midjd
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Post by midjd on Jan 3, 2015 19:46:39 GMT -5
Over the past few months, I've noticed that the light switch in our master closet occasionally felt warm. I dismissed it, but it seemed to get warmer more frequently over the last few days, so I mentioned it to DH, who basically said I was crazy. I googled it and the most credible results said that if it is a non-dimmer switch, it should never feel warm. Today I took it out to look at it. An inch of wire was totally melted to the switch: Scary to think how close we could have been to a fire... especially since that switch is between our bed and DD's bedroom I think I'm going to review our homeowner's insurance policy now. And I may or may not spend the rest of the evening touching our other 200 or so light switches.
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Jaguar
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Post by Jaguar on Jan 3, 2015 19:48:25 GMT -5
Oh my geez, damn good thing you listened to your instinct. I would go check everything as well. I wouldn't be able to sleep if I didn't check everything.
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siralynn
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Post by siralynn on Jan 3, 2015 19:49:18 GMT -5
Glad you're ok!
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swamp
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Post by swamp on Jan 3, 2015 20:00:13 GMT -5
Wow.
We we had a similar incident. Serious arcing in the attic crawl space. DH found it when he went up to check out some light surges.
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mroped
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Post by mroped on Jan 3, 2015 20:05:38 GMT -5
Call an electrician! You might have a short circuit or a bad connection somewhere. Also it could be that the wiring is under what it should be for rating or God knows what other of the next 10 issues you might have with the electrical system. So, just call an electrician and find peace of mind!
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Jaguar
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Post by Jaguar on Jan 3, 2015 20:05:43 GMT -5
Well I'm glad that everyone is okay. Everyone else go check everything, please.
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gacpa
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Post by gacpa on Jan 3, 2015 20:13:48 GMT -5
So glad you listened to your instincts. I am glad you are OK. I don't blame you for checking the rest of the switches. Call an electrician to check the house out if it will help you be sure the electric is safe.
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Angel!
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Post by Angel! on Jan 3, 2015 21:03:42 GMT -5
Now I want to go check light switches That is scary.
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muttleynfelix
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Post by muttleynfelix on Jan 3, 2015 21:43:13 GMT -5
Yikes!
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ArchietheDragon
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Post by ArchietheDragon on Jan 3, 2015 22:11:11 GMT -5
Someone please think of the children!
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sapphire12
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Post by sapphire12 on Jan 3, 2015 22:17:13 GMT -5
Wow. Glad you are safe! I too think you should call an electrician.
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moneymaven
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Post by moneymaven on Jan 4, 2015 10:50:46 GMT -5
Yikes! Glad you followed your gut!
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phil5185
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Post by phil5185 on Jan 4, 2015 12:16:31 GMT -5
It looks like an undersize (skinny) piece of scrap wire fell onto the switch. The ends touched the two brass terminals and arced, apparently to the top one. When the light was on, the scrap-wire was bypassed and the current ran thru the internal switch (normal operation). And when the switch was "off" the current tried to flow thru the scrap-wire - but probably not enough to fire the light bulb. The current flow and the arc over-heated the wire. That would be an excellent picture to email to your local electricians union. They could Power Point it for their next meeting and discuss guidelines to avoid that in the future. As for having an electrician check the wiring - no, that's an isolated occurrence. And it was enclosed inside the junction box - ie, the J-box did what it is supposed to do, it prevented a fire.
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Bonny
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Post by Bonny on Jan 4, 2015 12:33:07 GMT -5
It looks like an undersize (skinny) piece of scrap wire fell onto the switch. The ends touched the two brass terminals and arced, apparently to the top one. When the light was on, the scrap-wire was bypassed and the current ran thru the internal switch (normal operation). And when the switch was "off" the current tried to flow thru the scrap-wire - but probably not enough to fire the light bulb. The current flow and the arc over-heated the wire. That would be an excellent picture to email to your local electricians union. They could Power Point it for their next meeting and discuss guidelines to avoid that in the future. As for having an electrician check the wiring - no, that's an isolated occurrence. And it was enclosed inside the junction box - ie, the J-box did what it is supposed to do, it prevented a fire. Messy electrician? Whoda thunk?
It's a lesson that even newer houses have issues.
Good job following through Mid. I'd check out the rest too because the same careless electrician probably did most of the work throughout the house.
