How To Replace a Light Fixture : For Amateurs

Posted by Rita H Peterson on September 25th, 2019

Need a light fixture replaced around the house? Save money and do it yourself. Below is a guide on how anyone without any such experience can execute a lighting installation in Port St. Lucie and elsewhere with ease and without worrying about calling the electrician.

Step 1 : Switch off the power to the old fixture

Switch off the power from the main light panel that is connected to the fixture before you start any work on replacing it. Leave the fixture from it’s switch board so that once the light goes out in the fixture you know its off.

Step 2 : Remove canopy

The canopy is the round, broad covering that lies flush to the ceiling and hides all the wiring and hardware. There will be a screw of some kind holding the canopy up. Whatever is holding up the canopy, unscrew or follow whatever mechanism you have to and bring the canopy down.

Step 3 : Unscrew all wires that are inside the canopy

When installing a light fixture, you will connect three wires from the fixture to the three wires inside the canopy and then further on mount the canopy once that is done. So upon removing the canopy and seeing the three wires, namely, black, white and red, disconnect them all in order to remove the fixture. Unscrew the wire connectors and separate the fixture wiring from the ceiling wiring.

Step 4 : Remove the old fixture

After the wires have been disconnected, the old light fixture will be free to be moved around and brought down. There is no set way as to how these things are attached but generally there are a couple of screws that need to be unscrewed. There are no anchors used here since the anchoring is to the electrical box which firmly established in the ceiling. This helps avoids the use of another person to help out with this process.

Step 5 : Install new bracket

All light fixtures are universally-sized and pre-wired in the ceiling from where the electrical wires descend from. There will be some sort of baseplate that will serve as the mounting hardware for the new light fixture. It will either be a single bar strap with a nipple screw, or a circular more universal kind of bracket. Check your lighting fixture and execute accordingly.

Step 6 : Connect wires from the new fixture

The wires descending from the ceiling will likely have bare ends where as the new wires will have frayed like silver ends. Twist the frayed threads at the end of the new black wire to the exposed end of the ceiling’s black wire. Twist them on a wire connector and repeat the same with the white wires. The copper wire is different from the other two wires and is either connected to a green grounding screw or a dedicated copper wire coming from the ceiling through the electrical box. Refer to the fixture installation manual and figure out which scenario you are in and execute accordingly.

Step 7 : Secure the new fixture and adjust length

In case the fixture itself doesn’t fit straight into the ceiling, there must a chain attached to it. Adjust the length according to your preference. Different fixtures have different ways of adjusting the length so look through your instruction manual to figure this out. There must be an extra chain or cord of some kind that needs to be shoved into the canopy. Execute that at this time too.

Once this is done, properly secure the new fixture and screw the mounting plate properly. Next put the canopy back in its place and screw it tightly so that it holds in place.

Step 8 : Restore the power back to the fixture

Once the power is restored to the fixture from the main panel, switch it on from its switchboard. If the fixture lights up then congratulations it works. If not, then switch off the power to the fixture and check if the wires are connected properly or not and try again. This is the breakdown for a lighting installation in Port St. Lucie and elsewhere around the country. So wherever you may be you know how to change a lighting fixture.