3 Switches, One Plate, Top One Not Working

Hello I need seriouse help! In my situation I have a three switch, one for the light, one for the vent fan, and one for the heater. This is in a bathroom rent house. My problem is that when I turn the switch on for the light, the light and fan turn on, when I switch the heater on, that switch does nothing, the same when I switch the fan on. The wall plate is labeled: light, fan, heater. So what I attempted to do is put a switch outlet combo in. I have two black wires, two white wires and a ground. So I put the black wires on brass and the white wires on black,( they are black screws instead of silver, not sure if I got the right kind of switch). So when I did that, when I turn the switch on, the fan turns on, but no light, also when the switch is on the outlet is hot.( which fine that is how I want it). But what did I do wrong, why does fan work but not the light. I my biggest fear is that I might have made a fire hazard. Please help and tell me if what have done is safe, and maybe help me figure out how to turn the fan and light on with the same switch..  Thank you for all your input, have trouble falling asleep, keep thinking the house might burn down.. Sorry for the long post
      

Hi,



Forgive me if this has been covered elsewhere - a cursory check didn't

bring up an answer, but maybe I didn't search on the right thing...



I've got to replace a baseboard heater that was located under a receptacle.



I was first thinking this is covered by the "grandfather" clause, but a bit more checking has me confused - it looks like maybe the NEC doesn't specifically prohibit this (maybe they do in the newest code book), but pretty much all manufacturers now seem to specifically say not to do this, so it would seem to be prohibited.



So what do you do?  Here's a couple of pics of where I have to put this unit:



http://www.rkgphotos.com/recent_stuf...er_corner2.jpg

http://www.rkgphotos.com/recent_stuf...er_corner1.jpg



a 1500W unit is what should go here.  just pulling the receptacle/putting on a cover plate means there's gonna be more than 12 feet between receptacles along this wall.



Its also complicated by this being both an outside wall and a common element so I didn't want to butcher it up completely.



It seemed like I could: 1) use 2 heaters with a gap under the receptacle (though the spacing kind of sucks for this), 2)pull the receptacle, put on a cover plate and forget about it (practically not a problem but violates the 12 foot rule), 3) use the receptacle box as a J box and run a line down to where the heater is and use one of those funky receptacles you mount to one end of the heater, or 4)??



Anyway, suggestions/observations would be greatly appreciated.



Thanks,

rkg

(Richard George)
      

Going through a crazy heat wave here in SoCal, and one of my tenants called to tell me that the electricity isn't on in some of his rooms. He turned on his portable AC unit that he has been using all summer and something may have happened.



Downstairs:The dining room light switch, downstairs light switch do not work. All outlets around them do work though, which is odd cause I would have thought they'd be on the same circuit.



Upstairs: The side bathroom light switch does not work, but outlets all work. In the master bedroom (where the AC unit is located), the master bathroom light switch does not work, nor does the master bedroom light switch. All of the outlets do not work either. I used my outlet tester and it gave me the hot/ground reversed lights. I think this means that the white/black wires are reversed on the outlets (has not changed recently).



I went over, checked all of the breakers. Switched them to off, then back on, did not fix the issue. All breakers stay in the on position without tripping, so no shorts?



Checked all GFCI's, hit test, then reset, did not solve the problem.



We unplugged everything from all outlets, and retried, but it didn't work.



I checked continuity between the main power lines, and the output of the circuit breakers, and all were fine. I did NOT check the voltages though, and will do so in the morning when I stop by again.



Is there anything else I should check?
      

Hi, I recently moved into a 1954 house with a  20amp electrical system, not the old fuse type, but there are no ground wires.



I removed an old light and replaced it with a light fan combo. As I removed the old light (after turning off the breaker) I noticed from the ceiling that there were 2 white wires tied together with a wire nut and 2 black wires, one attached to the white wire in the light and the other attached to the black one from the light. Feeling this was wrong and should be black to black, white to white, (even knowing full well the light was working fine before I disconnected it) I wired the fan the way I've always wired fan lights,  white to white, blue and black to black.  (again, knowing full well the light was working the other way). Turned breaker on then powered on switch. POP at the switch, breaker switched off. I reworked it back to the way it was before with whites tied off, black to white, black and blue to black, turned it back on and  viola, things worked fine. (I know, duh... Right???)

2 questions from this experience...

