Home Electrical Mystery: Need Advice

Ok, first disclaimer: All work done to this house was sub-par at best. Don't assume anyone knew what they were doing.

Here is a picture of what I discovered when I opened one outlet cover and one that was covered with a plastic lid and siliconed into place.



Outlet A seemed to have been installed after the others.

Outlet B was covered with a plastic lid and sealed with silicone before applying wallpaper. Not sure what was there prior. Phone maybe?

Outlet C is the mystery. I had assumed it went to the ceiling fan +light as there is no switch to turn the ceiling fan fixture and light off. You just use the pull chains. I am planning to replace the fan with a box light. So, I take the cover plate off thinking the wires would be spliced together. IOW, they removed a switch and bypassed. No such luck. Wire nuts on the ends. So, safety involved, I test the voltage with my meter. 30VAC I test again. same.

The breaker that supplies power to the lights also controls these wires. Still

So am I seeing some voltage drop due to a load from the fan, parallel vs series situation or am I looking at some hack job?

I am hoping some electrical brewers have seen this situation and could advise me on what to expect.

The plans my include removing everything down to the stud. Which will allow me more understanding.

Thanks.

Brew-Happy

I advise tearing into that wall and doing it up right. Unless you can trace all of that stuff with 100% confidence, you just shouldn't risk it. People have done stupid stuff with their electrical since the discovery of electricity.

the only thing that comes to mind is that there is a stepdown tranformer somewhere on that circuit. ac doesn't lose power that way it would lose amperage not voltage over a long run. if your tearing the wall down thats probably the only way to find out the cause of this mystery

dont feel bad i still have light switches and outlets here that are'nt plugged into the system. or have a couple wall boxes that have nothing running to them.

eriktlupus said:

the only thing that comes to mind is that there is a stepdown tranformer somewhere on that circuit. ac doesn't lose power that way it would lose amperage not voltage over a long run. if your tearing the wall down thats probably the only way to find out the cause of this mystery

dont feel bad i still have light switches and outlets here that are'nt plugged into the system. or have a couple wall boxes that have nothing running to them.

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I spoke to someone yesterday and they had seen switches "bleed" voltage across the contacts. Upon further research, this may be the issue. The problem is I don't know which switch. If they wired the fan to all wires, the switch in the fan could be the culprit. So I will have to disable each switch in the room until I find the bad one. Oh joy, a day of "breaker on, breaker off, breaker on,..."

I agree with all there is a safety issue.

Your thoughts and comments are much appreciated.

Long Shot but I thought I would ask.Do you have a gas log fire place? I seem to remeber a few years back that a company I worked for was shown a model that either controled the log lighting or fan motor with a low voltage switch I can't remember the model (we did't end up using the fireplace) but As I recall it was set up that way so the fire place installer could install and locate the switch without a electrician getting involved.

bigdug said:

Long Shot but I thought I would ask.Do you have a gas log fire place? I seem to remeber a few years back that a company I worked for was shown a model that either controled the log lighting or fan motor with a low voltage switch I can't remember the model (we did't end up using the fireplace) but As I recall it was set up that way so the fire place installer could install and locate the switch without a electrician getting involved.

Click to expand...

No fireplace (Yet ) but good thinking. The real mystery is where did the switch for the over head light (now a fan) end up?

i'll take a pic of the panel in my basement. you'll lyao. or pull out all your hair.