Electrical question trying to put up a bar light in my bathroom?

Question

im trying to hang a bathroom bar light and i have never played with anything electrical before. there is an old fixture hanging over my sink now and i want to put up a new one. there are two wires connected to it. looks pretty simple. im scared that i might hurt myself. so i wanted to come on here and ask a couple things before i disconnected it. the light over the sink you have to turn on and off with its own switch. should i turn off the fuse for the bathroom before i disconnect the old light? since it has its own power can i disconnect it with the main bathroom light on?

Answer 1

YOU SHOULD ALWAYS DISCONNECT THE POWER BEFORE DOING ANY  ELECTRICAL WIRING.JUST REMEMBER IT IS THE BLACK WIRE THAT WILL HURT YOU.ALSO,MAKE SURE YOU USE WIRENUTS AND GOOD TAPE.

Answer 2

you cannot trust the tha last person wired according to accepted colr codes. pul the fuse

Answer 3

You need to turn the power off to the bathroom at the circuit breaker.  You also need to VERIFY that there is no current in the wires, before touching any bare wires!  (Ive run across a couple of situations where power was taken from the other side of the wall... and turning off the bathroom did NOT disconnect ALL the power IN the bathroom, lol.  Fortunately, I was using a multimeter, and discovered this BEFORE I got zapped, lol.

Now, something to point out here..... if the old unit has its own switch...it probably does NOT have a wall switch operating it.  If your new unit does not have a switch, you will need to install one.  This could be done with a pull switch, or a wall switch, depending on the model of light bar you are installing.  (I put a pull switch on a light bar installed over our bathroom mirror).

When in doubt, call an electrician... and if you'd like to learn how to do this type of thing in the future, whatch what they do, and ask questions.  :)

Good Luck