Light switch warm, buzzing or scorched? Leave it off
A plain switch that feels warm, buzzes, crackles or has brown marks around it usually has a loose or failing connection behind it. Turn the light off and leave it off, and switch off at the main switch if it's safe to reach. If the burn marks, smell or crackling are at the switchboard itself, don't touch it: ENA says to contact your local lines company straight away. Smoke or flames means getting everyone out and calling 111.
Fixing a light switch that's playing up
Light switches wear out. The mechanism goes sloppy, the contacts pit, and in older homes the cable behind the plate may be well past its best. An electrician isolates the circuit, checks the connections and the cable, and replaces the switch if that's all it needs.
Replacing a light switch is low-risk work, so the electrician must give you an Electrical Safety Certificate (ESC). If they find rubber-insulated or cloth-covered cable behind it, that's a bigger conversation, and old wiring explains why.
How should you plan new lighting?
Start with what happens in each room, not with the fittings. Kitchens need light on the bench rather than behind you. Living rooms suit a few softer sources on separate switches. Bedrooms want a switch you can reach from the bed.
Settle the switching early. Two-way switches at the top and bottom of the stairs, a switch by the back door for the outside light, and dimmers in the lounge are easy to plan in and fiddly to add later.
If you're renovating, get the electrician in before the plasterboard goes up. Running cable through open framing is quicker and tidier than threading it through finished walls, and it leaves you more choice about where lights go.
Dimmers, LEDs and smart switches
Not every LED lamp works with every dimmer. A mismatched pair can flicker, hum or refuse to dim smoothly, so ask the electrician to choose the dimmer and the lamps together rather than buying them separately.
Smart switches need the right wiring behind them, and some need a neutral at the switch, which many older homes don't have. That's a quick check for an electrician before you buy a box of them. If lights already flicker, flickering lights runs through the usual causes.
The paperwork, and the RCD rule for new circuits
The Electrical Workers Registration Board (EWRB) says every piece of prescribed electrical work needs an ESC. Adding lights, extending a lighting circuit or running a new one is general work, which means a Certificate of Compliance (CoC) too. Lighting jobs aren't high-risk work unless they come with mains work or a higher-capacity switchboard.
New lighting circuits that start at the switchboard need RCD protection, WorkSafe says. That's the device on your board with a test button, which trips the circuit when current strays somewhere it shouldn't. If the board has no spare RCD-protected space, a new circuit may mean some board work as well.
What a homeowner may do, and what's licensed
You can
- Decide where lights and switches go, and mark them up before the electrician arrives.
- Choose fittings, lamps and dimmers, and check with the electrician that they'll work together.
- If you own and live in the home, the law allows narrow, unpaid homeowner work such as replacing an existing light switch or light fitting with the circuit fully disconnected. It's never allowed in a rental, and we'd still leave it to an electrician.
Leave to a licensed electrician
- Adding lights or switches, or extending a circuit, and connecting any new wiring to the supply.
- Anything at the switchboard, including new lighting circuits and their RCDs.
- Lights in bathrooms and outside, where the EWRB recommends homeowners don't replace fittings at all.
- Any lighting work in a rental, whoever owns it.
What the quote should list
- Each light and switch, and where it goes.
- Which lights are on dimmers, and the dimmer and lamp types.
- Whether a new circuit is needed, and the RCD that will protect it.
- Who supplies the fittings, and what happens if your choice doesn't suit the ceiling.
- Making good: holes patched, or left for your plasterer.
- The certificates you'll get: an ESC, plus a CoC for new or extended wiring.
How we'd plan it
We'd walk through the house in the evening with the electrician and decide the lighting room by room, with the switching and dimmers settled before anything is bought. If a switch is already warm or crackling, we'd get that fixed first and plan the rest afterwards.
Want a specialist to sort it?
Tell us the job and your postcode. We match the licence-checked local electrician who does this kind of work, and they call you. No ring-around, and your number goes to them alone.