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Formerly SK
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Post by Formerly SK on Jan 4, 2015 12:45:58 GMT -5
It looks like an undersize (skinny) piece of scrap wire fell onto the switch. The ends touched the two brass terminals and arced, apparently to the top one. When the light was on, the scrap-wire was bypassed and the current ran thru the internal switch (normal operation). And when the switch was "off" the current tried to flow thru the scrap-wire - but probably not enough to fire the light bulb. The current flow and the arc over-heated the wire. That would be an excellent picture to email to your local electricians union. They could Power Point it for their next meeting and discuss guidelines to avoid that in the future. As for having an electrician check the wiring - no, that's an isolated occurrence. And it was enclosed inside the junction box - ie, the J-box did what it is supposed to do, it prevented a fire. We have a couple warm switches (I think they're dimmable ones though) and I always thought it wasn't a big deal because of the bolded. That the J-box as diffusing the heat and it wasn't a problem. I'll have to look into this now for my own peace of mind. Thanks for posting Mid!
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Regis
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Post by Regis on Jan 4, 2015 13:09:16 GMT -5
It looks like an undersize (skinny) piece of scrap wire fell onto the switch. The ends touched the two brass terminals and arced, apparently to the top one. When the light was on, the scrap-wire was bypassed and the current ran thru the internal switch (normal operation). And when the switch was "off" the current tried to flow thru the scrap-wire - but probably not enough to fire the light bulb. The current flow and the arc over-heated the wire. That would be an excellent picture to email to your local electricians union. They could Power Point it for their next meeting and discuss guidelines to avoid that in the future. As for having an electrician check the wiring - no, that's an isolated occurrence. And it was enclosed inside the junction box - ie, the J-box did what it is supposed to do, it prevented a fire. We have a couple warm switches (I think they're dimmable ones though) and I always thought it wasn't a big deal because of the bolded. That the J-box as diffusing the heat and it wasn't a problem. I'll have to look into this now for my own peace of mind. Thanks for posting Mid! Loading may be a little high for the wattage rating of the dimmer. If you're concerned, you can switch out dimmers easily. A little warm is okay - if it's so hot you can't keep your hand on it for ten seconds, you need to change the dimmer.
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TheHaitian
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Post by TheHaitian on Jan 4, 2015 14:34:23 GMT -5
Wow that is seriously scary!!!
Glad you found it before it was too late!
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busymom
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Post by busymom on Jan 4, 2015 15:16:33 GMT -5
It looks like an undersize (skinny) piece of scrap wire fell onto the switch. The ends touched the two brass terminals and arced, apparently to the top one. When the light was on, the scrap-wire was bypassed and the current ran thru the internal switch (normal operation). And when the switch was "off" the current tried to flow thru the scrap-wire - but probably not enough to fire the light bulb. The current flow and the arc over-heated the wire. That would be an excellent picture to email to your local electricians union. They could Power Point it for their next meeting and discuss guidelines to avoid that in the future. As for having an electrician check the wiring - no, that's an isolated occurrence. And it was enclosed inside the junction box - ie, the J-box did what it is supposed to do, it prevented a fire. Messy electrician? Whoda thunk?
It's a lesson that even newer houses have issues.
Good job following through Mid. I'd check out the rest too because the same careless electrician probably did most of the work throughout the house.
Oh yes, newer houses DEFINITELY have issues. I could tell you some stories about our own houses...
A good friend of ours worked a lot of years for a major builder. Of course, they always had several houses under construction at the same time. Only so many hours were given to the plumbers, electricians, etc. to get all of their work done. If the guys didn't get the job done within the allotted time, they didn't last long, so I'm sure a lot of mistakes occur with these "rush" jobs.
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Formerly SK
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Post by Formerly SK on Jan 4, 2015 16:04:43 GMT -5
We have a couple warm switches (I think they're dimmable ones though) and I always thought it wasn't a big deal because of the bolded. That the J-box as diffusing the heat and it wasn't a problem. I'll have to look into this now for my own peace of mind. Thanks for posting Mid! Loading may be a little high for the wattage rating of the dimmer. If you're concerned, you can switch out dimmers easily. A little warm is okay - if it's so hot you can't keep your hand on it for ten seconds, you need to change the dimmer. Thanks for the tip. They were never that hot, but definitely warm. Now that I think about it, though, I just put in dimmable LEDs so maybe the switch isn't getting hot anymore? I'll have to conduct some tests.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 4, 2015 18:23:17 GMT -5
Good for you for finding that and trusting your instincts Mid!
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Chocolate Lover
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Post by Chocolate Lover on Jan 5, 2015 17:28:26 GMT -5
I'm so glad you checked it out and are safe! When we remodeled our 1950's era home a few years ago we found two spots in the walls, outside of junction boxes, where the wires were sparking when the switches were flipped. You could see burn marks all over the inside. My parents had plumbing work done in the house I grew up in (maybe same era) by my uncle and he found empty beer cans in the walls. How long ago did they go to cans with holes already ready to go vs having to punch the holes in them? That's how old the house was. Way different kind of scary than yours.
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