There are many possible causes of lighting faults.

From a simple blown globe to various wiring and light fitting faults to rodent damage and weather conditions, some faults are minor, some can be quite serious.

If your lights are flickering, dimming, sparking or turning on and off by themselves, you should call an electrician as these can be signs of potentially serious electrical problems.

Here are a few tips and ideas to help you identify the problem you may be experiencing and what you can do about it.

Don’t forget to check your power points as well.  This article describes lighting faults only.  If you have no power at all click here to see our information on power faults

Which Lights Are Out

First you should identify the extent of the problem.  How many lights are out?  Is it just one fitting, is it just part of the house, or are there no lights working anywhere at all?

Most homes have only one lighting circuit.  This means all the lights in the house are protected by one fuse or circuit breaker.  A problem with just one light fitting can blow the fuse or trip the circuit breaker and put all the lights out.

Lamps

If only one light is out, the first thing to check is the lamps.

Even for a seemingly simple job like changing a lamp, it’s a good idea to turn off the power to the lighting circuit by switching off the circuit breaker.

These days many lighting problems can be traced back to poor quality lamps.  If you put a new lamp in your light fitting and it blows immediately when you turn the light on it could be a problem with the wiring or the light fitting.

If you put a new lamp in and it only lasts a couple of days or a couple of weeks, then it’s more likely a problem with the poor quality of the lamps.  Even brand new lamps can be faulty.

See our article “Why do my light globes blow all the time” for more information.

You can always test a light fitting by removing a lamp from a fitting you know is working and installing it in the non working light.

If the light still doesn’t work it must be a problem with the light fitting itself.  In this case you will need to call an electrician.

A seemingly simple job like changing a light bulb can actually be quite dangerous under certain circumstances.

Most lights are high off the ground so you could be setting yourself up for a fall if you don’t have the correct equipment to access them.

In older houses a lot of lights are not earthed and so could be an electric shock hazard to anyone who touches them, when a fault occurs.

Reset The Circuit Breaker

If all your lights are out and you can’t identify an obviously faulty fitting, turn off all lights in the house and then try resetting the circuit breaker or reloading the fuse.

(Under these circumstances, circuit breakers are a great advantage over fuses because they are so easy to reset while carrying out the testing, compared to reloading a blown fuse each time.)

If the circuit breaker stays on after you reset it, go around the house turning on all the lights one by one.  If there is a faulty light fitting the circuit breaker will probably trip when you switch the faulty light on.

If this happens then you will need to call an electrician.  Make a note of which light is causing the problem and put a piece of tape over the switch to prevent it being turned on again.

Lighting problems can be time consuming to locate because all the lights are usually on one circuit.  Passing on useful and accurate information to your electrician will make their job quicker and easier and therefore cheaper for you.

Water Damage

Water in an outside light fitting is a common source of problems, especially if you have an earth-leakage circuit breaker (safety switch) protecting the circuit.  In this case turning the light off may not solve the problem as the safety switch can still detect a fault and turn itself off.

Heat Damage

Lamps with a screw-in type base can sometimes get stuck in the threaded lamp holder and when trying to screw them out you can actually be spinning the whole lamp holder and twisting the wires around behind it.

This is a dangerous situation as the wires can break or have the insulation damaged which could result in a short circuit, or even an electric shock for the person trying to change the lamp.

The fittings that are more susceptible to this problem are surface mounted spot lights which take an incandescent reflector lamp.  The lamps produce a lot of heat and can weld themselves into the lamp holder over time.

Sensor Lights

Sensor lights can fail due to moisture problems or be affected by a power spike.  This may cause them to not work at all or to stay on all the time.  A damaged sensor light cannot be repaired.  It will have to be replaced.

Rodent Damage

Rodent damaged wiring can be a serious problem in your roof space and may cause noticeable problems with your lights.  Click here for more information.

Old Wiring

Old rubber cable with crumbling insulation could also cause similar problems.  Click here for more information.

Other electrical items that may be connected to the lighting circuit include exhaust fans and sweep fans, bathroom Tastics and air-transfer fans.  If you can’t find a fault with your lights it may be a fan causing the problem.  Smoke detectors are also connected to your lighting circuit but do not generally cause a problem with lights tripping.

If you can’t locate and remedy the problem yourself, call an electrician as soon as possible.  Don’t attempt any electrical repairs yourself.

You don’t need to go to the expense of an after hours callout if your power points are still working.  You can get light from any lamp that can plug into a power point and that may be enough to get you by until an electrician can attend.

Be very careful with candles as they do present a higher risk of fire.  LED torches and lamps are reasonably cheap to buy and don’t use a lot of battery power so you should have a couple handy in case of power faults anyway.

Whatever you lighting fault, Mance Electrical can provide free advice and prompt service in Launceston and surrounding areas.