This wire is supposed to be white.
I love our big house but it does have a few annoying little issues. For one, Cooper’s room has been losing electricity. One by one, the outlets and switches have stopped working. Changing a diaper in the dark of night really sucks when you can’t see what you are doing.
We were worried about faulty wiring causing a fire so my friend asked her husband, R who is an electrician, to check it out for us. I explained that nothing was working, but to my chagrin some of the outlets worked when he checked them. The lights, however, stayed off. R quickly discovered the ceiling light fixture in Cooper’s room was wired wrong, so he fixed it for us and that seemed to sort out that problem.
When the huz got home an hour later, I was excited to tell him that the electricity was fixed! But when he tried flipping the switches, nothing happened. I called my friend back to tell them I wasn’t nuts (and the room really did have something wrong with it) and her husband was nice enough to come back to check it again………
And after poking around and dismantling several switches he discovered that a wire in the fuse box was inches too short and the power was arcing to make the connection.
Holy shit.
He fixed the problem and brought the piece of wire he clipped out to show us. It was melted and charred.
We could have easily had a fire.
Today I am grateful for friends with useful skills.
Check your fire alarms.
That was the first thing that came to mind for me… seems to happen more often than not that wire sare too short. We once lived in a flat with a problem like that for one room, and the electricians came over time and again, always trying to somehow “frickle” it fixed, until my Dad got upset and shouted, “No matter how many times you cut that wire, it will still be too short!” ^^
So glad nothing bad happened to you.
Diandra´s last post… Join the pipe!
I’m glad you’re all alright, and that he found the real problem, and was able to fix it! I think, if I was you, I’d have all the rest of the wiring checked out before something similar happens in a different part of the house!
Yikes! That is scary. It really is great to have friends that can help. So glad you didn’t have a fire.
Whoa, that photo is terrifying! What a scary situation, I’m so thankful your friend was able to fix it!