Wonky(?) electric

I live in a Van Metre townhome in Southern Walk and I noticed some wonky behavior in the electric on the second floor living room (sorry, I'm not sure what model I have).

There's an electrical outlet that turns off, when the ceiling lights are turned on.

No kidding.

Is that how it's supposed to work, or do I need to call an electrician to fix this craziness? It seems a bit useful, though... if I plug a lamp into the outlet, the lamp turns off if I turn on the overhead ceiling lights, and when I turn them off, the lamp comes back on.


But still.......

 

Poltergeists.

 

I'd pull the switch out and look at the wiring. See how many wires lead to the switch (there might be leader from the switch terminal to a wire connector so you'll need to look deeper than the switch itself.

Switches don't usually cut electrical connections. I've done some electrical work (not an electrician, though) and have just looked at my electrical wiring book and I can't find anything like this so, to me, this sounds to be faulty wiring or some kind of short. This can be very dangerous so, unless you feel confident about electrical work, get an electrician.

 

I'm not sure if the oddball wiring is in the switch, or in the wall socket.
I'm out of my league, beyond attaching new switches and outlets to existing wiring, which I've been doing for years and years with no troubles. (And this particular circuit was wonky before I changed out the wall switch).

OK, so, know any good electricians? Though, I fear the amount of money this repair will cost me.... Ugh.

 

Well there could be a few things wrong, but in some rooms the light switch is supposed to control an outlet. Usually, it is in a bedroom though.

1. Check the light switch, it could be "shorting out" (Wires touching behind the wall) So when you turn it on/off the wire now has power and shorts out the other. Same thing when the outlet is powered.

2. The switch could be wired wrong, in some locations there are 2 or 3 light switches that control one light. The elec. may have wired it incorrectly, thinking that this is/was that type of light.

3. If it were me, I would turn the power off to that room, take a meter and test the lines to make sure there is no power and then reconnect all of the wires, making sure they are not touching. Some elec. do not use the "screw" connections on the side and use the "push in" connections on the back. Sometimes these connections work there way out and the switch will no longer function.

4. While you are in there, check the ground wire as it may be touching a live wire and totally screwing everything up. The ground wire is the green or just a copper wire with no coating. It usually attaches to the bottom screw on the switch.

Good luck!

 

techno--did you ever find an electrician? I am in need of calling one myself. My toaster oven flipped the GFI by the sink the other day---after i reset the switch, to test that was causing it--i turned on the toaster oven again--and it caused it to trip again. But now i can't reset it. So i put on my electrican hat--replaced the GFI---still no luck. I replaced the outlet the toaster oven was plugged in to---still nothing. I electricuted my self once b/c the panel wasn't labeled well...and i'm done fooling with this. Just curious if you found someone trust-worthy and not a rip off. Thanks!

 

Not yet... been too busy and a little cash-strapped. Soon.

PS. Are you sure it's not the toaster? Plug it into a different gfci and see.... Also some houses are wired weird -- the actual GFCI for a whole circuit may be somewhere else. I lived in a place where the GFCI for all the upstairs bathrooms was on an outlet in the garage.

 

My electrician, Mike Breece is not very expensive and has been in the biz 25 years works privately now. He is super nice and very genial.

He has installed new outlets for me where there weren't any, new pendant lights over my island (2 not even there before!) and moved the outlet wires that the light switch works to the proper place, so the light goes on near the bed!

He installed a dedicated circuit for my new fridge and will be here Friday to do another for the induction cook top, give him a call 703-723-8222 Tell him Heather Bates recommended you to him.

Depending what has happened in your room, he might need to cut small squares in the drywall to get to the wires, but Ronald Jiminez can patch those right up for you. 703-935-0551

 

I may do that, thanks. Small holes are no problem -- cut a few myself running cable and ethernet to a room without any, and can patch a fair drywall hole myself as long as Mr. Breece cuts the holes so that I can re-use the removed plugs as patches.

Thanks for the tip!

 

Brassy---i wrote down Breece's number yesterday and plan on calling him today actually. I saw his name pop up a few times on this forum.

It's a crazy situation...The Main GFI in the furnace/hot water heater room in the garage is not tripped. The Outlets in the bathrooms all work, all the outside outlets work--it's just these 4 in the kitchen near the sink (the GFI and three around it) that do not work. I replaced the GFI and the one the toaster was plugged into--but i can't get the GFI to reset--pushing any of the buttons does nothing, that's the crazy part. After replacing the two receptacles and electrocuting myself once...i figured enough was enough. The breaker was not labeled as a GFI--which is why i got shocked....--Note to self--"Small Appliances" means Kitchen outlets.

Thanks to all.

 

Woopity,
Couple of questions,
1. Do you have a tester? the 3-prong kind the has 3 LED's to tell you if you have a fault. If so try this, wiring the GFI without connecting the wires to the other outlets. Then plug in the tester, what do you see? If all green lights, then wire the next outlet then test. If all green, then proceed to the next one, and so on and so on.

GFI's are usually wired first in a curcuit so that they protect all of the outlets that come after it.

If you don't have one go to Home Depot and get one and then you may be suprised by some of the findings when you test the rst of your house.

2. Did you test the ground wire and make sure it is not "shorting out" with another wire? Sometimes, when you push the wires back into the box the ground wire will hit the screws on the side and cause a ground fault.

3. How are you making the connections on the outlet? Are you using the screws or the "push ins" on the back? If using the push in, I would suggest that you remove them and use the screws. The electrians who built my house used the push ins becasue they are easier to use, but if you hire an electrician the will use the screws becasue they don't want to come back. (learned this by the electrian who wired my house and had to come back after a short was found and a Loudoun Co. inspector who had inspected my basement after I wired it while finishing it.)


Good luck.

 

All--thanks for the input. Mike Breece came by today (less than 24 hours after i called him)---he was great. Turns out that an outlet in my DINING ROOM is on the same circuit as the 4 outlets by my sink (with a room in between---THANKS VAN METRE)...and the last outlet on the circuit had a wire loose. Three Cheers for BREECE!

FYI--if you live in a Van Metre Broadmoor townhouse (or any VM house for that matter)...if something is goofy with any outlet---check it out). While i had him here, he also replaced another outlet that was goofy and wired kinda stupid. Go buy yourself a 3 dollar tester at Home Depot or Lowe's and verify all is good. i found a few outlets not 100% in my house.