Changing a light fixture

[Khalil]

Hey guys,

When changing a light fuxture...all you have to do is make sure there is no power going to it, right? As in..just make sure the light switch is turned off?

Or is there anything else you have to do before changing the fixture?

Thanks,

-Khalil

[rmk]

your changing the whole fixure i assume? turn off the circuit to it or the whole house just to be careful.

[69cougar]

If I remeber 99% of the time that is correct. Unless someone has fed of that box to something else. You can turn of the breaker as well to be extra safe but I have worked on live wires many times just dont touch the copper and you will be ok.

Unhook

Black then white then ground

new fixture is reversed

[Zero102]

You should de-energize all wires in the box, for your own safety. In most newer houses, this means just turning the switch off. However, in a lot of older houses, and still occasionally in newer houses, they will run an unswitched hot wire to the box, then run down to the switch, and back up to the box, meaning even if you turn the switch off, there is still 1 hot wire in the box. It's easy to tell if they have done this. Turn the switch off, and carefully remove the old light fixture. If in the box, there is a white wire connected to a black wire, then that is most likely what has been done, and you will need to be careful, as there are still electrified conductors in the box.
At this point, I advise you to turn off the breaker to proceed (since I can't advise you otherwise in good conscience).

[Zero102]

Ah yes, forgot the most important part, if working on live wires, unhook the ungrounded (hot) conductors first, and cap them off while you're working. Otherwise, if you unhook the neutral first, you can still be zapped by the white wire coming off the light fixture.

There is no need to shut off the main breaker for the house. Unless you don't like the people you live with, then you can always argue it's for your own safety... ;)

[Khalil]

haha

thanks guys