Master Electrician Dad Teaches Son how to Troubleshoot Broken Parking-Lot Lights, Thoughts?

Got a emergency call. What is it? Parking lot lighting is out. It's winter time. Big parking lot lighting. Okay. [music] There's hundreds of lights there. What's the first thing we're going to do? I'm first going to take a look at the light and see why it's off. First thing you're going to do is see if the breaker is tripped. You want to find out where that circuit is coming from. We see a trip circuit breaker. What's the next step we're going to do? >> We're going to [music] probably try to flip it on and see what happens. We got to see how that wire goes outside. So, we want to look for a junction box. We want to see maybe there's a ground, a handhole, a junction box. Do we want to see a trip circuit breaker or do we want to see circuit breaker that's on and the lights out? What do we prefer as electricians doing troubleshooting? >> I'd rather see the circuit breaker off, >> right? I'd like to see the circuit breaker off, too. That way, we can easily find it, right? We know that it's a short circuit. So, what are the some of the reasons that parking lot lights fail? >> Uh, [music] could be weather. Over time, the ground freezes up, right? The conduit underground could have collapsed due to the weight from the parking lot. So, we want to look for a junction box. If we're fortunate, there will be a splice there. Why is that fortunate if we see a splice there? >> Because then we're looking for loose connection. >> No. So, then we can open it up, go back to the breaker, and see if we've cured the short. So, that's really what this is about. It's detective work. We need to go to the closest point, the closest light fixture, and see if we can get those to stay on. And we keep working our way until we find that short.