I am a 23 year old woman, I live by myself but am not afraid of DIY. The other night I went to turn my outside light on an it flipped the circuit, I went to flip the circuit breaker back on but it wont let me it just turns back to the off position immediatley. Do I need to call someone in to look at it or can I fix it myself?

Emma Corns, March 2009

Make sure you switch off the outside light at the wall switch - and take out the bulb for good measure - then try resetting the breaker.

If it still trips then you may have a another bulb (switched on but not working) somewhere else on the same circuit that has failed with broken bits of fillament fallen across the terminals inside causing the trip - not unusual on upwards pointing bulbs.

Switch off and or remove all bulbs on the same circuit (all at once or one at a time or a few at a time) and try to reset the breaker again. If it now trips then perhaps you should call a sparky.

Good luck...take care...

Peccavi, March 2009