ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area light won't shut off!

For 7 years our tenant's hallway light worked by using either of 2 toggle switches. All of a sudden the light won't go off. I've disconnected the wires on both toggle switches and it still doesn't go off!!! The only possible thing that could have changed is the tenant was moving some boxes in the attic where there seems to be some wiring (that doesn't seem to be related). Any thoughts??? Strange, but true!

Hello,

It sounds like wires are making contact somewhere. I had a similar situation where the cause was a screw that had penetrated the cable. You should have it checked out right away.

Bill

Check the attic for a shorted cable in the vicinity of the boxes.

Reminds me of the story of the serviceman who got a call from an old lady who said that whenever she flushed the toilet the doorbell rang.

Thinking she was a brick short of a load, the serviceman checked it out, only to find the doorbell wiring in the attic was run across some water pipes, and had rubbed a bare spot in the cable. Whenever the toilet was flushed, the pipes vibrated enough to cause the wires to touch together, thus the ding-dong!

Check for a short in the attic.

Rick Miell

You didn't say what kind of light this was.
I once had occasion to go on a service call for a similar problem. All of a sudden the light could not be turned off. Turned out to be that the lights were switched on the nuetral instead of the ungrounded conductor,and the ballast in the fixture had the windings go to ground. When the the property owner tryed turning the lights out nothing happened. After changing the ballast the lights worked on the switch again. I also took the time to correct the problem with the switched nuetral.
(Who says nobody calls an electrician when the lights are on ? )

If the feed for the circuit is in the light fixrure your problem may be in the fixture box itself - conductors cross connected possibly. I would take a look there.