounded.

The screw on the crossbar is for attaching the ground wire from your light. (assuming you have attached the box ground wire.)

To answer your basic question, while preferred, it is not essential to have the ground wires in the box. (once the nut is on, push it down toward the box.)

However what you can do is attach all the ground wires together with another short piece of ground wire (called pigtailing) and attach to the box. All attachments will be grounded.

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  • The fixture canopy, i.e. the space inside the fixture below the level of the box/ceiling, is suitable for containing wires and wirenuts in any listed light fixture, and its volume is added to box volume when considering "box fill". There is no "preferred". Commented Nov 27 at 16:42
  • @kreemoweet, That's fair, however we do not know anything about what type or size canopy the OP has in their lights. Commented Nov 27 at 18:36
  • 5” x 1” metal circular canopy from Pottery Barn. I cut the canopy cord shorter so plenty of room in canopy. Commented 2 days ago
  • @Melissa Cox, It all ok there is no issue with how you are doing things. Commented 2 days ago

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