I've found a lot of answers to this question after replacing a light switch but this has happened without any work done to the light.
I have a living room light that is connected to a standard light switch on the wall. No dimmers or anything fancy. Seems like a standard two-wire scenario in the box. Last night when my wife flicked the switch on one of the two bulbs went out. Not terribly unusual for a bulb to go out. When it came time to go to bed though, she found that the switch didn't turn the light off.
I flipped the breaker off and the light went off but as soon as I flipped the breaker back on, the light turned back on as well. I can replace the switch since it looks like it is very old. My only thought is maybe the switching mechanism is no longer stopping the flow of electricity but the fact that the bulb also burned out at the same time has me concerned that somehow we have a short in the walls or something.
Is this as simple as hooking up a new light switch or does it sound like there's more going on?
Best Answer
A "short" as you call it seems unlikely since that should cause the breaker to trip.
As a next step, you should SHUT OFF THE BREAKER, and then check the switch since you already seem to believe that it may be bad. Yes, switches do go bad and so your belief is reasonable at this point. If you have a VOM (Volt-Ohm Meter) checking the switch is simple enough. If not, you really should get one but another approach is to simply change the switch (new ones are inexpensive) and see if that resolves the problem.
If that turns out to be the problem, then you should be able to replace the switch and move on.
Otherwise, more troubleshooting is in order.