circuit breaker question!

Turned off a circuit to change out a hallway light. Had to stop because I had to get an extra part. Turned the circuit back on and have no power in the adjacent bedroom that shares the circuit (and the hallway light, I'm sure). Could turning off the circuit in the first place have killed it?

Help! Kim

Reply to
Kim & Albert Sosa
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the circuit is probably wired thru the light fixture you were working on.

Reply to
The Masked Marvel

Not sure if it is part of your original question, but when you turn a breaker off, you need to be sure that it is pushed ALL the way OFF before trying to turn it back on. Otherwise, some breakers will not actually be ON when you try to move it to the ON position.

Hope this helps.

--James--

Reply to
James Nipper

Kim:

K&> Turned off a circuit to change out a hallway light. K&> Had to stop because I had to get an extra part. K&> Turned the circuit back on and have no power in the adjacent bedroom that K&> shares the circuit (and the hallway light, I'm sure). K&> Could turning off the circuit in the first place have killed it?

Anything's possible! When you reset the breaker to 'ON' did the hallway light work? It is possible for one breaker to share rooms -- having a separate breaker just for the hall light would be silly. (Well, in a normal residential application.)

If the hall light works and the bedroom does not, are you sure the bedroom is on the same circuit as the hall? Don't want to be looking at the wrong place!

If the junction box of the hallway light only had one wire coming out of it you can probably skip this paragraph. By "one wire" I mean a set of wires in a jacket ==> black and white and probably a bare copper one, which connected to the light. If there was another jacketed wire in it, or if there was a red wire in there, check those connections (the ones not going to the light). Check the black (could be red -- both mean 'hot') and white (neutral).

Assuming the hall light had only a single wire in it, feeding just the light, the problem is elsewhere. The trick is finding it. You need to figure out where the 'common points' are. If none of the bedroom works you don't need to look in all the outlets for a problem, though you may have to look in two or three to discover the original wiring sequence. There may be a junction box in the basement (or attic - depends on how many floors, location, etc.) which had a loose connection open up. Could be the black or white wire -- needs both to make a complete circuit.

The problem could also be in the circuit breaker panel, possibly a loose wire coming out of the breaker. If there is one wire coming out of the breaker then this isn't the fault site (the hall light works -- remember the "common point"?). Trace the wire to a junction box.

Good luck!

- ¯ barry.martinþATþthesafebbs.zeppole.com ®

  • Is my normal the same as your normal?
Reply to
barry martin

Try rapidly tuning the circuit breaker off and on several times. Some breakers tend to require 'resetting' in this fashion.

Reply to
Lurker

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