While trying to take out a broken lightbulb out of the socket in our ceiling fan, I managed to blow a wire or something (I know nothing about electrical work, clearly!). The circuits are all fine and on, but the fan/light fixture won’t work, which means that I probably fried the wires leading to the wall switch. I was hoping someone would have recommendations for a.) fixing this problem myself or b.) a handyman or electrician to handle this simple job.

I’m in the Ft. Greene/Clinton Hill area.


Comments

  1. Does your fan have a custom dimmer wall switch? Might have blown that. Also double check the breaker. May look like its still live but not actually. Turn it completely off and then back on.

  2. first thing you need is to buy a cheap 4 way electric circuit tester probe like:
    http://www.shop.com/op/~Gardner_Bender_GET_213A_4WY_Electric_Probe_Tester-prod-33486228-43781746?sourceid=3

    never do any electric work without a probe

    test the at the switch, test at the connection to the fan

    you are more likely to have shorted the fan than to have burned through your live/neutral current wires (black should be live, white neutral if your probe shows 220v then you have live current on both wires which is bad for regular hookups)

  3. You could have damaged the fan – don’t jump to the conclusion that you damaged the wires. Take off the fan/light fixture – making sure that the breaker to that circuit is off. If you don’t know which breaker, turn off all the breakers. Then remove fan and put in a simple (new) ceiling light fixture. if that turns on, then your problem is your light fixture, not the circuit.