We have found many strange things in the electrical system of the house we bought recently:
- Several outlets in the kitchen were ungrounded. In one of the "upstream" boxes I found two bare copper wires that were not connected to each other; connecting them restored the ground to the other outlets.
- Found one outlet with Hot and Neutral reversed. Easy fix.
- One 20A breaker in the box seemed to do nothing although it had wire (12/2) connected to it. Eventually found that it was feeding a single outlet (a regular 15A one) in the den (possibly intended for a heater, as the room has no heating vents), but that it runs via a junction box (to which is also connected the transformer for the doorbell), from which point on the wiring is only 14/2. Haven't yet decided whether to replace the breaker or the wire.
- The wiring to the A/C unit runs from a pair of tied breakers, but the wiring is 12/2 (+G), with white used for one of the Hot connections. Haven't yet decided whether to do do anything about it. Would putting red tape or nail-polish on the white at both ends be an improvement?
- A pair of tied breakers is labeled "Kitchen," with red and black wires, but only one of them seems to be used: I cannot find 220/240v between any two Hots in the kitchen.
- A red and white are taped together in the box, but I haven't yet traced them to see what they are all about.
MB