Strange home wiring problem (mud curse?) (1 Viewer)

[scottm]

look Scott, i will not touch that, you will just have to get the homeless man.


you keep speaking of a short, if there is a short and breakers are not tripping, that is a fire hazard!

Did I mention it's between two churches? Perfectly safe.

Would a short act like this? Not a dead short certainly, but some kind of high-resistance short maybe, like a staple through both wires. But the circuits don't cross anywhere, they go in opposite directions from the panel box. The doorbell circuit is an odd possibility, I'll disconnect that and see if the problem goes away. I keep going back to the doorbell circuit. When I unhooked the fume hood wires, the doorbell stopped buzzing as soon as the fume hood wires parted from the incoming wires. There is something suspicious about that. The fume hood and doorbell transformer are the only things on circuit #13.

 

[yooper]

Did I mention it's between two churches? .....When I unhooked the fume hood wires, the doorbell stopped buzzing as soon as the fume hood wires parted from the incoming wires. There is something suspicious about that.

 

[toy4xfun]

very interesting, check the white wires from each circuit, to see if they land under the same terminal and get back to me.

 

[scottm]

PO died, son is selling the house. Not sure if she died in the house...

 

[agomez]

well s*** there's your problem better call ghostbuters...

 

[scottm]

very interesting, check the white wires from each circuit, to see if they land under the same terminal and get back to me.

Will do. I'm not excited about going through and tightening all the terminals in a live panel. I've done it before in big industrial 480V panels, but I was young and stupid and following the practice of the electricians who were training me.

 

[toy4xfun]

did you try capping the wires on the hood circuit and turning the breaker back on and see if the door bell works?

 

[toy4xfun]

buy an insulated screw driver!

 

[toy4xfun]

also remember voltage hurts, amperage kills

 

[scottm]

The doorbell works fine, didn't when it was buzzing. I have the circuit off for the doorbell at the moment.

I have insulated screwdrivers, just being a wimp, and very respectful of electricity. I'll go through everything tonight, I didn't have a lot of time to investigate last night, and my son-in-law was paying me with Guiness, which I'm not really fond of, but felt compelled to drink. So I guess he already has an electrician working for beer.

Thanks for the advice.

 

[toy4xfun]

also unplug the microwave or what ever is plugged in to that outlet, and retest, that is after you undo the doorbell transformer off that breaker, and test.

 

[scottm]

also unplug the microwave or what ever is plugged in to that outlet, and retest, that is after you undo the doorbell transformer off that breaker, and test.

The microwave is on order, should be here today, but I'm not installing it 'till I figure this out. I'm half expecting the doorbell circuit to be live after I unhook it, anything is possible now, so I'll be testing every wire even if it appears to be hooked to nothing.

 

[yooper]

 

[NaterGator]

 

[sparkplug]

stalker

 

[Jman]

Wow. And you've read all those threads, too.

 

[fsusteve]

Did I mention it's between two churches? Perfectly safe.

Would a short act like this? Not a dead short certainly, but some kind of high-resistance short maybe, like a staple through both wires. But the circuits don't cross anywhere, they go in opposite directions from the panel box. The doorbell circuit is an odd possibility, I'll disconnect that and see if the problem goes away. I keep going back to the doorbell circuit. When I unhooked the fume hood wires, the doorbell stopped buzzing as soon as the fume hood wires parted from the incoming wires. There is something suspicious about that. The fume hood and doorbell transformer are the only things on circuit #13.

not ball busting here because I really believe you're going down a scary road.....hire a fxxxing electrician, don't try to think this thing through, you're out of your realm here, hire a fxxxing electrician before something goes up in flames.

 

[-Spike-]

I hope you don't find someone to do that (or any) work for beer (or similar low price) unless it's a friend of yours. That would be seriously taking advantage of someone, and they might smile but they wouldn't be happy about it. Kind of like insulting the cook before you get your food.

 

[gmarshall7]

The doorbell works fine, didn't when it was buzzing. I have the circuit off for the doorbell at the moment.

I have insulated screwdrivers, just being a wimp, and very respectful of electricity. I'll go through everything tonight, I didn't have a lot of time to investigate last night, and my son-in-law was paying me with Guiness, which I'm not really fond of, but felt compelled to drink. So I guess he already has an electrician working for beer.

Thanks for the advice.

I hope you don't find someone to do that (or any) work for beer (or similar low price) unless it's a friend of yours. That would be seriously taking advantage of someone, and they might smile but they wouldn't be happy about it. Kind of like insulting the cook before you get your food.

.....

 

[semlin]

something on one of those circuits is wired on two circuits. it should take an electrician with proper testing gear about 5 minutes to figure out what.