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Hi, hoping someone can help me out. My house is old - built in the 1950s. When I moved in we had a 110, small electric box crammed full of wires, no room left or new circuits. One day, a short blew out one of the power outlets and took out about 3 rooms of outlets and lights. I couldn't get them back on no matter what I tried. I called an electrician. He couldn't figure out exactly what happened or why, but he bypassed some old wire in the basement and re-established power to the rooms. We then replaced the breaker box with a 200 service upgrade with a lot of room and everything looks much better. Over the past few days strange things started happening. A light in the bathroom is on constantly, the switch doesn't turn it off. I know what breaker that room is on, but not even turning off the breaker turns off the light. Also, other lights and outlets on the two breakers next to the breaker the bathroom is on started to randomly fail or flicker. I think all three breakers might be tied together somehow.
Does anyone have any ideas or things I could try?
I might call another electrician -again, but being in the middle of COVID and over a foot of arctic snow and ice hell right now I'm hoping I can figure it out without trying to find someone. Thanks in advance.
Sounds like something shorting out. I wouldn’t mess with it unless you are very comfortable...better dig out your driveway and call a licensed electrician.
Tracing the wiring to the fault would be the easy part. Repairing it properly and safely would not be so easy. Hire an electrician, as mark suggested. - I would, and I am cheap and I know how to repair. Spending time dirking around and not fully resolving the problem makes little sense.
Hi, hoping someone can help me out. My house is old - built in the 1950s. When I moved in we had a 110, small electric box crammed full of wires, no room left or new circuits. One day, a short blew out one of the power outlets and took out about 3 rooms of outlets and lights. I couldn't get them back on no matter what I tried. I called an electrician. He couldn't figure out exactly what happened or why, but he bypassed some old wire in the basement and re-established power to the rooms. We then replaced the breaker box with a 200 service upgrade with a lot of room and everything looks much better. Over the past few days strange things started happening. A light in the bathroom is on constantly, the switch doesn't turn it off. I know what breaker that room is on, but not even turning off the breaker turns off the light. Also, other lights and outlets on the two breakers next to the breaker the bathroom is on started to randomly fail or flicker. I think all three breakers might be tied together somehow.
Does anyone have any ideas or things I could try?
I might call another electrician -again, but being in the middle of COVID and over a foot of arctic snow and ice hell right now I'm hoping I can figure it out without trying to find someone. Thanks in advance.
That's very strange the light would stay on when you turn off the breaker to that circuit, even if the switch was shorted. It must be crossed with another circuit. Turn off the breaker like you did, then one by one, turn off the other breakers until you find the one that turns off the light. This gives you an idea what circuit it may be crossed with and what area to look, if the breakers are labeled. An electrician would check connections for all outlets and junction boxes involved with those circuits, he may remove panel cover to breaker box and test voltage on those circuits with one on and one off, to see if one is hot, the other is hot or cold. He may turn off main breaker and pull out each breaker to check the tabs and see they if they make make good connection to the rails and no corrosion or defects to the rail. Some older breaker boxes had problems, look at the manufacturer label inside the breaker box to see who makes it and what model it is. Mine is from the 50's, Crouse & Hinds, some brands of boxes had defects and some old brands of breakers were problematic in some way. Look that up, write down brand and model numbers of breakers and box, google it and see if any of those are trouble prone.
I had one of those weird problems too, last August, the light above the bathroom sink would flicker in a random way, then it spread to the light for the bath exhaust fan, then I started noticing it in the spare bedroom. I took the panel off the box and found 3 breakers were kinda loose and not making good contact, and replaced those. It did not help, even got up in the attic and crawled thru loose fill insulation checking all the junction boxes, and switch boxes in the bathroom. Thing was, this flicker was happening on multiple circuits, it could not be just one bad connection in a junction box or outlet on one circuit. This lead me back to the breaker box, there are 2 separate hot rails that feed the breakers and one neutral/grounding rail. One of the hot rails measured 120 volts, but the other hot rail measured 115 volts. This seemed odd and had been going on for a month or so, then it dawned on me, we had a derecho storm in August about the time this flicker thing started, could one of my power lines be bad leading to the house?, or perhaps a bad power transformer on the pole? Why yes indeed, I called the power company and explained the situation, they came out a few hours later, tested the line and promptly replaced the power transformer on the pole. No more flicker and I have 120 volts on both rails in the box. Problem solved.
