Cannot figure out switch/light wiring

[charmed]

I have inherited a house and am trying to fix it up to sell or rent out. Upstairs, there is a switch/light I cannot figure out. I am not an electrician nor anywhere close to it, and am glad I found this forum to be able to ask questions like this.

- There is a switch area with 2 wires coming to it. The one that appears to lead to the power has a black, white, and ground wire. The other in this area has a black, white, red, and ground.
- The light area has 3 wires coming into it. All three have black, white, and ground.

What I don’t understand is if the wire that is supposed to go to the light has a red wire in it, where is that red wire in the light area? It’s not there. So if that wire doesn’t connect the light switch to the light, what does? There are no other switches in that area.

I am very confused. Thanks to anyone in advance for offering advice.

Dawn

[HayZee518]

I'm trying to figure out what you have written. a switch with a black and white connected to it would indicate a switch loop. In the ceiling box you have a hot cable with a black and white, a cable from your switch to the ceiling box and your fixture wires which are also black/white. the hot cable's white connects to the fixture white with a wirenut on it. the black in the hot cable connects to the white of the switch cable with a wirenut on it, the black of the switch cable connects to the black of the fixture. At the switchbox the black and white connect across the switch. the wire with the red wire has me stumped too. if you can take a picture of it - it would be helpful or expalin what you have a little clearer.

[charmed]

Weird electrical

Hmmm okay let's see if I can explain better.

In the upstairs hallway there is an opening for a light switch.

Inside that hole I can see two "wires" (when I say wires I mean two pieces of romex wire).

Wire A has black, white, and ground in it. When I used a voltage tester, this one appeared live.

Wire B has black, white, ground, and red in it. When I used a voltage tester, this one did not register.

Up in the ceiling is the area to hook up a light. I can see three "wires" in it.

Wire 1 has black, white, and ground in it.
Wire 2 has black, white, and ground in it.
Wire 3 has black, white, and ground in it.

Wire 1 is by itself. Wires 2 and 3 are next to each other.

If this were a normal 3-way setup, I would think that I would need to tie the whites from Wire A and B together. Then, the red from B, black from A, and black from B would get attached to the switch.

I will be at the property tomorrow and can take a picture if that would be helpful.

Dawn

[paul52446m]

I have inherited a house and am trying to fix it up to sell or rent out. Upstairs, there is a switch/light I cannot figure out. I am not an electrician nor anywhere close to it, and am glad I found this forum to be able to ask questions like this.

- There is a switch area with 2 wires coming to it. The one that appears to lead to the power has a black, white, and ground wire. The other in this area has a black, white, red, and ground.
- The light area has 3 wires coming into it. All three have black, white, and ground.

What I don’t understand is if the wire that is supposed to go to the light has a red wire in it, where is that red wire in the light area? It’s not there. So if that wire doesn’t connect the light switch to the light, what does? There are no other switches in that area. I am very confused. Thanks to anyone in advance for offering advice. Dawn

Sounds to me like you have a three way. Power comes to the lite box, then one cable goes to one switch. The cable that has a black white and red goes from one switch to another switch. the other cable at your lite box is going to feed power to somewhere else. The second switch is probable at the bottom of the stairs to turn the lite on in the hall up stairs. Check and see if you have one down stairs with a red wire. The 3 wire cable usuals goes from switch to
switch Maybe at one time someone changed the switch up stairs to a single
switch?? later paul

[charmed]

Here is a picture of the light area

The white wires for some reason have electrical tape wrapped around them. I think that means they are supposed to be "coded hot" but I'm not sure how this fits into the whole wiring scheme.

Dawn

[HayZee518]

one white wire in the yellow romex has tape on it. does this go back to the wall switch and is its white wire taped?
one black wire and one white wire is wirenutted together. do you read a voltage from this pair to ground?

[charmed]

Update

I gave up on this for the time being and will have to come back to it at some point. I'm still not sure what to do, however I'm wondering if perhaps since the light is near the attic, that perhaps a wire or two feed into the attic.

I'll continue to investigate it and see what could be the solution here.

Dawn

[Consultsteve]

Switch wire

It is the wire that connects the two switches that allows them to be a threeway light switch system. It supplies power when the switch is off on either side..

consultsteve.com

[HayZee518]

I need a picture at both wall switches. From the ceiling box I can't tell what is connected to any - either switch. The fact that a white wire in the yellow romex has tape on it indicates that that wire is now a hot or switch return. a black from the white romex pair is going to a white, this indicates another switch leg.

[charmed]

More information!

Okay, I think I have more information that will solve this issue.

As I mentioned before, the hallway switch area has one yellow romex with a white, black and ground; white coded hot. Also a yellow romex with white, black, ground, and red; white coded hot.

Directly on the opposite side of the wall (in bedroom #1) there is a yellow romex with red, black, white and ground. Another yellow romex with black, white, and ground. A white romex with power from black, white, and ground. All three whites are tied together. All three grounds are tied together. The black from the white romex is tied to the black from the 3-wire romex and to the red from the 4-wire romex.

I think this switch somehow connects into the hallway switch, and perhaps some part of that runs to the hallway light box to give it power.

What's more confusing is that there are two other bedrooms upstairs that do not receive power. So they must be getting their power from the other places, once everything is connected properly. They are wired the same way to each other.

I'm attaching a crudely drawn picture so hopefully this will all make sense.

Thanks!

Dawn

[HayZee518]

the typical three way switch circuit gets power in one box, then a three wire goes to the other switchbox, and a two wire comes off this box to the load.
yours [first box] may be powering another circuit so the blacks and whites will be spliced together. whites are always neutral cept when its used as a switch loop.
black [hot] goes to the odd colored screw on the three way. whites are spliced, three wire black and red go to other three way. at [other] box white from three wire goes to white on two wire romex, load wire on two wire romex goes to odd colored screw on three way switch, black and red of three wire [travelers from other switch]

[charmed]

This is frustrating

The bathroom switch, too, has a romex cable with a red wire. But the vanity light does not have a red wire! I just do not get how these are connected to each other. But they are not all 3-way switches! I can see turning the hallway light on and it turns on the other hallway light. But to have every single bedroom and the bathroom have red wires too? The bedroom with the main switch area doesn't have a red wire.

I cannot figure this whole thing out. It must be connected somewhere. Is there some tool I can get to help trace voltage?

Dawn

[HayZee518]

yeah go to radio shack and get an analog multimeter. have the guy show you how to set it up to measure voltage. at the bathroom with the three wire. this may be feeding a vanity light and a ceiling fan. thats the reason for the red wire. or a ceiling fan with a light.

[charmed]

Hmmm

I am not sure that one specifically is feeding the fan/light because the other bundle of wires in the box are two sets of blacks, with two of the four that read hot. It's a 2-switch box, so the other must be a two-switch switch. So by process of elimination the other one must be the vanity light.

It's too bad I can't see the wires within the walls to see what's really going on. When I peeked my head up into the attic, underneath the blown-in insulation I did see some wires running up there. There may be part of the mystery up there, maybe some additional connections, but so far I've been hesitant to climb up there. I tried one day, and found that there were sharp little wood shards mixed in with the insulation. I didn't want to wind up cutting myself.

Dawn

[charmed]

Update

I did get the light working in the bedroom with the power. I haven't yet gotten the bathroom or the other bedrooms working yet. No power seems to run to the switches. There is power in the hallway light, though.

Dawn