Ceiling light turns on when the power in the home is on, but won't turn it off with the light switch anymore?

Question

Just installed the ceiling light today...installed the same way as the old one, but my light switch in the hallway no longer turns off the ceiling light. Any suggestions? The ceiling lights turn off when I turn on the lighting from my fuse box, but I can't turn it off without shutting off all the lighting in the area via the fuse box.

Answer 1

Hmmm. Don't think you got it installed exactly the same way. It is likely that you wired the hot side of the light to the incoming power not the switched. Those things can be confusing. You'll have to open it up and figure out which wire is switched and which is hot all the time.

Answer 2

seems like you may have messed up the wires in regards to how they interact with the switch. My guess is the power is coming from the fuse box to the fan/ light and then going back to the fuse box by passing the switch all together. Either that or it is traveling down the ground wire. Turn off the breaker, and check your connections again. If all else fails, call an electrician.

Answer 3

You opened your wiring and didn't put it back together right. You have what is called a "switch loop". If you open up your hall switch you will discover only 2 conductors in this box.

What happens is the power is in your light box and the hot wire is the only wire sent down to the switch. When you turn on your light switch, you should create a "dead short" and trip the breaker or blow the fuse, with your current wiring.

You need to take down the light you installed and reconfigure your wiring. When you took down your old light, you probably saw 1 white wire connected to all of the blacks and another single black wire. This is your "switch loop".

To fix this, you need to determine which cable goes down to the switch. Connect the white wire from this cable to the other black wires. After you connect this white wire, you need to mark it with either black electrical tape or a permanent marker. Then tuck this group of wires back into the box.Finally, connect all of your white wires together.

To re-install your new light, connect the ground from your light to the other grounds. Connect the white from your light to the other whites. Connect the single black wire from your switch to your light.

Of course, turn off the power to this circuit before beginning your work and verify that the power is off with a volt-meter.

If you need further assistance, please visit -
http://electricalblog.gilchrist-electric.com

Answer 4

This is very odd. The only thing that I can think of is that the circuit is an 'always hot' circuit. Like one that a smoke alarm or a carbon monoxide alarm uses.
I recommend tracing the house voltage from the fixture box to the switch box. If voltage is present at both spots and switch position changes nothing, you have a faulty switch. Good luck!

Answer 5

Switch off the main switch, and all your lighting switches at home.. pull out all the plug tops from the socket outlets, now separate all wires which were tied together at your trouble light point..now switch ON the main switch and the ONLY one trouble light point switch. With a test pen, test all wires which you had separated before, Only one wire will light up your Test pen, push that particular wire to one side..now you switch off the main switch and the trouble light switch, and tied all the wires together which didn`t lights up your Test pen to make one terminal, and the wire which lights up your Test pen to be a other terminal...Now connect the two terminal to the light, everything will be OK.

Answer 6

either you messed up at the fixture but you say didnt or the switch went bad check the switch

Answer 7

YOU NEED A ELECTRICIAN