Justwannabeme

yeah, girl- worried about an open feed. or power to power from the main to the sub master. your area should have the building code dept. in searchable records, call to find the electrician. since he did the work, the cost rate will be lower for a re-examination SHOULD you need one. politeness goes a long way, do dit do.....

bedroom over a garage should be 5/8 inch fireproof board in garage ceiling too.....safety safety

pig tailing is the good advice. yada yada... good luck!

wyododge

So just to make this clear, you have a circuit #18 (bottom breaker) that when turned off you can re energize with a light switch in the Den.

If this is true... have you identified a breaker that the light switch is protected with? If you have not, then you need to. If this switch is unprotected by ANY breaker, Houston - We have a problem. If it is protected by another breaker then there is a problem, but it can be pretty easily remedied with some labeling, and a bit of detective work. Which you appear to be good at!!! Got your spread sheet, didn't get that you have 1/2 in breakers in 1" spaces (DUHHHHH). Must be a GE panel. Anywho...

First priority, find the breaker that turns off that switch, like right now!!!

And no, it would not have killed him, just PO's him pretty bad.

Shorts

Excellent - thank you I think we might have to start making calls. I'm showing DH this new trick the house does soon as he gets home.



OK


The problem we are going to have is, if it is 14,16 that powers the kill switch I can't shut it off because the subpanel powers my workshop upstairs, the entire front living room, the garage, my master bath and.... d'oh! Hopefully it is a single breaker and not the sub panel power.


Might have to settle for duct taping the switch down


Oh, the Subpanel is breakers 3-8, but 3,4 is a double 50A that powered the hot tub (they pulled the wires from that when they packed out the hot tub.)

Shorts

wyododge

You just want to make sure that switch has breaker protection. That is really, really, really, really..... important.

The switch may not be a big deal, just a nimrod not paying attention. But it also could be a VERY big deal! Most likely there is a breaker that powers it, it is actually kinda hard not to have wiring on a protected circuit by the way panels have been designed since the 70's. But find it!!!

Shorts

Ok.


So I guess to find out I need to:

- shut off 18B breaker and turn on light switches and such on that circuit (to recreate the situation)
- flip on the scary switch to reenergize 18B and turn on 18B lights and items
- flip off circuit breakers one by one until those lights go off

?


Or I could probably turn off all breakers individually except 14,16 then flip the scary switch and see what comes on. Hmm maybe I don't want to know how bad it really is.

What happens if they never go off?

Bark

Not that it would explain the problem but I was wondering if the light switch in the den is a three way switch.

Shorts

ok, results.

- Flipped on lights then shut off 17, 18, 19 and 20 breakers
- Flipped scary switch on and then only the 18B lights came back to life
- Shut off 14,16 breaker (left scary switch on) and 18B lights turned off.
- Turned on 17-20 breakers, then shut off the lights at the switches.

14,16/scary switch will only energize 18B if 18B is OFF.

14,16/scary switch cannot control 18B in any other configuration.

wyododge

Thats where I was heading, Bark. Three way with one wrong leg wired in.

Yes Shorts, turn off 18, flip switch to turn everything on, turn off/on breakers till it turns back off...

wyododge

Pull the plate off the wall switch, pull the switch out of the junction box, and count the screws on it...

Shorts

One screw on the left side (top), two screws on the right (top, bottom).

DH just got home. He's thrilled

wyododge

I believe you have a three way switch mis-wired. Not a big problem, just a long drawn out process...

You are going to find two hot wires out of the three. they should be on separate circuits. Do you have an audible circuit tester??

wyododge

if not get one of these...

Non contact audible circuit tester

Thats the best and safest way to proceed...

wyododge

Here is what you are going to do...

Breakers off...

Remove all wires and wire nut them. Separate them outside of the box. turn on one breaker at a time and hold the audible circuit tester next to each wire. (check the circuit tester for sound at a know working outlet first so the volume is all the way up.

when you flip a breaker and it makes the tester squeal, label the wire with the corresponding circuit number with some masking tape. one of them, should never energize, but if the switch is wired through a fixture it may, so don't freak out... yet.

If you get two independent circuits identified, one should make sense as it should be the one that is supposed to energize the den lights and such. The other line is an open leg and should be wire nutted and taped securely.

One word of caution, some of your lights, and maybe an outlet (if one was switched) may not work. But we can get to that later....

Shorts

Ok. We do not have one of those audible testers. I'll grab one if not tonight, probably tomorrow and then proceed. I appreciate the walk through to help me figure this out

Next mystery, what is this switch suppose to be three-waying???