I moved into a house recently that had to ceiling light and switch blocked off. I removed the plates to see what if anything was wrong. I tested to voltage and with the switch on I was getting the expected 120 volts, but with the switch off it was still showing 60 volts. Does anyone have any idea what would cause this? Thanks

Have you checked your voltmeter in a regular receptacle to confirm it reads 120?

Do you have two lights on the ceiling? You could get this voltage if the switch was in parallel across one of the lights, and in series with the second one. Check the wiring at the light - you may be able to rearrange things and sort them out there.

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Originally Posted by rtw_travel

have you checked your voltmeter in a regular receptacle to confirm it reads 120?

Do you have two lights on the ceiling? You could get this voltage if the switch was in parallel across one of the lights, and in series with the second one. Check the wiring at the light - you may be able to rearrange things and sort them out there.

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Yes, I checked the voltmeter and it checks out. There is not any lights in the ceiling in the room now, just the ceiling box with wires. There are several wires coming into the ceiling box. Tomorrow I plan to undo all the wires and check them individually and see if I can see exactly what is going on. I just can not figure out how it is getting 60 volts.

Today I separated all the wires in the ceiling box to try to narrow down what is going on. I have 4 pairs of black and white wires coming into the box, older wire with no ground. One wire is going to the switch. One wire coming in has 120 volts across it. If I check from the black wire that has 120 volts to any of the remaining 4 wires (2 white, 2 black) I get 60-70 volts. Any idea what is causing this? Thanks

You seem to have two devices connected in series.

Can you list where all the wires go to?

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Originally Posted by rtw_travel

You seem to have two devices connected in series.

Can you list where all the wires go to?

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This circuit runs a large portion of the house. The only things I noticed not working with the wires disconnected in the ceiling box was a couple of plugs in the bedroom and the bathroom light next to the bedroom.

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Originally Posted by L321

Today I separated all the wires in the ceiling box to try to narrow down what is going on. I have 4 pairs of black and white wires coming into the box, older wire with no ground. One wire is going to the switch. One wire coming in has 120 volts across it. If I check from the black wire that has 120 volts to any of the remaining 4 wires (2 white, 2 black) I get 60-70 volts. Any idea what is causing this? Thanks

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Can you have a look at your quoted post again?

If you have 4 pairs of wires, you should have 4 black and 4 white. There should be 120V across the black and white of the wire coming from the panel.

If all 4 wires are disconnected and separated from each other at the light, you should have 0 V from the one hot black wire to all remaining 6 wires. You should also have 0V between all remaining wires that do not include the hot wire.

Please tell me if you are not getting these results.

By any chance, is it a dimmer switch?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by rtw_travel

Can you have a look at your quoted post again?

If you have 4 pairs of wires, you should have 4 black and 4 white. There should be 120V across the black and white of the wire coming from the panel.

If all 4 wires are disconnected and separated from each other at the light, you should have 0 V from the one hot black wire to all remaining 6 wires. You should also have 0V between all remaining wires that do not include the hot wire.

Please tell me if you are not getting these results.

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Yes, you read it correctly. I am getting voltage from the black hot wire to all the other wires except the ones that go to the switch. It is not a dimmer switch, in fact there is not any switch at all installed right now. I don't think I checked to the wires to the switch with all of them separated, but can do that tomorrow when it gets daylight. I currently have all the wires reattached except to the switch wire. I just now checked and if I check from the black hot wires to one side of the switch wire I get 16 volts, and 4 volts to the other side.

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Originally Posted by L321

Yes, you read it correctly. I am getting voltage from the black hot wire to all the other wires except the ones that go to the switch. It is not a dimmer switch, in fact there is not any switch at all installed right now. I don't think I checked to the wires to the switch with all of them separated, but can do that tomorrow when it gets daylight. I currently have all the wires reattached except to the switch wire. I just now checked and if I check from the black hot wires to one side of the switch wire I get 16 volts, and 4 volts to the other side.

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I still have not been able to figure out what is going on with this. I unplugged everything from the circuit and turned off the breaker off and checked resistance across the circuit. It did not give a reading so it does not appear that there is a short. I really want to put a ceiling light up, but not until I know what is going on with these readings. Thanks

I've had this happen as result of a bad connection or bad switch.