An old is dangerous and you should remove it. Replace an old lighting fixture that's attached to an electrical junction box in a drop ceiling with one purchased from a hardware store or home and garden supply shop. You will need a few household tools but no special electrical skills.
Instructions
1. Trip the circuit breaker that supplies power to the room that has the old lighting fixture -- if you have fuses in the fuse box, remove the appropriate fuse instead.
2. Place a ladder beneath the lighting fixture. Raise the ceiling tile from around the light fixture and angle it onto the top of the tile to its left. Release the tile.
3. Unscrew the light fixture from the electrical junction box it is attached to -- use a Phillips screwdriver to do this.
4. Pull the light fixture off the electrical junction box. Remove the screw tabs holding the twisted pair of wires together. Place the tabs in your pocket for later. Unwind the wires from each other. Dispose of the light fixture in an eco-friendly way.
5. Twist the exposed ends of the wires attached to the replacement light fixture around the exposed ends of the wires attached to the electrical junction box in the following manner: the black wires from the fixture and from the box together; the white wires from the fixture and from the box together; the remaining wires from the fixture and from the box together (this is the "ground"). Twist a screw tab over each pair of twisted wires.
6. Place the light fixture against the electrical junction box. Screw metal screws through the pre-cut holes in the fixture and into the pre-cut holes in the electrical junction box -- use a Phillips screwdriver to do this.
7. Insert a bulb into the light fixture. Pull the ceiling tile back over the light fixture. Restore the power to the electrical junction box.
Tags: light fixture, electrical junction, fixture from, lighting fixture, wires from, fixture from together