If you want to upgrade your hallway light, you can do so in a few easy steps.
Materials: Screwdriver
Wire nuts
Needle-nose pliers
Adjustable wrench, or ratchet and socket set
- Loosen the screws holding the globe in place on the light, and remove the globe and light bulb.
- Turn off the power to the light at the circuit-breaker box.
- Remove the screws holding the fixture in place, and gently pull the fixture from the mounting bracket. Remove the wire nuts from the wires, and test them to be sure the power is off. Then, disconnect the fixture and remove the mounting bracket.
- Attach a new mounting bracket to the junction box. In many cases, the old mounting bracket will use mounting screws that screw in from the bottom. Some newer mounting brackets have open bolts on the bottom (figure A) that are capped with a cap nut.
- Attach the wires to the new fixture based on the manufacturer's instructions (usually white to white and black to black), and secure the connections with wire nuts (figure B). Attach the bare ground wire to the green ground screw on the mounting bracket. (On some fixtures, the neutral wire may be a black wire with a white stripe.)
- Slide the new fixture over the bolts in the mounting bracket (figure C), and secure it by attaching the mounting cap nuts. If the bolts are too long, just keep tightening the nuts; this will force the bolts higher into the mounting bracket.
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