Home Owners > Do It Yourself

Changing a Light Fitting

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Fred:
We have bought some new light fittings and I am wondering if it is OK to fit these myself.
If I turn off the power and follow the instructions surely it cannot be that difficult.
Can anyone give me any tips or advice please?

Philofacts:
When working with electricity, it is essential that you know what you are doing and how to isolate the circuit you intend working on. 
If you are in any doubt, turn all the electric circuits off at the mains switch.
If you have any doubts about working with electrics, consult a qualified electrician.

Also note that from 6 April 2006, new Building Regulations (Approved Document Part P) were introduced regarding electrical safety in the home.
If a householder wishes to carry out notifiable electrical work, then they must notify Building Control before starting.
Building Control will then arrange for the work to be inspected and tested and will charge a fee to cover the costs incurred.

Notifiable work includes: new installations, house re-wires, and the installation of new circuits, additions to existing circuits in kitchens, bathrooms, outdoors and in other special locations. A certificated competent person must carry out this work.

There are some areas what are not notifiable at the time of writing:
The following types of work are non-notifiable:
 Replacing accessories such as socket-outlets, control switches and ceiling roses.
 Replacing the cable for a single circuit only, where damaged.
 Re-fixing or replacing the enclosures of existing installation components.
 Providing mechanical protection to existing fixed installations.
 Installing or upgrading main or supplementary equipotential bonding.
 Work that is not in a kitchen or special location and does not involve a special installation and consists of:-
    adding lighting points (light fittings and switches) to an existing circuit - adding socket-outlets and fused spurs to
    an existing ring or radial circuit.

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