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David Nebenzahl

On 9/9/2010 12:22 PM spake thus:

On Thu, 9 Sep 2010 12:04:34 -0700 (PDT), Higgs Boson
wrote:

On Sep 8, 6:59 pm, J Burns wrote:

On 9/8/10 4:16 PM, wrote:

I live in an old house and the light in the bedroom has a pull
string and not a switch. I wanted a switch so I found the
outlet nearest the door and I removed the outlet and replaced
it with a switch. Its kind of low to the floor for a switch
(about 18 inches), but thats better than no switch at all.
There were 2 wires in there, one black one kind of a gray
color. I put one wire on each screw on the switch. Then I
bought a switch cover because the outlet cover would not fit on
the switch. Whenever I turn on the switch, the fuse blows. I
have bought 3 boxes of fuses this week alone and that's getting
expensive. I even tried a larger fuse after the hardware store
guy told me to try a 30 instead of a 15. He said I'd get twice
as much power. Them fuses blows too when I turn on the switch.
I then tried reversing the wires on the switch screws, but it
still blows the fuses.

Is the problem because the switch is too low to the floor? What
should I do?

You have a short circuit. I've had a short circuit with an
outlet four feet from the floor. You can make the circuit longer
by using an outlet farther from the door, not the floor.

What has the outlet too close to floor got to do with short
circuit? Inquiring minds...

It would be a "long circuit" if the wiring cabe down from the attic.
Is that a clue??

I actually thought that part of the troll was somewhat clever. Got a
short circuit? Hey, just make it a little longer!

This actually played out in real life for me one time. Had a client with
a very strange electrical problem. He had three switches next to his
front door. Two worked fine (overhead outside light and a security
light). But the third one would cause a very long delayed trip of a
circuit breaker if switched on, accompanied by a loud humming sound.

After tracing his wiring up through his garage, I discovered that the
problem was in a very long line (close to 100') that went up to what was
once a light fixture at the end of his driveway. The fixture had long
since been removed, but they just left the line (wires in conduit) in
place. They were shorted near the end, so this was essentially a very
long short circuit. (Long enough not to immediately trip the breaker.)

--
The fashion in killing has an insouciant, flirty style this spring,
with the flaunting of well-defined muscle, wrapped in flags.

- Comment from an article on Antiwar.com (http://antiwar.com)