Question for the electricians

[comet]

I just moved into a new house that has four outdoor lights on the front of the house. They are all on one switch. The two right hand lights are out (replaced bulbs) and the two left ones light up. I checked the connections on the two left ones and they are good. The third one in line has no juice when I check it with a tester. What would you do next? Thanks

 

[JatMat]

Turn switch off, then take light off base and check connections, sometimes they get corroded, take connections apart and clean them one at a time. Reassemble and check it out, still no juice? replace fixture, the socket could be bad.

Be Careful,
James

 

[spyder10]

Turn off the circuit breaker before you do any electrical work.

 

[HomeBru]

I just moved into a new house that has four outdoor lights on the front of the house. They are all on one switch.

Are you sure they're all on one switch? (If they worked before and now don't then you're sure, if someone told you, you're not sure.) I only say this because my folks bought a house once and the sellers explained that "the one switch in the bedroom doesn't switch anything." After a few years, my dad discovered that it was actually for a switched outlet that had been behind the original owners' armoire...

Follow the advice above, check the connections at the lights for corrosion or disconnect. If that's not it, you'll need to try and figure out the route that the electricity takes from the switch. Are there two runs, one to the lights on the left and one to the lights on the right? (I'm guessing that this is the setup) The run to the lights on the right may have become disconnected at the switch. Pull the plate off and the switches out (disconnect power/breaker off first!) it may be obvious, it may take some trial and error to figure out. Very likely, there's pigtails coming off the switch to a bundle of wires connected by a wire nut. If it was installed correctly, the bundle was twisted together tightly and possibly even crimped before the wire nut went on. If it was installed incorrectly, the wires were just held together and the wire nut was depended on to hold them and provide insulation. This type of installation always seems to fail after a while.

J-

 

[T. Erdelyi]

Turn off the circuit breaker before you do any electrical work.

Ditto, turn off the breaker.

 

[Matt Shade]

What kind of lights are they?
Some lights have a photo-electric eye that prevents them from turning on in the day time. If the eye stops working,sometimes the light won't come on at all. Its fairly common on outdoor/security lights because it prevents you from having to remember to turn the switch on and off all the time.