"Steve" wrote in message
...
I don't know a lot about house wiring. My wife and I moved into a
house a couple of years ago and are essentially trying to learn as we
go.

We have an air conditioner in our bedroom. Next to the air conditioner
is a wall outlet, but the wall outlet is dead (both the top and bottom
receptacles) and we've had to power the air conditioner via a long
extension cord. It would be much better to be able to power the AC via
the outlet that's right next to it, but I'm not entirely sure what's
wrong with that outlet.

It looks to me like the outlet is powered by a lever-action wall
switch. This sort of arrangement is present in a couple of other rooms
in our house...and the wall switch doesn't seem to be powering
anything *else* at the moment. However, assuming this is correct, no
power is reaching the wall outlet, no matter what position the switch
is in. I know because I have tested it. Power *is* present at the wall
switch, though. I know because I pulled the switch out of the wall and
used a multimeter to see that there is 24 volts on it (well, 23.9 to
be exact).

I'm guessing that the lever-action switch is simply defective and in
need of replacement. However, is there something I ought to be looking
for or considering before I run out and buy a replacement switch? Any
thoughts and/or advice will be appreciated.


As RBM suggested, 24 volts is too low for a normal 120 volt system, but it
is possible that you have a relay system in your house. The switches are
different looking from regular wall switches and can only handle the lower
voltage. If indeed you do have a low voltage relay system, next to your
fuse box or circuit breaker box you should have a large metal box with
several relays inside or protruding out the sides. There will also be two
kinds of wire; one bunch for low voltage and the normal 120 volt cables.

This is not an easy system to diagnose because you need to troubleshoot the
low voltage control system as well as the line voltage supply system. A
common problem with this system is one of the relays going bad. The trick
is to find the correct relay. Sometimes the original installer labeled
them. This system has been discussed in this group before so try doing a
Google search of this group. It would be helpful for us if you were able to
post some pictures of the switch and of your circuit breaker box.