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So, I went to replace a hallway light fixture, but just turning off one circuit breaker would not turn the light off. I had to turn off two separate breakers, or else the light would not turn off. When I looked at the wiring to the fixture there were 4 white wires going in (and the light to the fixture would mean 5 wires spliced together)--the ground wire for the fixture was not attached. Then there was one colored wire to the other part of the fixture. The house was built in 1986, we bought it over a year ago. The current fixture has a CFL in it.
Questions:
1) Is this dangerous?
2) If it is dangerous, how do you sort it out?
3) What do you think they were trying to do?
I ran into this with my current house (one light fed by 2 circuits). Not sure about dangerous though assumed it was, but I removed the unwanted wiring because it's simply Wrong. I'm guessing here, but I suspect it's done out of ignorance, or to try and resolve some other issue.
Any chance this is on a light that's controlled with 2 more more switches (3-way)? That was mine, and it "worked" correctly with 2 circuits, removed one and it stopped working correctly (one switch worked normal, the other would only work when the first was "on") until I rewired it correctly.
In any case, I'd recommend you to separate the two circuits and terminate one if you don't have access/desire to completely remove the wiring.
I ran into this with my current house (one light fed by 2 circuits). Not sure about dangerous though assumed it was, but I removed the unwanted wiring because it's simply Wrong. I'm guessing here, but I suspect it's done out of ignorance, or to try and resolve some other issue.
Any chance this is on a light that's controlled with 2 more more switches (3-way)? That was mine, and it "worked" correctly with 2 circuits, removed one and it stopped working correctly (one switch worked normal, the other would only work when the first was "on") until I rewired it correctly.
In any case, I'd recommend you to separate the two circuits and terminate one if you don't have access/desire to completely remove the wiring.
Not a 3-way light. But I think the home was used as a duplex at one point, and maybe they did something funky to make that work? There had to always be a light there.--it just doesn't make sense.
It sounds like there's two circuits running through the J-box, but the neutrals of both circuits are tied together.
I would isolate the two in the box- that might fix the problem. The only time I've seen/heard this before is on three/four ways.
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