toga22 said:
HELP!!
This morning I went into the bathroom and turned on the light, and to my surprise got quite a nice fireworks display from the fixture....
Took the light apart to, of course find all of the wires going to the light to be fried.
But I got a question....When I replace the light do I also have to replace the wires that connect to the switch, or can I assume that they are fine?
toga, nice to see you hun.
what happened was the wiring in the fixture itself was fried because it could not carry to surge of current. the wire is typically like 18gauge.
now the wire that runs from the light switch to the fixture should be at minimum 14gauge or possibly 12 gauge. it depends on the local electrical code. regardless both sizes are very adequate to handle the suspected surge that you witnessed. therefore in conclusion you should not have to check the wiring from the switch to the fixture. it will be fine trust me.
now about replacing the fixture. pretty simple for a girl like you i would think.
two ways that residential wiring is done in this situation. the first one is where all wires from the room make up in the fixture junction box and this is where you would find the common hot for the entire room. or the second way is where all wires make up in the switch junction box and in that case this is where you would find the common hot for the entire room.
your best bet is to do two things. first turn off the breaker that you said tripped and second turn the light switch off just for good measure.
now when you take the fixture down you will have a black wire(hot wire) and you will have a white wire(nuetral wire) and possibly a green ground wire. if you buy a small tester(there very cheap) when you buy the new fixture you can determine if the power is actually off.just untwist the wire nuts and take the connections lose.
now all you have to do is replace the fixture by following the easy directions that come with it.
the person at the store can show what i mean about the tester. if you do not feel comfortable doing this then just call an electrician, just buy the light yourself though because they will even add on 5 or 10% if they buy it. i would think that you would be charge around 75 to 100$.
good luck!
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