1. Why would the 2 whites be tied off with only black wires used?

And 2. It seems that one of the light switches in the same circuit as the blown one is now working soft. In other words, it used to make the normal click noise when turned on/off but now it just moves softly up and down without the click. Could I have damaged something when I mis-wired?
      

Hi All,



Need to replace an old faulty two switch fixture in the bathroom (light and exhaust fan). Right now, each switch on the single fixture separately operates either the light or the fan, regardless of the position of the other switch. Want to keep things that way. 



Here is a picture of the old fixture's wiring: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1179096/photo1.jpg



To replace this fixture, I bought to the Leviton 5634 (design diagram he  http://communities.leviton.com/servl...224%205634.pdf)



Unfortunately, what is confusing me is the the different designs between the two fixtures and the fact that the original unit seems to have some kind of patch or cross over type wire connecting the top and the bottom switches (see photo link above).



Any help/advice on how to wire this new fixture based on the picture of the current wiring configuration would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!!!
      

i have 3 switch sets in my house that are giving me absolute fits.



#1  kitchen switch, controls the light over the outside door




    Code:

   

3 sets of lines coming in,



line from the breaker panel (power)



line to the ceiling lights 



line to the outside porch light.

i cannot get this 3 line to work without tripping the breaker every time i turn the switch off



#2 bathroom switches




    Code:

   

power feed line



line to the light over the medicine cabinet



line to the second switch to control the exhaust fan.

same issue as the first set, flip the switch and trip the breaker (different breaker from the kitchen switch)



#3 living room switch and plug controlled via switch




    Code:

   

 power feed line



outside porch light line



line to wall switch to control the lower wall outlet

flip switch, trip breaker



the switches i have are "1 pole" am i using the wrong switches for this job?
      

hi guys,



Im a 1st year apprentice sparks so pretty inexperienced! i have a job on during the week to wire a bathroom extractor fan in for my friend. He wants it to come on separately from the bathroom light.



Theres a 2 gang switch outside  the bathroom, one for landing lights other for bathroom. So im thinking of replacing this with a 3 gang switch for the fan.



Im gonna take permanent feed from one of the two other switches ie(bathroom or landing) to the fan switch 'common' to power it, then also take a permanent feed for the fan from the 'common' side of this new switch as its a timer fan.



Then switch feed from L1 on new switch to fan. And finally neutral from bathroom light fitting to fan. I know that these 3 cables going to fan have to be isolated at another switch before going to fan!



Am I on the right track. Thanks in advance.
      

wanted to get feeback on my crude wiring diagram i put together for my small bathroom remodel. does it appear to be sound or am i way off base??



details:



* 20A dedicated circuit

* 12/2 wiring

* outlet's will be GFCI

* double gang box will contain:

* timer unit for exhaust fan

* double switch for heat lamp and lights

* Ground wiring is not shown but each fixture/outlet/switch will be connected to ground wire

* by calculations, the 34cu box is fine for the number of conductors/size of wiring. per box specs could handle 15/12g wires.

* the scanner cut off the bottom part of the picture, the 2 lights on the right are fed from the same switch, neutral's connected together.



F = Exhaust Fan

L = Light

HL = Heat Lamp

T = Timer switch

S = Switch

H = Hot

N = Neutral

Wire Nuts are in the box connecting the pigtails



Thank you for your input.
      

Hello all, and thank you in advance for any help you can provide! Here is the deal I wanted to put a bathroom exhaust fan in and was told I could come off the existing switch to cut the wire, install a junction box, tie the wires all back in adding the wires for the fan. Trouble is the bathroom light stays on with the switch off. Turn the switch on light dims and the fan now runs, switch off fan shuts off light goes bright used black to black white to white where oh where did I go wrong!?
      

I have two 3-way switches in my master bath that have never worked properly. The house is very old and has been worked on over the years by many different people with greatly varying levels of skill. I was finally fed up with these switches and tried to fix them. I tried to follow instructions I found online, so with the power off I disconnected all the wires from both switches, then turned the power back on and used my volt-meter to discover which wire was hot. It turned out to the a red wire at switch #1. The other two wires are white and black (and yes, there also is a ground). I connected this hot wire to the darkest screw, connected the white and black to the other two screws and tried to test for continuity at the other switch. I couldn't get a reading on any of the wires at the other end. I tried turning the power back on and testing to see which wire was now hot at the second switch. It was the white wire, so I attached that to the darkest terminal, and attached the red and black to the other two terminals. The switches don't work any better than they did before I started - that is, both switches have to be turned on for the light to come on. What is my problem here? Thank you!