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Ceiling lights will not turn on

1K views 6 replies 5 participants last post by  virusur 
#1 ·
I'm helping my mother-in-law with an electric problem in her home. There are nine light switches in the master bath controlling ceiling lights and fans. They are all controlled by a single 15 amp circuit (part of a double-breaker).

Recently, at the same time, all the lights/fans failed to turn on. I first checked the breaker, it was not flipped. Next I attached a tester to the hot line out of the breaker, it's okay -- turns on and off depending on the position of the breaker switch. All the other breakers test correctly as well.

I removed two of the bulbs from problem ceiling fixtures and tested them in a table lamp plugged into a bathroom outlet and both bulbs worked fine.

Next, I removed the switches from the walls (with the breaker off), removed the wires, and tested them for continuity -- all were fine. With the power back on, I identified which wires were the hot lines and which were the loads (I tested with the ground wire not the neutral). After re-attaching the switches, I tested to make sure that the load sides were dead when switched off and hot when switched on, and they were - almost. My tester is not digital but has a needle. When switched off all the load sides showed a very small amount of voltage going through.

With all the switches re-connected but still hanging out of the walls, I discovered with the circuit power on, if any one of the nine switches is turned on, all the other switches which are turned off, will show 110 volts passing through to the load side. If all nine switches are turned off, none will have power going through the load side.

I'm stumped. I can see that if one light fixture died out, it might effect the others on the same switch. But I can't figure why all the fixtures would not work on that circuit when the switches seem to check out fine.

Thank you for any help.

Marty
 
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#3 ·
Problem is fixed...

Everything is working now, but I don't exactly know why.

I decided to check the wiring on the bath fans, took the cover off one and unplugged the standard two-prong plug from the outlet within the fan unit.

On my way back to the breaker panel I found a 10th switch outside the bathroom, but opposite wall from one of the bath switches. I removed the cover plate and screws holding the switch to the switch-box, moving the switch (and wires) a little. It appears to be the first switch in the light circuit. When I turned the power back on, everything worked. The fan even worked with I plugged it back in.

Was the slight movement of the 10th switch enough to fix things? or perhaps unplugging the fan had something to do with it.

Whatever, after a number of hours of my brother-in-laws time and 6 hours of mine, everything works.

Thank you.
 
#5 ·
Sounds like you have a loose or dirty .joint somewhere
Just moving the wires around has caused it to work again
But it is NOT fixed properly ! And it will fail again.
You need to find what is loose and fix it properly !
If they are backstabs replace them with screw types.
 
#7 ·
Thank you

Thank you for your suggestions. Since I had all the switches out, I did screw everything down. I didn't do anything with the neutrals, but if my mother-in-law has any further problems, that's where I will go first.

I'm retired, but was a laborer and journeyman carpenter in my early working years. Over the years I've occasionally hired out work, but almost always think afterward that I could have done a better job. So, generally I do everything myself and over the years have shoveled a lot of dirt, and built a lot of stuff.

I like this forum, I'll be back.
 
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