I had an old round flourescent ceiling fixture in the kitchen that gave
out (house was built in late 1960s). The box is fed by two sheathed
electrical cables, one cable with white and black, the other cable white,
black and red. Both the hallway switch and kitchen switch operate the
fixture (both switches are the "on/off" kind, not the round dial thing).

I put in an incandescent (single 60W) fixture and used the red wire for
hot since that's what the flourescent was hooked to. After hooking up the
neutral and ground I turned the power back on and with a volt-ohm meter
see there's 48V at the socket with the switches in one position and about
120V when they're in another.

My problem is the 48V when it's supposed to be off. I've toggled both
switches in every possible combination and there's never ~0V at the socket
- it's never less than 48V. Can someone tell me wtf is going on with this
thing? Getting to it from the attic is a major PITA and I can't see
anything through the electrical box - is there something else up there,
maybe because it was hooked to a flourescent light or something? What
purpose could there possibly be to not have 0V when the switches are off?
I don't want to put a light bulb in it until I know why off isn't 0V.

Mike
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