Lighting circuits are simple and straight forward. Consisting of
a switched active connected to a filament and unswitched
neutral.
However the circuits can be looped. through a switch, lighting
fixture or terminal box. A switch can have two wires one
active and one to the light or three one active from the supply
one active loop wire to a second switch and one to the light. A
looped active or neutral can also go from light fixture to light
fixture or from junction box to junction box.
This means that a loose connection in one room can affect a
number of rooms on that loop but not others on a different loop.
Use a voltmeter not a neon tester to check the active and neutral
loop.


"Smitty Two" wrote in message
news
In article .com,
" wrote:

We have remodeled our home recently, we have a room where the lights
are not coming on. It is all new wiring. I tested the sockets to see
if there is a live current when light switch is on and no current when
off and that seems to be okay. I thought maybe the bubs were bad but
no the problem either.Do you think some wires are wrong on one of the
canned lights somewhere or what can be causing the lights to not go
on?

Thanks in advance?

If the fixtures are old, the center tab may be collapsed so that it
doesn't make contact with the bottom of the bulb.

More likely, something's simply wired incorrectly. A meter could tell
you that if you knew how to use it. But, there's a significant
difference between current and voltage. Without some fundamental
understanding of that, a multimeter is almost useless at best, worse
than useless at worst.

Here's a fun self-test. Connect your voltmeter to a working light
switch, one probe on each wire or screw. Measure the voltage when the
light it on, and again when it's off. If you can explain your
experimental results, you're qualified to do some basic troubleshooting
of electrical issues around the house.