A ceiling light will not turn off. I replaced the wall switch but that wasn't it. So for now I have the circuit breaker off for this circuit. Do I have a fire hazard? Is this something I can repair myself, or do I need and electrician?

 

Did you replace the ceiling light, or do anything else at the ceiling light recently? Did you do anything at all when this problem started? Or did it just go on and off properly when you went to bed one night and was always on when you got up in the morning?

A light that won't go off is indicative of either a miswired ceiling light (often due to misunderstanding how a switch loop works), or a miswired switch.

By any chance does the breaker trip when you flip the wall switch on?

Please provide more information.

 

Nothing has been altered or replaced for over 9 years (except the bulb). Light was working fine. When I went to turn it off, it wouldn't.

 

Conduct an experiment. Remove the switch from the wall entirely, leaving the wires that were attached to it hanging and not touching each other or anything else. Then turn the breaker on. Is the light on?

Now tell us the colors of the wires that were attached to the switch.

My guess is that you have an accidental short in your ceiling box, but this information is the first step to figuring that out.

 

Light still on with switch removed. I only have one black and one white wire, no ground.

 

You have a switch loop.

Next you need to turn off the breaker and pull down the light fixture. Tell us everything you see.

What you should see is two black wires and two white wires. One of the black wires should be connected to the white wire from the other cable, by a wire nut in the back of the box. Neither of these two wires should be attached in any way to the light.

The other two wires, one black and one white from different cables, should be attached to the light.

You may have an accidental short in the ceiling. Look to make sure that no bare wires protrude from a wire nut.

You may have also pierced a cable with a nail. Did you hang any new pictures, having siding installed, put up a new bookshelf, or anything like that?

 

Pulled down light fixture. It has 2 sockets for bulbs. Both sockets are wired the same, so I'm only going to talk about one socket.

There is a pad of insulation between the connected wires and the fixture part.

There were 3 wires coming through box. White, dark gray, and a bare copper. Copper is attached to grounding screw on box. White is attached to an amber/clear twisted stranded which becomes shiny black on other side of insulation. Dark gray is attached to dark gray twisted stranded. Wires are soldered to socket.

The amber/clear/black is very brittle near the socket and bare wires are showing in several places. I know this has to be replaced. So, could those bare wires be the problem, or do I need to crawl around in the attic/crawl space to see if little mice have been busy? I am going to replace the bad wire right away!

 

I miscommunicated. I didn't mean to describe the wires in the fixture itself, but the wires in the electrical box under the fixture, where the fixture attaches to the house wiring.

 

I don't think you miscommunicated. I was just being to focused on the fixture itself. I'll try to be more clear.

I pulled the fixture down. The house wires coming from the mounting box(?) were white, dark gray (faded black?) and a bare copper wire. So maybe the idiot who owned the house before me made another splice somewhere because the wire looks black at the switch, but dark gray coming through the ceiling. These wires all looked intact. I didn't see any deterioration.

The wires that these were attached to were: white(house) to amber(fixture), dark gray to dark gray, and the bare copper wire went to a screw on what I'm calling the mounting box.

Is it correct to assume that the amber, and dark gray that the house wiring is connected to came attached to the fixture (since they are soldered on)? Which begs another question. Since bare wire is exposed on the fixture, would it be better to replace the whole fixture or just the fixture's wiring?

Thank you for your time and patients.

 

If you have a black and white wire attached to the switch, and if you only have one wire of each color at the light, then there is another junction box in between. This complicates the analysis tremendously.

Do you live in an area where conduit is required, or does your house use Romex?

It does seem that dark gray is probably faded black. But I don't understand "amber". The only colors allowed by code as a neutral wire are white and natural gray (i.e., a gray that is nearly white). Sometimes a very old white wire will yellow over time, especially if an overwattage bulb has cooked the wiring -- could this be what the amber is? Make sure your bulb wattage is not over manufacturer's recommendations (usually 60 watts maximum). Many homes burn down because people put a 100-watt bulb in a 60-watt fixture.

It may indeed be time to buy a new fixture. I think this fixture is "cooked".

And it sounds like the wiring is a bit of a hack job. The obvious existance of another junction box means that this problem may now be beyond my power to diagnose remotely. I think it may be time to call in professional help.

 

OK John. Thank you. I'll call a professional to come check this out. You've been a great help. Thanks again for your time and effort.

cyndi

 

Have you tried disconnecting a wire from the wall switch. It could be that the inards of the switch are fried, essentially shorted out. Toggling the switch has no effect.

Remove a wire and see if the light goes out. If it does, replace the switch. My money would be on the switch.

 

cgar, that was suggested early on. It is not the switch.

 

Some old fixtures in my former house used clear lamp cord. Could this be the "amber"?

Also, are you sure the other wire in the box is gray and not simply black with a bit of white wall primer overspray on it? Those wires are usually exposed when the painters prime the drywall.

Best advice I've seen in this thread: Call a pro.

 

Bet someone replaced an outlet that had at least one plug on it wired as "switched". If that person put the wires back on it the way they were (which even novices are usually smart enough to do) The problem is solved as easily as breaking off the little snap off tab that jumps the always on power to the only supposed to be on when light switch is on side of plug. You might have to open every plug in room to figure out which outlet this was. Maybe the newest/cleanest one. It will have more or more different color wires on it. The little copper prong stickin off the side of outlet by screws on hotwire side - bend back and forth couple times with pliers or it might have slot in it put little screwdriver in it and snap it off. good luck