Should I attempt to change light fittings myself?

DTDfanBoy

Make sure to turn the power off properly, ie at the consumer unit.

Don't make the mistake my neighbour made, turning off the light switch does not stop the electrical supply at the light fitting

The silly !!!!!! learnt that lesson the hard way :eek:

My goodness when did bug ger become a phrase so offensive it can't be posted on MSE :cool:

societys_child

get someone else to take the weight

reminds of Del boy and the chandeliers . . .:rotfl:

onomatopoeia99

Plenty of good advice here (especially the bit about the light switch not turning off the power to the ceiling fitting!)

One thing to note is that the fittings for "fancy" lights often only have one connector each for live, neutral and earth, while a conventional ceiling rose might have a total of 10 to allow the lighting ring to be fully connected. A consequence of this is you would need to add a junction box or similar in the loft to keep all the remaining cables connected correctly.

ben_m_g

It would depend on the age of the house for me, back then as a qualified electrician I wasn't prepared for the mess of wiring left for me in my old house.

Lights powered from wall sockets, wires all the same colour and fittings hanging by the electrical cables.

Swapping out a fitting is easy, as long as the work someone else has done before you has been done half decently.

pimento

It's the kind of thing I would have a go at but usually, in the houses I have owned, once the wires are exposed, there is something non-standard or the wire isn't long enough and I end up frustrated and able to go no further.

Now, I leave it to a professional. I like my eyebrows.

WatlingA5

We've recently moved and had some light fittings to change. We had a look at the wiring and the hallway lights set-up was two-way switches at each end to two light fittings. We removed the ceiling roses, took a look at the number of wires and... called an electrician.

He fitted those and two room lights for £60 which we thought was more than reasonable for the amount of work he did, because all four of them were extremely fiddly.

Owain_Moneysaver

pimento wrote: »

INow, I leave it to a professional. I like my eyebrows.

I've never lost eyebrows, but I have vaporised a pair of wirecutters :mad:

cyclonebri1

Changing light fittings without messing with the circuit is 1 of the few electrical jobs you are legitimately allowed to carry out under modern building regs, so if you have the nous then go ahead.

But as almost all have said, safe isolation is the key. I'll just add do it in the morning, not just as it's about go dark, not funny not being able to switch the consumer unit back on until daybreak.

As someone who has done enough to have made all the mistakes, in my case I put a plaster board nail through all three conductors of the 2.5mm circuit, took out the electric boards fuse in the consumer unit at 2.00pm on a winters afternoon.

And again to reiterate;

A mate was doing something similar, he had only isolated by dropping the breaker.

He mentioned under his breath that it was a beggar to see with no lights on, his wife overheard and did him a favour, she switched them back in....:eek::eek: