The lights in a couple of my closets are not turning on. i have ruled out that the bulb has burned out (in one instance, the light stopped working and then started working again the next day). In one closet, the bakelite socket seems to have deteriorated and the edges are crumbling. I wouldn’t expect this by itself to cause a circuit to act flakey, but what do I know. The house is about 13 years old btw. Should I replace these sockets before calling an electrician? Will just turning off the switch protect me from electrocution or do I need to access the breakers (which is kind of a pain in the ass)? Anything else I should look at?
Yes, you have to turn off the breaker before working on the light.
I’m surprised a socket has deteriorated that badly already, but a “builder’s special” might. It’s not the cause of the light not working, but a symptom of a poor quality socket, which is probably the cause of the light not working.
If you do this, make sure you attach the black and white wires correctly; don’t switch them. The new socket should have a wiring diagram. Since your house is new, it’s probably correctly wired, but it wouldn’t hurt to check.
Don’t forget to turn off the breaker before replacing the socket.
Classic signs of a loose connection. It’s probably in the electrical box that has the light fixture attached. Either a connection on the fixture or there could be a couple wires tied together inside the box (you’ll see wire nuts on the wires).
Try a firm open palm slap on the sheetrock beside the switch. Did the light go off? The loose connection is in that box. Try the same thing on the ceiling next to the light fixture.
Did you happen to be using CFLs in those fixtures? They generate a lot of heat in the base and the problem is worse when mounted bulb down as is common in closets. Changing the fixture shouldn’t be too difficult, but you should definitely throw the breaker for them. And breakers shouldn’t be that difficult to access, maybe you have another problem to deal with.
Just turning off the switch will normally be fine, but only if you have a way to check the exposed wires for voltage. There are many testers on the market that do this nicely. Turning off the breaker is no guarantee that there aren’t other hot wires in the box. Make sure you only come in contact with the circuit you are servicing.
Also, aceplace 57 has probably nailed your problem. For this particular fix, I’d secure the circuit at the breaker, then tighten all screw connections, including the connection to the breaker (since the problem is in two places), and check any wirenut junctions. Also replace that broken fixture. If the problem persists, call an electrician.
if the plastic fixture is deteriorating then it might be caused by heat caused by a bad connection to the fixture.
buy a replacement fixture. bare bulbs in a closet are a hazard, clothing can get set on fire by bare bulb heat. a fixture that encloses the bulb is best. if you continue to use a bare bulb the at least get a ceramic fixture.
either all the lights might have bad connections in the switches or fixtures or a problem in the whole lighting circuit.
get a book from the library on DIY electrical repairs; just to keep you from killing yourself or burning your house down if you attempt the repair.
you want to turn off the circuit breaker before working on the circuit (put a piece of tape over the breaker handle in its off position)… you want to then test the circuit for electricity to see it really is off; the safest method is to get a non-contact voltage tester at a hardware or building supply store. inform people that some lights in the house will be out and to not turn the circuit breaker back on.
it is a serious safety issue if a person can’t get to the breakers and shut them off in the time it takes to run to them.
Accessing the breakers should never be a pain in the ass. The panel should be easy to get to and there should be enough clearance around it for a man to easily stand and work. IIRC NEC rules are 30" wide, 36" deep, and 80" tall clearance in front of the panel. The breakers themselves must be at least 4’ high and no more than 6 1/2’ high so that a normal sized person can easily reach them.
You can get yourself in real trouble doing this if the switch is wired in a loop with the main electrical feed coming into the light fixture first. Turning off the switch will leave a live wire from the feed exposed at the fixture. If you don’t check ALL of the hot wires with a meter you can miss it.
Personally, my advice is to turn off the breaker, and even then check for voltage.
13 years is an awfully short amount of time to be having these types of problems. The OP may want to have an electrician come in and just survey the entire house to see what other problems might be present. It’s a bit costly, but it’s better than having your house burn down. If you don’t have them already, you might want to have AFCI breakers installed. AFCI is arc fault circuit interrupter, and it’s designed to stop things like loose connections or frayed extension cords from burning down your house. 13 years is right around the time when AFCIs were added to the NEC so the OP’s house may or may not have them.
