Why this wiring: 1956 house

[pitterpat]

Why this wiring: 1956 house FOUND CORRECT BREAKER!

7:23PM 03/02/13 NEWS FLASH: Found the correct breaker; see post 13 for answer!! Sorry for the bad post but thanks for the responses 7:23 03/02/13

I am wondering why my 1956 house is wired this way? I installed a ceiling fixture today to an existing ceiling box in the kitchen. There was a fixture there before I moved in, but by the time I bought the place almost 13 months ago the fixture was taken down when the previous owner's son had his guys remove the wallpaper and paint. So this was not a new box that was put in.

I wanted to turn off the electric to that box so I started turning off breakers in the box trying to find the correct one. I had mapped all of the breakers earlier last year but I thought I had just missed the switch that went with that ceiling fixture. Well after turning off every breaker (yes, I kept track of which ones I had turned off) I still did not have that one off yet. So in frustration and not wanting to go through it again, I turned off the main breaker and guess what? The main breaker is the breaker that controlled that switch. WHY? Why would this house be wired with the main breaker controlling that switch and I don't think it controls any other switches or outlets?

Is this so that you could turn off all the other breakers and still have that one switch and the light it controls on?

 

[cdseven95]

If only the main breaker turns it off that means it is protected at that rating..

 

[Murphy4570]

Somebody wired that puppy to 200 amps!

 

[pitterpat]

Somebody wired that puppy to 200 amps!

No, it is only a 100 amp house.

 

[pitterpat]

What now? I can go back out and track all of the breakers now that I have a light fixture up there. eh?

 

[cdseven95]

Pull the cover off the panel and see if you have anything tagged into the main.

 

[signcrafter]

The main breaker kills power to all the other breakers. When you flip the main it shuts power off to everything. Then each smaller breaker shuts off different circuits. I highly doubt that light is on just the main breaker. You can check by opening up the panel cover and in the lugs with the big wires coming in from outside sill be some 12-14ga wires. My guess is it's on a smaller breaker somewhere that you missed when turning them off and on. Instead of flipping one at a time shut ALL the individual breakers off(except the main) including the 220 breakers, at the same time and see if that light is still on. My guess is it won't be on. Someone could have pulled the power off one leg of a 220 circuit to wire up that light so check things like stove breaker and dryer. I have a breaker sniffer that you plug into an outlet or light socket and then go to the panel and run it over the breakers and it beeps at the right breaker. About 30-40 bucks and pretty accurate. Otherwise install an outlet to the wires and plug in a radio really loud and go to the panel and flip breakers until it goes out.

 

[Hiball]

I guess I'm not following your logic... Did you turn off every breaker outside of the main and it didnt kill that circuit? I'm curious to how you could wire up a circuit off the main, unless you doubled up on the connection.. I'm no electrician... But my gut tells me you missed breaker.

 

[Higgins]

OK, Try the breakers again! Start with one, and then turn another off, till ALL the breakers are OFF. - Hopefully you light will be OFF!

Now in the event the light is still ON, you may have a breaker that hasn't shut off, even if you've turned the breaker OFF.

IF your comfortable, remove the panel cover, and using either a buzz stick, or a digital VOM, check each of the breakers with the power off!

In the event you still have power, by any chance, is there another smaller electrical panel some where in the house???

 

[tdkkart]

Now in the event the light is still ON, you may have a breaker that hasn't shut off, even if you've turned the breaker OFF.

This is my guess......

 

[malibu101]

I seen this. One breaker at a time and the light never went off.

In my house some previous guy had a box where 2 seperate 120V circuits where in. The hots from 2 seperate circuits (the same phase) were tied together in there.
So, both breakers had to be off to kill the circuit.

Of course this was fixed, but it was odd when after running all the breakers one by one the light never went off.

 

[kossuth]

I seen this. One breaker at a time and the light never went off.

In my house some previous guy had a box where 2 seperate 120V circuits where in. The hots from 2 seperate circuits (the same phase) were tied together in there.
So, both breakers had to be off to kill the circuit.

Of course this was fixed, but it was odd when after running all the breakers one by one the light never went off.

I will bet this is what's going on here. I'll bet you have two hots tied to the same circuit someplace and it is reverse feeding. Not good, gotta find puppy. So I would turn off all the breakers except the main and turn them on one by one until the circuit is hot. If you have a multimeter I would then see if you have voltage on any of the off breakers.

 

[pitterpat]

NEWS FLASH: I was wrong....I found the correct breaker...FINALLY, after I installed the fixture I went back to the breaker box and started flipping breakers again.....with the fixture on I flipped until that light went out.

Sorry for the bad post!

 

[Higgins]

Great News! You found the problem and it's fixed!!!!

 

[RECox286]

**** happens...

 

[Kevin C]

Was it the 19th breaker?

Painful but the intro lyrics seem to fit pretty well.

 

[Kevin54]

Not a real safe practice, but when I've had to find the correct breaker on a circuit, I'd leave all of them on and short out the one I need. It pops the breaker you need. And no, I don't condone doing it, but I was in a pinch with no radio and no one around. It sure beat making multiple trips up and down the stairs to the basement.

 

[Falcon67]

Not a real safe practice, but when I've had to find the correct breaker on a circuit, I'd leave all of them on and short out the one I need. It pops the breaker you need. And no, I don't condone doing it, but I was in a pinch with no radio and no one around. It sure beat making multiple trips up and down the stairs to the basement.

At a plant I used to work for, there was a plug in the break room behind the fridge. The maintenance helper needed to work on it, could not find a breaker for it. So he fashioned a jumper and did that little trip trick. Except there was no breaker. Knocked him about 10', blew the plug to smithereens, nearly caught the wall on fire. Had some wiring fault, no breaker and tied into some super big humper panel in the back of the building. It did take out something back there as part of the plant got real quiet. Took like 4 electricians to follow some bitty 1/2 conduit all over an 80,000 sq/ft building to find where that stupid wire went.

 

[Kevin54]

At a plant I used to work for, there was a plug in the break room behind the fridge. The maintenance helper needed to work on it, could not find a breaker for it. So he fashioned a jumper and did that little trip trick. Except there was no breaker. Knocked him about 10', blew the plug to smithereens, nearly caught the wall on fire. Had some wiring fault, no breaker and tied into some super big humper panel in the back of the building. It did take out something back there as part of the plant got real quiet. Took like 4 electricians to follow some bitty 1/2 conduit all over an 80,000 sq/ft building to find where that stupid wire went.

Believe me, I don't make it a habit of doing that.

 

[madosta]

When I was in systems/networking I was mounting a new IP time clock to some drywall in a break room, fished some Cat5e and romex down to an old work box, there might have been two I don't recall. But when I got to the closest junction box and opened it up, I couldn't find the breaker right away. Ended up looking in the first panel, found the one that fed the circuit, turned it off, checked the circuit, still live. Went to the panel, pulled the breaker out still hooked up and STILL LIVE.

Called the douche electrician that was just in there (working on something else) to fix it, and he ended up cutting my romex short. Needless to say we never used him again. Such a jack wagon.