I ran into this at my sister's house once. It seems that she had a 240v window a/c unit put in and an electrician had changed the circuit for the recptacle under the window to 240. He had disconnected the receptacle downstream but didn't think about the one behind the china closet. I asked my sister if the lights in the china closet worked, and she said the last time they tried them the lights got real bright and then the bulbs burst. I wonder why
