Residential/AC Electrical guys I need halp

[acklac7]

Went to take a piss and WTF no power to the lights/fan in bathroom. Figured I threw a breaker, however I double checked every last one and not a one is thrown. Also the accompanying hallway lights are out too. That said (and this is where it gets strange, for me at least) the outlets in both the hallway and the bathroom still work/have 120v. Checked all the bulbs in the bathroom, ther're fine. The bulbs in the halway are all like frozen in their sockets and the sockets themselves just feel sloppy. Im sorta stumped here (I can't stand working on AC, throw DC at me and I will eat it like cake). Could a bad/shorted outlet potentially cause an issue like this?

[MattKatz]

you tripped a breaker or a GFI somewhere. You got a plug in your bathroom or kitchen with buttons...if so see if they test and reset.

[Tractor]

GFCI was my first thought as well. Easy to overlook.

[Cordell]

Check for GFCIs, not sure the age of your home, but lights and especially a bath fan should not be on a GFCI or you'll get nusance tripping. My parents house has the garage door opener on a GFCI circuit (very lazy electrician) and it'll trip from time to time, motors can have that effect.

 

Anyway, you may want to cycle all your breakers, some get older and don't always look tripped, so it's easy to think it's still on.

 

After the basics something has got to be causing a break in the circuit, this just takes some detective work looking for a broken component or connection. The only thing to remember is white is negative, bare is ground (green is ground but not usually used in a house), and anything else is going to be hot or a switched hot. If you can handle DC you can handle AC, just don't touch anything that you aren't positive is off, 120 stings a little.

[Snowflake]

Possible bad breaker or break in the wire somewhere. Check breakers with meter in on position to make sure they are all working properly and then go from there.

 

As Scott already said it's not going to be GFI some dumb motherfuckers been in there wiring.

[smokin5s]

check GFI's all around house... it could be a GFI in the basement, kitchen or garage that is tied to it

[cstmg8]

Any luck op? May need to pull a few switch/outlet covers off and use a flashlight to look for burnt/disconnected wires.

[Snowflake]

If there is lighting and a fart fan on a GFI your shit is fucked up.

[gillbot]

Check for GFCIs, not sure the age of your home, but lights and especially a bath fan should not be on a GFCI or you'll get nusance tripping. My parents house has the garage door opener on a GFCI circuit (very lazy electrician) and it'll trip from time to time, motors can have that effect.

 

Anyway, you may want to cycle all your breakers, some get older and don't always look tripped, so it's easy to think it's still on.

 

After the basics something has got to be causing a break in the circuit, this just takes some detective work looking for a broken component or connection. The only thing to remember is white is negative, bare is ground (green is ground but not usually used in a house), and anything else is going to be hot or a switched hot. If you can handle DC you can handle AC, just don't touch anything that you aren't positive is off, 120 stings a little.

I do NOT advise going by the wire color. Test it first! I've seen many houses wired wrong or people throw shit together with short splices without regard to proper color coding.

[Cordell]

I do NOT advise going by the wire color. Test it first! I've seen many houses wired wrong or people throw shit together with short splices without regard to proper color coding.

 

Well thats what its supposed to be, unless the house is over 25 years old (before inspections) or some dumbass has been working on it. I will admit there is the possibility to have a white used as a switch loop, where you might have a white connected to a switch or 2 whites on a light fixture, that could happen and be pefectly legal.

[gillbot]

Well thats what its supposed to be, unless the house is over 25 years old (before inspections) or some dumbass has been working on it. I will admit there is the possibility to have a white used as a switch loop, where you might have a white connected to a switch or 2 whites on a light fixture, that could happen and be pefectly legal.

 

In my experience, way too many people think "wire is wire" and just do all kinds of crazy shit for me to assume anymore. Once the covers are on, most inspectors don't look or care about colors.

[Tractor]

I've seen many wiring jobs within the past five years not coded correctly on new builds, when it comes to AC I always use a meter before going in. You just never know.

