Hi I'm Mat from eSpares, in this video I'll be showing you how to change
a household electrical light switch.
Before we begin make sure that the switch is working.
And safety first: All electrical circuit work should be carried out by competent persons
and in accordance with any regulations.
If you are in any doubt do contact a qualified electrician before doing this fix.
The very next thing you need to do before working on the light switch
is to isolate the circuit by tripping the relevant fuse at your fuse board.
And do make sure that while you are working on the light switch
that no one comes and reset that fuse whilst you are working.
The very next thing I need to do is to remove the front of the switch plate
by undoing these two screws.
With the screws removed from the lights switch I am just going to ease out the cabling from the wall
by pulling on the fascia ever so slightly.
One to show you exactly what's inside the light switch,
but also I want to double check there's no electrical current in the switch at all
And to check that I'm going to be using a multimeter to measure across the wires here
so I'm gonna put one probe on the earth wire you see there's a little bit of insulation
which should hold the probe nicely in place like so.
Then use the other probe to check the live wires.
The reading on the meter should not change and should have this on the highest AC setting available
on the multimeter.
Once the connections are checked and you have made sure there's no electrical power on the lights switch
you can then undo the wires and replace the light fascia.
Before I removed the wires it's just worth pointing out
that these are marked as L, L1 and L2.
So when you are replacing the front part of the light switch make sure these wires go
in exactly the same place on your new fascia for your light switch
let's start by undoing 'L' first.
Once disconnected make sure enough copper exposed I'm then going to put 'L' into the same position
on our brand new chrome light switch fascia.
You might have to undo the screws on your new light switch first.
Once 'L' is in place I can then do the same with 'L1' and 'L2'.
With all the live wires connected it's essential you give them a little tug to ensure that they are fitted correctly.
Once you're happy what your next need to do is to connect the earth wire.
Because we had a plastic switch before
it was not necessary that the earth wire was connected to a terminal
where as here we have a chrome front for the light switch it means that gonna
have to connect the wire to this terminal here.
So we have a very long piece of insulation covering the copper wire keeping it safe.
I'm just going to swap that with a shorter pieces of insulation so there's just enough copper exposed
to connect to the terminal.
With the earth wire now in place it's just a case of feeding the wires back into the switch
making sure you don't pinch any.
You can then screw the front of the switch into place.
With the screws firmly in place make sure that you reset the fuse at your fuse board
to ensure that the switch is working correctly.
And there we have it one new light switch fitted.
Remember spares and accessories for all the appliances around your home
can be found on the eSpares website .
Thanks for watching.