Hello everyone, I'm new around here, especially to Home ACV, a few years or so ago we hired an electrician to check out a lighting issue, long story short we still have that lighting issue, and now i am finding myself in a position where i have the tools and some of the knowledge to get this done. Eventually I'd like to build my own home. I am not new to dealing with electric stuff (For example so i have I have installed an alarm system into my car) so at the very least I have my basic safety knowledge gathered, and the tools (multi-meter etc) I have tried to do as much research as possible before i resort to making a posting like this - but i am clearly on my last leg. I have attached 3 images so you can get an idea of what i am dealing with - I will explain what i have done and what the results are. Pardon my terminology in advanced. I have 1 blue electric box with 3 CABLES going into it. TWO of the wires are 3-conductor cables. ONE is a 2-conductor cable. I used my multi-meter to test for hot voltage on all 3 black wire cables. From left to right with all circuits ON 1 (2 wire-conductor cable) This one looks like someone pigtailed off the black wire in order to power #2, they also pig tailed white in #1 and #2 BECAUSE OF THIS I PIGTAILED #3 WHITE INTO #1 and #2 aswell. This made no difference from what i could tell so i reverted that change. Only #1 and #2 are pigtailed, so please dont let that second photo mislead. 2 (3 Wire) Black wire on this is not HOT at all. Yet this powers the room? - how could this happen? Bad Cable? 3 (3 Wire) Black wire is hot. All wires functional? The second picture with one switch connected is the "Working" Configuration of how this was - i took it apart and removed the other two switches. This is the only LIGHT switch that works at the moment - which is a problem because one of these other ones should be powering the living room light ( I think it is the 2-conductor cable) because I have taken the liberty of taking that light down and reviewing the cabling and i found a 2-conductor cable going to the light fixture in the living room, the ground was not connected. I have connected the 3 way light switch to the #3 Conductor and the result is INSTANT breaker trip. With the #3 conductor disconnected, the breaker does not trip which leads me to believe it is a short. I also have no idea what the dimmer switch was going to as it has never functioned. The problem is - how do i go about further troubleshooting here? is my only option to jump inside the wall and see if i can find something wrong?

Hi all - I have an intermittent problem with an outdoor GFCI circuit. [list] [*]120V circuit, 20amp, main panel mounted GFCI breaker. Line runs to an outdoor circuit. Circuit has an outlet near the back door. About 7 years ago we added an extender box to the outlet near the back door, then rigid conduit to extend the circuit to a small shed about 50 feet away. A portion of the conduit is above ground, along back of house, then it goes underground to the shed, coming up on the side to a j-box, then into the shed to an outlet. [*]There are two external j-boxes with regular weather resistant outlets installed on the portion that is above ground - the outlets are all relatively new I replaced them all last year. ALL j-boxes have rubber seals and the outlet boxes have domed clear weatherproof covers. All of the wiring has been checked multiple times to make sure we have good, clean, solid ground connections. [*]The only loads on the circuit are (a) outdoor 100 watt low voltage lights, (b) small 20 watt outdoor light on outside of shed and (s) a 40 watt fluorescent lamp in the shed. All operate fine. [/list] Problem - whenever we get wet weather such as a heavy rain storm, the GFCI will trip off and will not let me reset it, typically until the weather dries out for a day or so. Then I can reset the breaker and all is fine, sometimes for several months until we have another bout of wet weather. Totally random, sometimes it stays on even when it rains. It seems that very heavy rain or a long period of rain (couple of days) will trip it. It never trips any other time, only when we get some serious wet weather. I've checked, double checked and triple checked all my grounds. I thought about installing a ground bar outside the shed, and running a copper wire to the outlet in the shed (why? I don't know, I tried everything else). It's not a big deal, but an annoyance. Clearly the wet weather is doing something to cause the GFCI to trip, but since everything is sealed, grounded, etc. and the circuit works fine 90% of the time, I am at a loss in terms of trouble shooting this one. Any ideas on what else I should check? Thanks in advance...... Ross