10 Electrical Wiring Problems Solved

Here are some wiring systems you'll find in older homes. Knob and Tube. The earliest residential wiring system has a cloth-covered hot wire and a neutral wire, which run parallel about a foot apart. Ceramic knobs anchor the wires to the house framing; ceramic tubes are used where wires cross or penetrate framing.

Faulty Neutral Wire Connections at Circuit Breaker Panels . Another less common problem—and another that is usually handled by a pro—is when the white circuit wire is not correctly mounted to the neutral bus bar in the main service panel. Symptoms here will be similar to those with a faulty hot wire.

What Is a Neutral Wire? Since most Insteon-compatible wall switches and dimmers require a neutral wire connection to operate, you need to know if you have one of these in place. A neutral wire is a type of wire in which carries currents back to the source of power and or regular voltage. Essentially, it allows power to return to its original ...

When I investigated power and wiring in light switches and outlets, I found the ground (copper wire) and the neutral (white) has 120v. Everything I have checked seems ok, even making sure the ground into the house looks good.

How to Find a Bad Connection in House Wiring By Chris Deziel ... try the problem outlet or light again. If the breaker trips again, the circuit may be overloaded or there may be a problem with the wiring in the light or outlet. ... Place one lead of a voltage tester on the neutral bus bar of the panel and the other on the terminal screw of the ...

The garage neutral circuit had no connection back to the main building (where it would have been connected to earth in the main panel, but because the owner had (improperly) bonded together the ground and neutral bus in his garage sub panel, the garage neutral circuit was indeed finding a path to earth through a small diameter (and thus overheated and dark) copper ground wire and a local ...

This may occur at a screw terminal on a receptacle outlet, or the push-in insertion point on the back of a receptacle outlet. Without the neutral wire connection a device will not work. Be sure to check all the neutral connections at the power source, and at any junction leading to the problem area.

This is not a common problem, so they took a lot of convincing. You could get the same behavior from a loose neutral connection at the circuit breaker box inside the house, but that was easy to check and that was not the case. The new rock-solid neutral wire connection to the power company transformer totally fixed the problem.

From extension cords to flickering lights and funny odors, being aware of potential problems with your electrical wiring can help prevent a house fire. ... 8 Signs You May Have a Problem with Your Electrical Wiring Only you can prevent house fires — or at least greatly lower the risk by keeping an eye out for these warning signs of trouble.

So, my thinking is that there must be a loose neutral wire in the "main" panel outside the house or possibly a bad connection to the "sub-panel) inside the house? I'm thinking this because all 9 circuits inside the house seem affected at the same time - and I've had appliances fail on completely different circuits, even ones that are truly grounded and testing normal using a three-prong tester.