I'm working on a 1906 house. There is a KT wire in the attic room that stays live (according to my current tester) even after the house main is off. Is there something about KT I should know, or should I be looking for something like a tap in from the neighbor's house?
------------------------------------- fixinthingsup
try hanging a 100 watt light bulb as test.
bet its neighbors power
or a second, hidden mains box
Yeah OP can test that possiblity by pulling the meter/
Since its difficult to impossible to get new homewowners insurance on a home wit K&T the best approach is a complete rewire. lack of homeowners insurance makes it near impossible to resell home
Many people replace 20 grand vehicles every 10 years or less, so why not replace your 5 grand cost electrical system every 100 years?
*I'm wondering if he has a split bus panel and by pulling the main he is not deengerizing every circuit. The OP should try shutting off all circuit breakers and not just the main breaker.
If the house is attached (a duplex or row house) then a cross-feed from the next property, inadvertent or otherwise, is very possible. Also worth considering is that in some places, the utility supplied flat-rate power for electric water heaters via a separate hot wire that bypassed the service panel and the meter. Usually this wire had its own cutoff and fuse box in some form, but not necessarily anywhere near the main panel. Splicing into this unmetered feed to supply household circuits became, predictably, somewhat of a sport among d-i-y'ers (as did using the hot water for heat). So look for that if you've really got a rogue hot circuit.
However ... are you actually testing *current* from this wire to ground through some load (like a light bulb)?
If your meter shows *voltage* between this wire and something grounded, or if it's just one of those detectors that lights and buzzes in the proximity of a live wire, then very possibly this reading is false, caused by stray voltages the wire has picked up by capacitance from some other voltage source. Normally I'd say that's unlikely if the whole house is dead, but it's probably not impossible, if that wire happens to route via an outside wall near the service mast, for example.
Digital meters are more prone to reading stray voltages owing to their very low input impedance. Get your hands on even the cheapest mechanical meter you can find at Walmart and see what it reads as a voltage between this wire and ground. Make sure you're testing against a real earthed ground point, which could be difficult if you don't have plumbing or a newish 3-wire circuit in the vicinity. And test the meter first on a known live circuit so you know the meter works.
Chip C Toronto
Short it out and see what blows.
What happened to your previous tester(s)? ;-)
If you can do a full rewire for 5k, even with all the walls open, that is one damn small house, or one cheap electrician.
** Sure, anything's possible in a house that age. It probably got some electrical upgrades every 20 years or so, starting from the mid 20's. The way he says electrical tester, has me wondering if it's not a proximity device. I love those things, but on occasion they do say a circuit is alive when it's not. >
I've done several 100% rewires and haven't spent anywhere NEAR that much. Hell, wire is only a quarter a foot. And a panel full of breaker can be had for $200 or less.
Labor would be the killer for a 100% rewire project. If you can DIY it the materials aren't that expensive, but it will take you quite a bit of time to complete, particularly if you don't work on it full time.
You are correct. I never keep track, but i'll bet i had 200 hours in the first one i did. (three bedroom two story) And i added about a dozen outlets in plaster/lath walls.
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