When you get a new light fixture, it will tell you which wire to connect to which terminal on the light fixture, based on the color of the wire’s insulation. If the person who installed the wiring followed all of the wiring standards and codes, then this will work fine for you.
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Make sure that you have disconnected power to the wires before installing the new light fixture. The simplest way to do this is to turn the light switch off. But you should also turn off the appropriate circuit breaker or remove the appropriate fuse as well, to be doubly sure that the power is off, and so that no one can accidentally turn the power on while you are working by turning the light switch on.
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Make sure that you have disconnected power to the wires before installing the new light fixture. The simplest way to do this is to turn the light switch off. But you should also turn off the appropriate circuit breaker or remove the appropriate fuse as well, to be doubly sure that the power is off, and so that no one can accidentally turn the power on while you are installing the light fixture.
If you want to check the wires to make sure that you are connecting the correct ones (that is, that you aren’t connecting them backwards), it is very easy to check if you have only two wires. Actually, you will probably have three wires — two will be insulated, and one will be bare — the bare one is the ground wire. You should be able to check the wires with the power off, because all you are doing is seeing which wire is the “common” wire. Get a multimeter (I prefer analog, the kind with the needle that moves, because they are very simple to use), set it to OHMS, and touch one probe to the ground wire and the other probe to one of the insulated wires. If the needle moves all the way to the right, you have found the “common” wire. If the needle doesn’t move, you have found the “hot” wire. Follow the instructions that are included with the light fixture for where to connect the hot wire and where to connect the ground wire.
When you get a new light fixture, it will tell you which wire to connect to which terminal on the light fixture, based on the color of the wire’s insulation. If the person who installed the wiring followed all of the wiring standards and codes, then this will work fine for you.
Make sure that you have disconnected power to the wires before installing the new light fixture. The simplest way to do this is to turn the light switch off. But you should also turn off the appropriate circuit breaker or remove the appropriate fuse as well, to be doubly sure that the power is off, and so that no one can accidentally turn the power on while you are working by turning the light switch on.
If you want to check the wires to make sure that you are connecting the correct ones (that is, that you aren’t connecting them backwards), it is very easy to check if you have only two wires. Actually, you will probably have three wires — two will be insulated, and one will be bare — the bare one is the ground wire. You should be able to check the wires with the power off, because all you are doing is seeing which wire is the “common” wire. Get a multimeter (I prefer analog, the kind with the needle that moves, because they are very simple to use), set it to OHMS, and touch one probe to the ground wire and the other probe to one of the insulated wires. If the needle moves all the way to the right, you have found the “common” wire. If the needle doesn’t move, you have found the “hot” wire. Follow the instructions that are included with the light fixture for where to connect the hot wire and where to connect the ground wire.