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Overhead light shorted? (lemmy.world)

submitted 6 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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My wife turned on the wall switch and the pendant light over our dining room table went out. The fuse outside didn’t blow—none of them needed to be reset. I checked for power in the light’s hanging cord, but nothing. I pulled the wall switch to check for power and nothing there either. Thoughts?

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

Since you said you aren't getting power to the bulb at all with the switch on. I would start by killing power via the circuit breaker, unscrewing the cover of the switch and checking the continuity between the two powered terminals on the switch using a multi-meter. It should read continuous when on, not when off.

If that test passes, check for GFCI outlets on the same circuit, see if any of them are tripped. A GFCI outlet, when properly wired, will protect an entire circuit and cut power to it.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Ah, thought the GFCI was it! but the three outlets anywhere near the light seem engaged.

Circuit breaker is all good, flipped anything near the dining room off and on. Nada.

Not getting any power through the wall switch wires using my voltage detector.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Use a multimeter instead of a voltage detector. Those things are ok for a quick check but can be very unreliable.

Is it possbile that the light is on a three way switch and the other switch is off someplace else? Also, are you sure the light is on the same circuit as the outlets? Do you know where the light switch feed comes from?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

I was using the voltage detector just to see if ANY wire was live in the switch. Which none were. I’ll try the multimeter.

AFAIK the switch is one-way. The circuit breaker has it labeled, “Dining Room/HallCloset.” The hall closet only has two functioning light switches—inside closet light and outside hall light—and there’s an outlet in closet, too, which is functional.