voltage at ceiling fixture with switch off

[HeyBub]

It's not a problem. Ignore the 48v. It's not real. The presence of induced voltage is normal. Forget about it.

[Mike Ballard]

I had an old round flourescent ceiling fixture in the kitchen that gave out (house was built in late 1960s). The box is fed by two sheathed electrical cables, one cable with white and black, the other cable white, black and red. Both the hallway switch and kitchen switch operate the fixture (both switches are the "on/off" kind, not the round dial thing).

I put in an incandescent (single 60W) fixture and used the red wire for hot since that's what the flourescent was hooked to. After hooking up the neutral and ground I turned the power back on and with a volt-ohm meter see there's 48V at the socket with the switches in one position and about

120V when they're in another.

My problem is the 48V when it's supposed to be off. I've toggled both switches in every possible combination and there's never ~0V at the socket

- it's never less than 48V. Can someone tell me wtf is going on with this thing? Getting to it from the attic is a major PITA and I can't see anything through the electrical box - is there something else up there, maybe because it was hooked to a flourescent light or something? What purpose could there possibly be to not have 0V when the switches are off? I don't want to put a light bulb in it until I know why off isn't 0V.

Mike

[Joseph Meehan]

Get an old analog meter and I'll bet you will get 0 volts. Those new digital ones are so sensitive that they pick up stray voltage that is very very weak current. It happens when the wires you are testing happen to have run close to some other wires that hare being used. It may change as other switches are turned on or off.

Try putting a 120 V lamp across it. If I am right it will not light at all and the meter will read 0.

[Tony Hwang]

Hi, If you are using digital meter, disregard reading. Due to high input impedance it'll pick anything as stray induced voltage. One reason I still keep and depend on my old Simpson 260 analog meter. Install a bulb and measure the voltage, there'll be nothing actually when in off state. Tony