[MattKatz]

Yup I always check with a meter too, too many lazy electricians out there.

[acklac7]

Update: the only GFI is located on the main panel, and it's been frozen/broke since we bought the place (I.E. you can't push it in).

 

I've cycled all the breakers and I get nothing. If I cycle the main breaker I can throw the outlets on/off, but still, for the life of me can't get any of the lighting/fart fan to come on. If there was a short somewhere it would throw the breaker correct? So I guess we can rule out a short (since a breaker isn't getting thrown)

 

Also how do you go about testing a breaker?

 

http://oi60.tinypic.com/2m46mhg.jpg

 

http://oi60.tinypic.com/1osn87.jpg

[acklac7]

I do NOT advise going by the wire color. Test it first! I've seen many houses wired wrong or people throw shit together with short splices without regard to proper color coding.

 

The wiring in this place was obviously not done to code, there is literally wiring dangling/draping from the rafters up in the crawl space:no:

[acklac7]

Also I was up in the crawl space the day before this mess started running a new exhaust line for the dryer. Fuck me I don't want do go back up there and dick around.

[SloSVTruck]

First place to start is pulling the cover on the switches. Check for any power in there at all.

 

Older houses can be very tricky as to how they are wired I have seen all kinds of different things. The newer stuff most decent electricians have a pretty similar way of doing things, especially with the new codes there's not a lot of different ways to do it.

 

As far as black (hot), green/bare (ground) white (neutral) I definitely wouldn't use that as the end all be all. It's a good guideline but older stuff normally has a lot of backfeeds (white wire being hot).

 

To me this sounds like something has come loose, a wirenut or junction somewhere.

[SloSVTruck]

Also how many lights are in the bathroom?? A vanity light, then the fart fan/light in the fart fan?? Everything is dead right? How many switches do you have?

 

How's the switches in the hallway, have a set of 3-ways I would guess??

[acklac7]

Also how many lights are in the bathroom?? A vanity light, then the fart fan/light in the fart fan?? Everything is dead right? How many switches do you have?

 

3 Vanity lights, fart fan/fartfan light and the hallway lights (2). Three switches in the bathroom, two in the hallway.

 

House (Condo) was built in 1979.

 

Question: if something came loose it would have to between the primary wiring going to/from the breaker to affect the whole circuit correct?

[SloSVTruck]

3 Vanity lights, fart fan/fartfan light and the hallway lights (2). Three switches in the bathroom, two in the hallway.

 

House (Condo) was built in 1979.

 

Question: if something came loose it would have to between the primary wiring going to/from the breaker to affect the whole circuit correct?

Not necessarily from the primary wiring..... I'm guessing it's all tied to a general lighting circuit so it could have came loose in another switch box that is still actually working. If it was the feed you would probably have lost a lot more lights.

[gillbot]

The wiring in this place was obviously not done to code, there is literally wiring dangling/draping from the rafters up in the crawl space:no:

 

Unfortunately this is common. I usually nitpick the electrical when I buy a house and the place I have now was a mess. Our home inspector asked why I didn't do it myself. :gabe: I just laughed and said bank won't let me then he wrote down all the shit I pointed out to him. Saved him from having to do it but he admitted I found way more shit then he likely would have.

[acklac7]

Alright so I never got around to addressing this issue, had it on the back burner so to speak.

 

At any rate fast forward to two minutes ago, I went to plug an extension cord into the hallway outlet and WHOA all the lighting came back on??? WTF? Joggled the extension cord (at the outlet) and sure enough all the lights flick on/off. Bad outlet or bad connection?

[KillJoy]

Bad outlet or bad connection?

 

Yup.

 

 

KillJoy

[acklac7]

Yup.

 

 

KillJoy

 

I guess the outlet/lighting is wired in series then? Random, i've had outlets go bad before, and they didn't effect the whole circuit.

[MattKatz]

Probably a loose jumpered connection then.