Tuesday, October 27, 2009

It's Tuesday and I'm installing

Hello Everyone,
Today, I have decided to replace some light switches from old, cream colored toggles to white flat push switches. Some of our old switches have some brown coloring near the center of the switch. Not good. That's a sign they are old and in need of replacement. It's very simple. Turn off the power! That's a must. Test the switch you are going to replace turning if off and on to make sure it's off. Then unscrew the switch. Two wires are attached inside and need to be "pushed" out. Right below each of the wires attached to the back of the switch is a tiny opening. I used a small needle nose tool (like a wire cutter tool) and used one of the noses to push inside the hole. You must push hard and then the wire pops out. Pushing in releases the wire. Do both wires. My home was built in 1967 so inside our switch outlet does not have a green ground wire. Because both wires are safely installed behind the switch, and we have a circuit board, the circuit board will trip before any loose or unsecured wires gets hot ultimately causing a fire.
So, take the new switch and push each wire inside the holes the tiny round holes until you feel a catch. They sort of snap in. Then push wires and switch back into the outlet box and screw in place. I usually test the switch before screwing back into place because on switch I exchanged was a double toggle meaning the one box had two different lights assigned to each switch. The one wire had to be wrapped around the screw instead of locking in and that was loose at first. When I went to test it, it tripped my circuit box which made me double check the wire connections. Sure enough, that one was loose. Anyway, it's all in the directions in the switch box! Once you've done one, you're a pro! It takes less than 10 minutes granted you can get the old wire boxes separated from the box. Forty years is a long time for a wire to settle in its little home.
If you want to install dimmer switches in place of regular for the bathroom or dining room, read the box! It's easy!

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