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    mrund's Avatar
    mrund Posts: 2, Reputation: 1
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    #1

    May 23, 2012, 04:51 PM
    Light Switch
    In an existing home, I went to turn on a light switch. The switch sparked and the light would not work. I turned off power and found that when I turned power back on that I had no voltage in the wires I disconnected from the burned switch. This was done with a multimeter... as well as the breaker I tested and had plenty of power there. I also tested all my buss bar wires and they were hot. My question is,what is the problem?
    smearcase's Avatar
    smearcase Posts: 2,392, Reputation: 316
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    #2

    May 23, 2012, 05:13 PM
    What testing did you do and was it just testing of the two wires that had been connected to the switch or did you test for voltage from each of the two wires to a ground?
    mrund's Avatar
    mrund Posts: 2, Reputation: 1
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    #3

    May 23, 2012, 06:02 PM
    I did not use the ground in the multimeter test,only the hot and neutral
    smearcase's Avatar
    smearcase Posts: 2,392, Reputation: 316
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    #4

    May 23, 2012, 06:44 PM
    You say you turned off power - was the breaker tripped? Is there a gfi outlet possibly in that circuit? Check for a gfi and reset it if tripped.
    If no gfi tripped, do the following if you are confident that you can safely do so:
    The two wires that you removed from the switch are not a hot and neutral. It is one hot and a switch leg going to the light fixture. If you can safely do so, check for voltage from one of the wires to a ground (or neutral if there is one in the switch box-it is very possible that there is not a neutral in the light switch box) and if no voltage detected, try the same test with the other wire to ground or neutral.
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