The house from HELL! - Page 3 - Electrician Talk - Professional Electrical Contractors Forum

chain_dogg · 12-25-2008, 12:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Speedy Petey

My Favorite !!

Frank DuVal · 02-06-2009, 04:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Speedy Petey

You know, I stood there for about 45 seconds trying to figure out how they did it. Then I realized what a wast of my life that would be.

They were switching the neutral somehow and using both travelers to feed the receptacle. BOTH ends were like this with a junction in the attic.
They were feeding that lovely mono-point in the pics.

It must be a Chcago three way as described in another thread. The common terminal of both three way switches go to the lamp and hot & neutral go to the traveler terminals of each switch. Common in the knob & tube era, but illegal now...

Frank

electricalperson · 02-06-2009, 05:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Frank DuVal

It must be a Chcago three way as described in another thread. The common terminal of both three way switches go to the lamp and hot & neutral go to the traveler terminals of each switch. Common in the knob & tube era, but illegal now...

Frank

the book "old electrical wiring" has diagrams about this. ive actually come across these carter 3 ways and from reading books i was able to troubleshoot them. only reason people done it that way was to save on running one extra wire. highly illegal and highly dangerous now a days. reason its so dangerous is because they switch the neutral. if the neutral breaks the light is out and the unexperienced electrician will go up there to work on it and get a hell of a zap if he gets grounded. probably one of the only times id use a wand to check for power is when working on old knob and tube. you can also use an extension cord plugged into a 3 prong receptacle that you can use to test for power. put the wiggy in the neutral slot of the cord and the other end to the wires to check for power