How to instantly upgrade your space using light fixtures!

**Installing a light fixture can be a simple and straightforward job but if you don't feel qualified to do this project, please consider hiring a licensed electrician to do it for you**

I have found that the return on investment for light fixtures is HUGE - in your personal home or in an investment property when you want to increase rent. Most of our investment properties have gotten all updated light fixtures and once we learned how to do it, the costs were minimal in comparison to hiring an electrician to do it for us. However that being said, we had one property where we did hire out the fixture work as we had old knob and tube remnants in the walls and there were not proper boxes behind the old light fixtures. This can make things a little more tricky and we are so glad we hired that work out to be on the safe side.

• Turn off the power to the circuit that the light fixture will be connected to. I cannot stress this enough! To do this, locate the breaker that controls the circuit in the main breaker box and switch it off. This is very important for safety so do not skip this step! This is sometimes easier with two people if your breaker box is not labeled.

• Remove the existing light fixture. To do this, unscrew the mounting screws that hold the fixture in place and carefully remove it from the wall or ceiling. Be careful when pulling it away from the wall as some light fixtures have been painted around or caulked. If it is connected, you can use a box cutter to disconnect the seal.

• Connect the new fixture's wires. Connect the wires from the existing circuit to the new fixture's wires, being sure to match the colors for a secure connection. There should be three wires: white, black or red, green or copper. There are a couple of different ways that you can connect wires in the wall or ceiling to the wires in your new fixture: In some cases, you’ll wrap wires around screws to make a connection. In other configurations, you’ll wrap wires from the fixture to wires of the corresponding color in the ceiling, and clinch the connection with wire nuts.

• Secure the new light fixture. Some light fixtures may come with a plate that will be connected to the two screw holes on either side of the box. If you can, connect the plate before connecting the wires. (This is particularly helpful if you have a heavy fixture that will need to be supported while you are connecting the wires.)

• Turn the power back on. Flip the breaker switch back on in the main breaker box and turn on the light switch to test the new fixture.

Installing a light fixture is a simple and easy job that can take less than an hour to complete. With the help of this blog post, you should now have the confidence to install a light fixture on your own. Good luck!