On Feb 19, 3:07�pm, "dpb" wrote:
On Feb 19, 1:26 pm, " wrote: On Feb 19, 2:08?pm, wrote:

...
An 50 year old house (late knob and tube wiring). ...

When doing some electrical work, a wire was cut. ... not the wire to that
outlet. The breaker was switched off for the outlet, but the wire was
hot. Only other info is that this was a white wire running parallel
with a red wire.

What happened was that when the wire was cut, the 110 recessed lights
in the room near by (the kitchen) went to double brightness.
Everythign was shut down, the wire was reconnected and the kitchen
lights were back to normal brightness. How is this possible??

...

You have a REAL SAFETY HAZARD!

Open neutral, which allowed near 240 volts on that circuit!

When he cut it, yes, it was open. *See Doug's response on Edison
circuit (shared neutral).

How old is your main panel? Fuses.

I suggest for safety insurance and resale value you replace your knob
and tube COMPLETELY! A total rewire!

That wiring is likely a 100 years old, ...

Well, since it was given that the house is only approximately 50 years
old, it's highly unlikely the wiring is 100...

You have 2 issues, a op[en neutral which MUST be fixed IMMEDIATELY!

He did fix it and it wasn't open until it was (inadvertently) cut.

and K&T more of a long term issue........

Or non-issue.

It would certainly be nice if you didn't knee-jerk react to every
mention of K&T you see, haller...

There's absolutely nothing in OP's post that indicates any reason
whatsoever that the k&t in his house is of any concern whatsoever.
The dual bogeymen of sale value and insurance don't hunt in many
jurisdictions as we've already gone 'round with and there's not even a
hint here that either has any bearing on the question or work
undertaken.

you ignore the complete lack of safety grounds, GFCI, AFCI, and the
lkely overloading of such circuits and excess use of extension cords
since K&T had few outlets very far apart.......

Obviously you havent walked thru whats left of a home after a fire,
and seen the devastation both physical and menta such a event can
bring.

It AMAZES me people will think NOTHING of spending 15 grand and up for
a new vehicle but refuse to invest a fraction of that on a critical
home system.

yeah whatever,,, I think the biggest protesters are those who have K&T
and are trying to justify THEIR decision to ignore the issue.