An overhead light fixture provides illumination without taking up floor or table space. To install a light fixture in a drop ceiling, assemble supplies from a hardware store and tools commonly found around the house. You must know turn the electricity off in the room where the light fixture is being installed. No special mechanical skills are needed.
Instructions
1. Trip the circuit breaker at the fuse box to discontinue electric power to the room with the drop ceiling.
2. Place a ladder beneath the drop ceiling. Raise one of the ceiling tiles so you can peek into the ceiling's crawl space. Aim the beam of a flashlight into the crawl space to locate an electrical junction box connected to the ceiling. Replace the tile. Raise the tile beneath the electrical junction box. Pull the tile out from the sides of the slats that crisscross the ceiling.
3. Place the tile face down on a work table. Place the base of the light fixture on the center of the tile. Draw a circle on the tile around the base of the light fixture with a pencil. Place the light fixture aside.
4. Cut out the circle with a utility knife. Smooth the inside edges of the circle with the edge of a piece of fine-grit sandpaper.
5. Place the light fixture on the work table with the base facing up. Hold the tile with the side that faces the floor above the fixture's base. Push the base of the light fixture through the hole in the tile.
6. Strip 1/2 inch of insulation from the ends of the wires attached to the base of the light fixture, using the wire strippers.
7. Wind the exposed ends of the wires attached to the light fixture around the exposed ends of the wires attached to the electrical junction box in the following manner: the black wires together and the white wires together. Place a screw-tab connector on each pair of twisted wires.
8. Loosen the single screw at a corner of the electrical junction box with a Phillips screwdriver. Wind the exposed end of the remaining wire from the light fixture around the screw. Tighten the screw.
9. Turn a metal screw through the top and bottom of the light fixture and into the top and bottom screw holes on the electrical junction box, using a Phillips screwdriver.
10. Push the tile up the length of the fixture until it is even with the other tiles. Angle one side of the tile into position in the space it originally occupied. Angle the other side of the tile so that it is also in the space originally occupied.
11. Screw a light bulb into the socket of the light fixture. Place the ladder aside. Return the electric power at the fuse box.
Tags: light fixture, electrical junction, base light, base light fixture, drop ceiling