Lots of people like to blame CFLs when something goes wrong (not saying you have anything against them); have you ever touched a lit incandescent, including the base (one word - ouch!). None of the CFLs I’ve had get that hot, certainly not as hot as incandescents (a good CFL will also lose most of its efficiency in the bulb, not the ballast; I’ve seen halogen lamp drivers based on a nearly identical circuit (self-oscillating half-bridge, little more than a couple transistors, transformer/inductor, and feedback circuit) that are 95% efficient).
Hence my recommendation for a tester. One should not only check so-called “hot” wires. Just because a wire’s insulation is white doesn’t mean some knucklehead didn’t use it for a power feed.
I’m not ragging on the CFLs, it’s just a possibility. They do concentrate heat in the base. There’s another thread somewhere where that may have been a problem. But I didn’t mention that would mostly be a problem with a cheap fixture to start with, and the same problem could occur with an incandescent bulb. Quality fixtures shouldn’t be harmed by a CFL.
“Just turning off the switch will normally be fine”
How does turning off the switch of a device make it safe to work on house wiring?
In this instance, do you know if the switch is ‘upstream’ or ‘downstream’ of the fixture connection?
The OP describes a “bakelite socket” - Certainly wouldn’t be the first bakelite socket I ever saw with a chain switch that only affects power to the the lightbulb and not to the fixture itself.
Unless your standing in a puddle of water 110V is not going to Electrocute you most Electricians don’t even turn the power off while installing light Receptacles or Wall sockets or even while working on them all your going to feel is a buzzing sensation in your hand and arm an electric fence shock hurts worse than constant current of 110V now that being said its Obviously not a great feeling and don’t just go and grab the wires just put a pair of comfortable gloves on and get a nice plastic Handle screwdriver and a pliers with plastic grips and get to work, but if you still don’t feel Comfortable then turn off the breaker and get a flashlight and go to work
A ‘buzzing sensation’?! WTF?!
I’ve been shocked by 110 volts, more than a few times.
And I can speak from painful experience, it is, most definitely NOT, a ‘buzzing sensation’! :mad:
Pardon me for being blunt, but IMHO, you don’t sound like you’re ‘qualified’ to be giving advice about working on a potentially deadly task. :dubious:
One other thing, do the punctuation keys on your keyboard, work?
Or are you just too lazy, to utilize them?
Heh. I had an electrician install a sub panel at my business. He did a shitty job. At one point I asked him if he ever got zapped. “Practically every day, comes with the territory”, was his reply.
My gf’s dad is a retired electrician. I asked him the same question. “Never!, what, you think I’m an idiot?”
One of my best friends, that I’ve known for 40+ years is an electrician with 25+ years of experience, and I know for a fact that he’s been ‘bit’ a few times. Not very often, and most of the times were early in his career, but according to him, it’s like riding a motorcycle. If you ride one long enough, it’s not a matter of ‘if’ you’re gonna ‘drop one’, it’s just a matter of ‘when’.
With that said, I find it hard to believe that your gf’s dad has never been shocked.
Rarely, yes. NEVER?
C’mon, you’re not seriously buying that, are you?
Yep. He worked as an industrial electrician. Mostly high voltage work in steel mills. When he did/does side jobs he is insanely cautious; he’d never trust anyone else to shut down circuits, etc.
Generally, if your lights are wired correctly (that is, the hot wire is switched), you can turn the switch off and be fine. This works just fine if your neutral at that point is only feeding those lights, and if the hot is switched like it should be. If, however, the switch was wired to break the neutral instead of the hot, you’d still have 120V power live on the hot wire which could zap you good. If you have a multimeter or such, you can switch off the light and test the voltage between hot and ground and neutral and ground to make sure both are 0V. In that case, you’d be fine with just the switch off.
However, it’s ALWAYS better to just be safe and flip the breaker. Save yourself from surprises.