Sounds like you have a California 3 way somewhere in the house, they used a shared neutral and both circuits need to be on the same phase. It worked when installed but any changes to the panel can upset it. Modern electricians may not even know how they work as they have not been legal in at least 40 years.
Thanks for all the information. I have my electrician coming out but he's tied up so it will be a while. Mofford makes an interesting point. I know the wires coming to my house off the pole are bare. I'm not sure if that's part of the problem. Both me and my electrician asked my power company to come take a look last year. They never did.
That's very strange the light would stay on when you turn off the breaker to that circuit, even if the switch was shorted. It must be crossed with another circuit. Turn off the breaker like you did, then one by one, turn off the other breakers until you find the one that turns off the light. This gives you an idea what circuit it may be crossed with and what area to look, if the breakers are labeled.
The light is on breaker 4. When I turn 4 off the light stays on. However, if I turn off 2, 3, and 4, the light goes out. Those three all control power to adjoining areas of the house.
Sounds like you have a California 3 way somewhere in the house, they used a shared neutral and both circuits need to be on the same phase. It worked when installed but any changes to the panel can upset it. Modern electricians may not even know how they work as they have not been legal in at least 40 years.
By the description, this ^^^^ is what I was thinking. I found out about this type of circuit on a remodel job- my electrician had no other choice but to wire a 3-way setup this way (the inspector didn’t catch it/HO was notified of the situation).
The light is on breaker 4. When I turn 4 off the light stays on. However, if I turn off 2, 3, and 4, the light goes out. Those three all control power to adjoining areas of the house.
Do you need to have both 2 & 3 off to make the light shut off? With 4 turned off, turn off 3 but leave 2 on. See if the light goes out, if not, turn 3 back on, then turn off 2, does the light go out? Just trying to narrow it down further to 2 specific circuits, a third one may not be involved, but maybe so if it takes all three of those circuits to be off, for the light to shut off. Are you absolutely sure the light is on #4, and not on one of the other circuits?
Anyway, after you cut power to light, check/replace the light switch in the bathroom, you should have a volt meter to make sure the switch wires are not hot before you proceed. If this switch was shorted, it would cause light to stay on, if that's not the problem, check the wiring up top in the light fixture. Eliminate the simple/cheap stuff first. I would probably want to replace all of those breakers in question as they are maybe 5 or 10 bucks apiece for new ones. If that don't work you have to trace down all the wiring in the circuits in question, but what you said about your power lines and non response from power company is what I would work on first. Bare wires outside? Really? That's not safe, get them out there and keep hounding them until they check your lines and transformer.
Don't mess with anything if you do not feel confident. There are many youtube videos on how to change circuit breakers and light switches, but if you make a mistake you could get zapped. Turn off the main breaker before you touch or remove any circuit breakers, check screw connection for breakers, check screw connections for all the wires on ground rail. I have an associate degree in electronics but I'm not a licensed electrician. I did the wiring for my room addition myself including new meter box and conduit for main power lines, from a book on home wiring, I used the correct gauge wiring and did everything by the book, and they gave me a simple test which I passed, my electrical work passed inspection first time around.
The light is on breaker 4. When I turn 4 off the light stays on. However, if I turn off 2, 3, and 4, the light goes out. Those three all control power to adjoining areas of the house.
Clearly, the light ISN'T on #4 breaker- so chalk that up to a miss mark. You should just call the electrician and let him/her handle it. And I would mention the if a “California 3-way” is possible(?)
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