Household Electrical Repairs » » home electrical repairs

Adding A New Receptacle In An Existing Home

Bill — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 04:07:22 +0000

In todays world of electrical/electronic miracles more and more receptacles are needed all the time. Sometimes this can be a real chore. Often you can go through a wall and connect to an existing outlet.

The tools required for this project are a thin blade screwdriver, needle nose pliers, wire strippers, razor knife or sheet rock saw.

If you have an existing outlet on the other side of the wall, you can do this quit easily. First make sure the power is off at the existing outlet. Remove the cover and the receptacle screws. Gently pull the receptacle out of the box. Next take a thin blade screw drive and push on the edge of the box untill it goes out the other side of the wall. This will show you where the stud is on the other side. Measure the box and mark the wall. Use a sheetrock saw or razor knife to cut the opening out. remove the plugs so you can run the romex wire from the existing box to the new box. With the wire inside of the new box, push the box in place and screw it to the stud. Strip the romex about 4 inches and strip the black and white wires about 1/2 inch and connect the to the new receptacle. black on gold screw,white on silver screw and bare ground on the green screw. Install the receptacle and mount the cover. Go to existing receptacle and repeat the connection the same as the new receptacle. reinstall the receptacle and cover and turn the power on-you are done!

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Replace An Attic Exhaust Fan

Bill — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 01:19:06 +0000

Most homes have at least one exhaust fan in the attic. Depending on the size and shape of the attic, the attic may have 2 or 3 exhaust fans. Since the attic is usually hot in the summer months – sometimes reaching as much as 130 degrees F – the exhaust fans will often have bearing failure. The bearings are usually of the sealed type and can not be lubricated. Most of the time it is cheaper to replace the exhaust fan than try to repair them. Some exhaust fans have a thermostat that can fail but you may not find the correct thermostat and it is still easier to just replace the complete exhaust fan.

The tools required to replace the exhaust fan are: flashlight, wire strippers, needle nose pliers, screw drivers and nut drivers. See tool list

When going into the attic, be very careful to step on the ceiling joist and not between or you can be hurt or at least damage the ceiling sheet rock.

To replace the exhaust fan, first verify that the power is turned off. You can turn the breaker off or if the breaker is not marked, using a multimeter, verify the voltage is off by shutting the breakers off one at a time and reading the voltage at the exhaust fan connections. ( They are usually connected with wire nuts that you can carefully remove to check the voltage. After the power is turned off and verified disconnect the wires from the exhaust fan. The wires may be physically attached to the exhaust fan by a clamp which can be loosened to pull the wire out of the exhaust fan. Most fan motors have 3 screws holding them to the housing. Remove the mounting screws and pull the exhaust fan out. By doing this you do not have to climb a ladder on outside to rremove the exhaust fan. Then reinstall the fan with the mounting screws and reconnect the wires. Turn on voltage and verify that the exhaust fan is working and you are done.

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Household Electrical – Repair A Florescent Light

Bill — Mon, 19 May 2008 02:31:33 +0000

Repairing a florescent light can be done easily and quickly. If you change out the bulbs and the lights do not light up bright, it is probably the ballast. Make sure the light switch is turned off. This will insure that there is no power at the light fixture. The tools required for this procedure are wire strippers, lineman pliers, nut driver and multimeter. See Tools For Household Electrical Repairs

Remove the bulbs and the center cover. The center is usually held by tabs. You can squeeze the cover and get it out of the tabs on either side and drop it down from the fixture. Carefully remove the wire nut from the black wire coming out of the ceiling and connected to the ballast. Note: this is the “hot’ wire. Use the lineman pliers to seperate the black wires. You can put the wire nut on the wire that comes out of the ceiling for safety while removing the ballast. Disconnect the white wire in similar fashion. Next use the wire strippers to cut the remaining wire connected to the ballast within 2 or 3 inches of the ballast. Use the nut driver to remove the nuts holding the ballast in place. Note: the ballast me be physically warm to touch. you can use a rag or cardboard to hold the ballast while removing the wire nuts. The ballast will have a model number on it. Most home florescent lights have 120volt ac ballasts that can be purchased at the local hardware store.

Use the nut driver to install the ballast. Connect the red wire to red wire and the blue wire to blue wire. The 2 yellow wires on the ballast are then connected to the 2 yellow wires going to the light sockets. You can twist the slack wire together to keep it tucked under the cover. Connect the white wire to white wire and last connect the black wire to black wire. Replace the cover and bulbs and you are done!

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Replacing A Ceiling Light Fixture

Bill — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 07:42:38 +0000

Replacing a ceiling light fixtureis usually a fairly simple project. There are many selections now available with a wide variety of styles. The tools required are needle nose pliers, thin blade screwdriver, wire strippers, multimeter, and step ladder. Note, you might also need a phillips screw driver.

The first step is to make sure that the power is off. If the breaker panel is marked shut off the proper breaker. Next check to see if power is off. You can do this by removing the switch cover plate and loosening the switch mounting screws. Set the multimeter on the proper ac voltage scale and with the switch turned off place the leads on the 2 connections with insulated wires connected. The multimeter should read 0volts. If not go back and recheck all the 120volt breakers until you show 0volts.

At this point you can remove the 2 light fixture attaching screws and carefully pull the fixture down from the ceiling about 5 or 6 inches. Disconnect the 2 insulated wires and the bare ground wire from the fixture.

You are now ready to install the new light fixture. Connect the 2 insulated wires and the ground wire. Note the new light will probably have short wires to connect to the existing wiring. If the old fixture had screw connections cut off the end and strip about 1/2 inch and use wire nuts to connect the new fixture. Next mount the new fixture to the ceiling box with the to attaching screws and replace the bulbs and light shield. Next reinstall the light switch and switch cover. then turn on the breaker and you are done!

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