Good morning everyone,
First let me say, the sun is shining for three days in a row. Yee hoo!
So I've been changing the old receptacles, light switches and fixtures in my 70 year old house. Have encountered a couple of weird situations (weird for me, I'm a neophyte who doesn't really have a clue what I'm doing - but I ask lots of questions and pay attention!!), and am currently scratching my head over my hallway /sunporch light switches....
There is a double electrical box with two switches in it. One turns on the hall light. The other turns on the sunporch light. One's function does not appear in any way to relate to the other. When I took off the cover and unscrewed the switches from the box I was surprised by what I found: A grey fabric wire, coming from the "source" (I don't know the right terminology, sorry) is fed into one side of the box. Two grey fabric wires, coming from the "source" is fed into the other side of the box (giving me a total of three white wires and three black wires). The three white wires have been twisted together and capped with a marette. The first black wire is screwed to the top screw of hall switch. On the other side, one of the black wires is screwed to the top screw of the sunporch switch. The other black wire is screwed to the bottom screw of the sunporch switch. An additional piece of black wire is screwed ALSO to the bottom screw of the sunporch switch and reaches over to the hall switch where it is screwed onto the bottom screw.
Firstly, I was expecting to find only 2 source wires. I expected to find one white and one black wire each attached to the top and bottom screws of each switch. I don't know from where or why the third source wire is in there. There is a light switch in the living room that doesn't turn anything on, but you can see where there used to be a ceiling light at one time. My best guess is that one of the source wires used to be connected to that as three-way light (but it doesn't really make sense why you'd have an on/off switch to that light at the entrance from the sunporch).
Anyway, do I simply re-attach all wires to the new switches from whence they came. Or does it sound like something unsavoury was rigged up in there and I should re-fangle it?
Any help you can offer would be greatly appreciated. Thank you very much for having this forum; it's awesome to be able to ask for help!!!
Sincerely, Karen
First let me say, the sun is shining for three days in a row. Yee hoo!
So I've been changing the old receptacles, light switches and fixtures in my 70 year old house. Have encountered a couple of weird situations (weird for me, I'm a neophyte who doesn't really have a clue what I'm doing - but I ask lots of questions and pay attention!!), and am currently scratching my head over my hallway /sunporch light switches....
There is a double electrical box with two switches in it. One turns on the hall light. The other turns on the sunporch light. One's function does not appear in any way to relate to the other. When I took off the cover and unscrewed the switches from the box I was surprised by what I found: A grey fabric wire, coming from the "source" (I don't know the right terminology, sorry) is fed into one side of the box. Two grey fabric wires, coming from the "source" is fed into the other side of the box (giving me a total of three white wires and three black wires). The three white wires have been twisted together and capped with a marette. The first black wire is screwed to the top screw of hall switch. On the other side, one of the black wires is screwed to the top screw of the sunporch switch. The other black wire is screwed to the bottom screw of the sunporch switch. An additional piece of black wire is screwed ALSO to the bottom screw of the sunporch switch and reaches over to the hall switch where it is screwed onto the bottom screw.
Firstly, I was expecting to find only 2 source wires. I expected to find one white and one black wire each attached to the top and bottom screws of each switch. I don't know from where or why the third source wire is in there. There is a light switch in the living room that doesn't turn anything on, but you can see where there used to be a ceiling light at one time. My best guess is that one of the source wires used to be connected to that as three-way light (but it doesn't really make sense why you'd have an on/off switch to that light at the entrance from the sunporch).
Anyway, do I simply re-attach all wires to the new switches from whence they came. Or does it sound like something unsavoury was rigged up in there and I should re-fangle it?
Any help you can offer would be greatly appreciated. Thank you very much for having this forum; it's awesome to be able to ask for help!!!
Sincerely, Karen
