To change a light switch do I have to turn off the electricity?

Yeah, turn it off, you'll just get a nasty shock otherwise. There should be an individual fuse or circuit breaker that just isolates the lighting in your house while leaving everything else live. Turn your light on (via the switch you wish to change) and then pull out the fuses until the light goes out. In the UK, it is almost always on either a fuse with two white dots, or on a 5, or 6 amp circuit breaker. If in doubt, turn everything off via the main breaker switch.



The most important thing to do when changing any electrical item is to make sure that when you re-connect the new item, that the earth or ground wire is connected both in and out of the switch via the earth electrical terminal - this is the most important wire of the lot, as it will stop you getting a shock if the light fitting (or other electrical appliance) malfunctions.



Ignore the answer from Fishing66833 below. Never mind there not being a load. This shows a very basic lack of understanding on his part. If you touch a live terminal, then you become the load and the electricity will pass through you to get to the closest neutral, or earth location. If you want to get into technicalities, then theoretically, it is possible not to get a shock by wearing thick souled rubber shoes, or standing on a non-conducting surface when touching a live terminal - but I would seriously not try this given how inexperienced you are with electricity - just turn the bloody power off before you start! - lol.



Good luck!
To change a light switch do I have to turn off the electricity?
I would, to be safe. Technically, if you remove the light bulb so there is nothing to cause a load, you might be able to do it without a high degree of being shocked. But you'd still need to be careful not to let the hot wire on the switch touch anything. I've done it, but it makes you sweat from the tension. I never work on energized circuits unless they just can't be shut off. I would recommend you not only turn the power off to the switch's circuit, but find some way to verify it is dead after you shut it off. I do it as a habit, and have seen a lot of less careful guys get a big arc when they worked on something they thought was off. Better to be safe than dead.
To change a light switch do I have to turn off the electricity?
i would.

Usually, the switch is on the phase wire (the other wire is named the neutral wire)

The swtich has two wires, on coming from the fuse board, the other going to the load (the light). the first one is always energized so you don't want to be touching it.

open the breaker for that circuit or remove the fuse.

Some people also put a note there so that if another room is on the same circuit, no one comes and put it back while you are changing the switch.



to change a light bulb, you usually only need to turn the switch off. it's only a problem if : the switch is wired incorrectly on the neutral wire instead of the phase wire AND you touch the contact in the bulb holder.


If you have to ask the question, are you really the right person for the job?! Of course you must switch the electricity off! If I were you, I'd get an electrician to do the job - you don't sound like you know what you're doing!
110 V won't kill you unless you have heart complications but don't trust it being you have never done this before. Even low voltage has been known to kill. Sooo yea, turn off the breaker.
yes or you might end up with a perm lol ..or. you would be like that car on grease ELECTROFYING GREASE LIGHTING and propably get the shock of your life lol
Yes, but only if you want to live.
yes
yeah, like hell you do!