Help, Strange lighting issue


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Old 03-28-10, 05:10 PM
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Question Help, Strange lighting issue

Ok, here it goes. You may find this hard to believe but somehow (as of last evening) when I try to turn on my tv the lights dimly turn on in my bathroom but if I turn on the light in my bathroom only 1 of the 2 turns on all the way. Also, if i turn on my closet light, it too turns on dimly along with the lights in my bathroom. Then, if I turn on my bedroom lights only 1 turns on dimly and the 2 bathroom lights also turn on dimly with it. So, after I changed out all of my light switches and outlets, I am still having this problem. Any ideas? Strange, I know. Please help! Thank you in advance, K.
 
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Old 03-28-10, 06:01 PM
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Welcome to the forums! The key sentence, which you hid very surreptitiously..."so, after I changed out all of my light switches..." tells us you didn't do it wire for wire. You have wired some of the lighting in series rather than parallel. Can you retrace your steps and look at the light switches that have multiple cables in the box. Let us know when you get to a switch that you question. If you had switch controlled receptacles, then you should have broken the jumper between the halves to make it truly switched. Let us know what you find.
 
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Old 03-28-10, 06:07 PM
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One thing I have come across is that someone used a back connection and a screw connection to tie two wires together instead of making a proper pigtail. Next person to work on it knew even less and didn't match up the wires to the back stabs with the wires that were on the corresponding screws.
 
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Old 03-29-10, 11:01 AM
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Thanks guys, but what you are missing is that I did all of this after the fact. My kids blew the breaker and when I flipped it back on is when the weird lighting issues began and that is when i replaced all of the switches and recepticles.
 
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Old 03-29-10, 12:30 PM
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Originally Posted by preciouskim
Thanks guys, but what you are missing is that I did all of this after the fact. My kids blew the breaker and when I flipped it back on is when the weird lighting issues began and that is when i replaced all of the switches and receptacles.
This may be time to go back to basics. At each light circuit you need to determine if the power comes in at the light or the switch. You will then correctly wire the light switch leaving any additional wires disconnected. Once switch and light are working you then determine what the additional wires if any are for. One way is to determine what isn't working. It is impossible short of writing a couple of pages to detail every likely possibility but if you post specific details of what you have at each light and switch we can help.

Did you determine the cause of the short? It would not have been a badswitch and it is unlikely it was a bad receptacle but it could have been a wire in one of the boxes. When you changed switches and receptacles you may have added a second problem on top of the first. As stated before not breaking the brass tab on a split receptacle is a common mistake.
 

Last edited by ray2047; 03-29-10 at 12:55 PM.
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Old 04-03-10, 11:33 PM
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The problem is its all wired wrong! You need to start all over again and basically redo what you did! There is no way to tell exactly what you have done but you obviously have mixed and matched different circuits up and made the joints up wrong.. Sharing neutrals that are back feeding and switch legs are wrong prob with neutrals made up to them. I dont even know where to begin.. I would call a professional before you completely burn your house down! There is no way to walk him/her through this one without a complete electrical wiring blueprint and that's still gonna be near impossible. CONSULT A PROFESSIONAL ON THIS ONE!!
 
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Old 04-04-10, 12:00 AM
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Originally Posted by preciouskim
Thanks guys, but what you are missing is that I did all of this after the fact. My kids blew the breaker and when I flipped it back on is when the weird lighting issues began and that is when i replaced all of the switches and recepticles.

When you did change the switches and recepetiles did you check all the wirenut connections as well ?? more than half of the time you will find it the wirenut can get loose over the time how old this home is ?

The reason why I need to know the age of the home if this home was built in late 60 to early 70's there is possiblty there is alum branch circuits that need extra step to be carefull.

Merci,Marc
 
 

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