Long Story...

The other day, my husband and I installed a ceiling fan in our master bedroom. Everything went fine and the light and fan both work. Then we went to install a dual switch, that has a light dimmer and fan control, on the wall. When we turned on the power and moved the levers on the switch, we got some arcing. Thinking we had switched some wires somewhere, we cut the power and switched the wires. When we cut the power back on, we still had arcing but not as bad before. Also when we moved the light dimmer level, the fan came on too. When we moved the fan level, the light also came on. We ended up disconnecting the switch and putting the original single switch back on the wall. The dual switch had 4 settings for the fan and the fan itself only has 3. We thought this might have been part of the arcing problem.

We didn't notice until we went to bed that night that none of the outlets in the master bedroom work now. We got up and started testing other outlets nearby. The master bath outlet didn't work, neither did the one in the guest bathroom. The guest bathroom is just to the left of the master bedroom, if you are looking at the doors. Then we went into the guest room, which is just to the right of the master bedroom. The outlet on the wall that shares the master bedroom closet wall did not work either.

The house was built in 1979 and is a single story on a concrete slab. We have been here for almost 4 years now. I forgot to mention that inside the wall switch box (metal) there are 3 black wires, with a solid copper core, that is connected to the switch. There are also 3 white wires, also with a solid copper core, that are not connected to anything. There is a plastic thing that is connecting the 3 white wires together (sorry, forgot what it is called). There are also 3 copper wires that are not wrapped with anything.

We have checked the breaker switches to see if anything has tripped. We even went down the whole box turning the switches off, waiting a few seconds and then turning them on again. No solution, we still have no power to the outlets. We have not had a problem before with the outlets.

Take the fan down and see if there are any black wires inside the box that are not connected. Check the switch box as well. With the fan and switch removed, and everything wired as it was before, the outlets should work. ONCE you get the outlets working, tell us how many wires you have to connect to the fan and to connect to the switch, and we'll get the fan and switch connected properly. You might need to exchange the switch for a new one if it was arching, it might be damaged.

Couple of thoughts for you:

Fans use the term speeds (3 speed) while switch use the term settings (off-low-med-hi). A 3 speed fan uses a 4 setting switch.

Newer outlets are being wired with the top of the outlet pair switched and the bottom outlet is always hot. So you can plug your clock into the bottom and a table lamp in the top. The table lamp would be turned on from a wall switch near the door while the clock is not effected. Outlets have a small copper tab that joins the top and bottom when both are to be hot. Break the tab and you can wired the top and bottom to sepearte circuits.

When you say your outlets don't work is it both the top and the bottom?

"Wire nut" is the little plastic thing that is connecting the 3 white wires together. Did you get the 3 blacks to the correct side of the switch. I suspect 1 comes from the breaker, 1 goes to the fan, and the third goes to the outlets (and should be on same side of switch as the breaker black wire -- otherwise the outlets would be switched with fan) .

I've seen circuit breakers that go bad. They do have a limited number of trips. Sometimes they trip but do not move the lever or only slightly move the lever. You reset and think OK, but inside the breaker it is not reset.

If you had a voltage indicator light probe ($5) or a volt meter ($13) you could actually check to see if power is coming out of the breaker. Would save you a tremedous amount of working/thinking.

With all the arcing I would strongly suspect the breaker is now bad.

Jimmy
(from the big orange box)

I don't think that's what they meant by arching.