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All the upstairs lights go out and come back on when I turn on the disposall in the kitchen. They might stay off 3 days or 3 minutes! We ran the disposall to it's own breaker and replaced every light switch and outlet in the house. Then we replaced the rest of the breakers! It still does it! HELP????
lights go off/ stay off- breaker still on?
What is the relationship of the disposal breaker to the lights breaker?
What is the relationship of the feeds leaving the panel?
Location: Sometimes Maryland, sometimes NoVA. Depends on the day of the week
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The disposal should be on its own circuit anyway.
DH, the electrician, says it sounds like there is a short somewhere, especially having things go off and on without tripping breakers. Have you traced it out or had someone come out for troubleshooting? It sounds like you need to bring in an electrician and have this traced out. DH is all for giving advice when he can, but this is one that he says can't be diagnosed online. He is pretty sure you have a short - somewhere. If I recall you live in a very old house, which means it could be anywhere. There could be hidden junction boxes, there could be old wires. Find a competent service electrician who is good at troubleshooting. Don't let them send out a construction/commercial guy who is slow (on work) right now. Not to disparage construction guys, they are good at what they do but a residential service guy will be more experienced in troubleshooting. We've seen this with a plumber we hired recently. They gave us a commercial construction guy who didn't understand residential construction and remodeling. DH was explaining residential framing to him LOL
Last edited by rubytue; 02-25-2008 at 07:46 PM..
Reason: clarity
2 weeks before our buyers were to take occupancy of our house in MI - ALL the lights on 1 circuit in the master bath went out. I had wired the switches (upgraded to the flat toggle switches) myself 2 years earlier - and it was a tight fit due to the number of switches and the size of the box. For 48 hours I did nothing but wire/rewire/rewire those switches. I could occasionally get one or two lights on - but never all of them.
The new owners took occupancy, and out of the deposit money (we lived in the house for 2 weeks after they closed on it - so we had deposit with them for damages) they hired an electrician. Apparently there was a short in the outside GFCI line - and it somehow caused the bathroom lights to not work (no - they were not on a GFCI circuit).
BIZARRO Stuff!!! Electric is great when it works fine - but once shorts happen, they make everything non-sensical.
Get an electrician to find the short !! good luck!
DH, the electrician, says it sounds like there is a short somewhere, especially having things go off and on without tripping breakers. Have you traced it out or had someone come out for troubleshooting? It sounds like you need to bring in an electrician and have this traced out. DH is all for giving advice when he can, but this is one that he says can't be diagnosed online. He is pretty sure you have a short - somewhere. If I recall you live in a very old house, which means it could be anywhere. There could be hidden junction boxes, there could be old wires. Find a competent service electrician who is good at troubleshooting. Don't let them send out a construction/commercial guy who is slow (on work) right now. Not to disparage construction guys, they are good at what they do but a residential service guy will be more experienced in troubleshooting. We've seen this with a plumber we hired recently. They gave us a commercial construction guy who didn't understand residential construction and remodeling. DH was explaining residential framing to him LOL
I was thinking the same, but you know some of those old houses (even some newer ones) share circuits in places that should be dedicated.
Unfortunately, there are a lot of 'uncle billy-joes' out there who think they can re-model or re-run wiring for homes and additions to save a few bucks. But in the long run, those type of jobs arent always covered by homeowners insurance when they burn down because it wasnt done by a licensed contractor.
All the upstairs lights go out and come back on when I turn on the disposall in the kitchen. They might stay off 3 days or 3 minutes! We ran the disposall to it's own breaker and replaced every light switch and outlet in the house. Then we replaced the rest of the breakers! It still does it! HELP????
Location: Sometimes Maryland, sometimes NoVA. Depends on the day of the week
1,501 posts, read 11,753,766 times
Reputation: 1135
Quote:
Originally Posted by Power Surge
But in the long run, those type of jobs arent always covered by homeowners insurance when they burn down because it wasnt done by a licensed contractor.
Yet another reason I insisted we got permits on our latest remodel, even though we are doing most of itl ourselves
Ok, when we turn on the Sinkerator the lights go off.............however, if we walk to the laundry room and turn on the clothes dryer ......the lights come back on! I'm told that sometimes shadetree electricians tap into one side of a 220 outlet to power plugs and lights and such(110).
Any idea how to straighten out this problem?
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Figured it out!
