44 May/June 2020IF YOU POKE AROUND YOUR HOUSE AND FIND
overcrowded electrical boxes, damaged
or burned wires, or aluminum wiring,
don’t mess around. Call an electrician.
But if you’ve already got a pair of lights
flanking your bathroom mirror, and
you live in a recently built house or one
with wiring that’s been improved by a
licensed electrician, upgrading fixtures
can be a smooth process.
First, you’ll need to cut power to the
bathroom circuit at the service panel;
then try the light switch. No lights?
Good. This doesn’t mean that there isn’t
a live wire lurking in the box where the
fixture is mounted; it just means that
the most obvious conductors serving
the fixture are no longer energized.
(1) Play it safe by checking wires thatCHUCK THE UGLY LIGHTING
DIFFICULTY: ●●●●○ (FOR MINOR ELECTRICAL WORK)you expose by “sniffing” them with a
non-contact voltage detector, which
senses the electromagnetic field from
an energized wire. If you find something
amiss, stop and call an electrician.
(2) Disassemble the lighting fixture
by removing the glass and loosening
screws that hold the fixture to the
mounting strap or mounting plate.
Pull the disconnected fixture forward,
gently stretching the wires that con-
nect the fixture to the house wiring.
The wires should attach to each other
with a twist-on fastener called a wire
connector. Untwist these. Set the old
fixture aside.
(3) Install the mounting strap for the
new fixture to the electrical box and
hold the new fixture in position as you
connect its wiring to the house wiring:
The black house wire goes to the black
fixture wire. The white house wire
goes to the white fixture wire. Green or
bare house wire goes to green or bare
fixture wire. You may also see a green
ground screw on the plate or strap (see
Other Things You Might Find). (4) Align1TOOLS AND 2
MATERIALS
Sconce
Screwdriver
Non-contact
voltage detector
Side-cutting pliers
Wire connectors
Wire strippers
If, when your house’s
electrical wiring is
exposed, you see a
green screw sticking out of
the mounting strap or plate,
you have a ground screw or
a bond screw. Electricians
have varying views about
how to handle these, but you
can’t go wrong tightening
the green screw down onto
a stripped part of the ground
circuit you’ve created (green
or bare house wire to green
or bare fixture wire).There is slim possibility
that two of the wires
coming from the fixture
will be black, rather than an
easy, color-coded black and
white. In this case, one of the
black fixture wires will have a
small raised rib on its sheath.
Black with a raised rib is the
equivalent of the white wire.
Attach the ribbed black wire
to the white house wire and
the smooth black wire to the
house black wire.OTHER THINGS
YOU MIGHT FIND
WHILE DOING BASIC
ELECTRICAL WORK