How to Troubleshoot and Repair Lighting Problems

IDEAL INDUSTRIES INC. 61-535 Digital Circuit Breaker Finder with Digital Receiver and GFCI Circuit

Leviton T5325-WMP M22-Straight Blade Tamper Resistant Duplex Receptacle, 125 V, 15 A, 2 Pole, 3 Wire, 10-Pack White Piece

Klein Tools K1412 Wire Cutter / Wire Stripper, Made in USA, Dual NM Cable Stripper / Cutter Cuts Solid Copper Wire, Strips 12 and 14 AWG Solid Wire

[TippyPuddles]

Thank you for showing how to check the outlet switch. So simple but I'm a "careful" novice. I like to understand everything before I begin. I have power when the switch is in the on position and the live wire is okay too. I'll look at the light fixture next. Didn't want to pull apart the light unless I knew I had to.

[JacobPolor-lwmy]

Thanks man! Took the time to comment because I couldn’t get my new light fixture to light up, seen your video and noticed I had 3 wires as well, you said they wire nuts were too small, so I used bigger ones and the fixture lit up!! Thank you

[chargera]

A year later and this is the video I needed. Thank you for the step by step troubleshooting.

[mathman]

Sparky the world’s greatest teacher on Electrical installations. Those light fittings in particular are not the greatest quality either. Really nice breakdown of the problem troubleshooting.

Wagos are always the way to go and I have been replacing wire nuts with them as they offer a better quality connections. I would however with stranded cable actually ferrule them before I put them into the wagos and better still use an insulated ferrule to do that. Ferrules add to the solidity of connections in my view reducing the risk of shorting due to cable movement and conductor loosening over time. I think you have done a ferrule video and tools before? Wiha, knipex and ideal do some great tools in this line. I prefer the boot ferrules for a solid even connections.

On lights more generally this is an area I think manufacturers are very poor on. They tend to produce non-listed items often produced for the cheapest cost with poor quality components with limited manufacturer testing rather than robust UL testing.

I try to choose UL listed lighting products and fittings for a better safer product but it does limit design choices. As most are non-listed.

With non-listed light fittings I run quite a few device tests - touch voltage, leakage, earth continuity, insulation resistance. I have an expensive tool to do that and it has been a godsend. With thermal cameras I can also check after installation the current draw and heat dissipation in the box is well within normal safe levels. That also applies to modern LED lights and light strips.

The power quality issue is also another aspect but I won’t go through that here.

Good to see your channel building up again I have been praying for your success for one of the nicest guys on YouTube.

[illestofdemall]

Hi, Bill, great video as usual. I have another interesting story from last week. A customer wanted an updated LED light and had already taken down the old light, so when we checked the wires at the ceiling fixture box, there was one 14-2 NM cable and by doing some testing with the volt meter we found that the black wire was the neutral, and the white wire was the 120V line and hot all the time. At the switch, there was only one 14-2 NM cable and the black and white were switching the neutral rather than the line. Someone did something weird but we found the connections to be corrected which were in an outlet receptacle box a few feet away. Crazy stuff. Lol

[ccadama]

@Sparky Channel. Thanks Bill for another educational video. Great editing, graphics, and explanations. You're really sure of yourself at @04:00. I would've thought you'd test to make sure the light actually worked before putting the glass cover back on. That's confidence on display.

Hope you and your family stay safe and well.

[inadaze]

I wish the company I worked for used those wagos😔 great video sparky

[McmM-ckop]

Bill you do a fine job on everything keep the videos coming...👍

[davidharrison]

Thank you! This was the most useful information of all the videos I watched.Thank you! Thank you!

[glennlangford]

Excellent step by step tutorial! Thanks so much

[kevinoverholtzer]

there was a few problems but which one caused the light to not work was it the bad connections or the missing ground.

[orukalvinklien]

Good job man, quite a lesson to learn.

[conejoyconejamillan]

The right light bulbs make a difference .👍🏽

[owa]

I want to be an electrician so cool to know these things.

[YanajRettun]

I love that you reviewed all your steps at the end

[shaylebennett]

I've been about to cry. I rewired two light switches. There's power to the light but the bulbs won't come on. Im gonna try this. Thank you!!

[OtisPlunk]

I'm sure that Ideal Industries will be happy to hear that Wagos are Ideal. ;-)

[joeking]

Man, I have a CRAZY circuit! I have two closet switches with lights, lights over the sink, a garage door opener, and 2 GFCI outlets on the circuit. There may be some overhead lights in the garage on it, too. For a while you had to hold the button in to close the door. That has fixed itself recently and now one push will bring down the door. Now a light in the closet wouldn't work but it would flicker if you jiggled the switch. So I replaced the switch and then the closet light worked. But now the closet switch doesn't turn the closet light on, it turns on the lights over the sinks! What is going on???

[dwfinds]

Not sure what I did light was working fine switched to more modern flush mount. 2 black and 1 red and 3 white I attached the black with black and white with the white from light fixture. Now the light doesn't turn off. Im not sure if 1 of the wires might not have been connected before or if the light needs to only connect to 1 black and the other 2 should be capped together. Im thinking its getting power from one of them after the switch it getting turned off.

[rogertorrez]

Hi Bill you by any chance make any videos regarding the NEC?