I am currently replacing an old fluorescent light fixture with three recessed lights.
A 20 amp fuse (not breaker) was used for the circuit that contained this fluorescent light and the over-the-range microwave. The previous-to-previous owners did much of the work in the house themselves and usually did a poor job at it (for example, after taking down some drywall we discovered rot everywhere that lead to finding out the the overflow pipe that connects to the bath tub was never fitted with the rubber gasket so there was an inch gap that lead to the tub leaking whenever a bath was taken - they instead CAULKED the overflow outlet in the tub).
In this situation the main feed from the fuse goes somewhere (sorry I can't be more helpful); an outlet box that is about 1/2' from the ceiling (weird I know) has a 3-wire cord (red, black, and white) coming from the ceiling and contained a splice to a 2-wire cord (black and white) that connected to the fluorescent light (with electrical tape). I ripped all the tape apart and removed the outlet box as we'll be permanently removing and filling in the hole where that was - unfortunately I didn't look to closely how the wires were connected.
spliced together with one from the 2-wire cord. I removed the 2-wire cord and all that is left is the 3-wire cord that I hope to use for the three recessed lights.
I took a multimeter to the three wires and this is the result:
SWITCH OFF black & red = 26V black & white = 120V red & white = 18V
SWITCH ON black & red = 0V black & white = 120V red & white = 120V
A single switch controls the light fixture but the microwave is always on. Unfortunately I cannot see behind walls to well and I am not sure how everything is connected, but if persuaded I'll delve deeper.
Any ideas on what is going on? Is the black and white used together for the microwave but is for some reason still fed up to the light fixture? What do I splice together out of the three to form one hot and one neutral?