On Tue, 27 May 2008 07:51:34 -0400, John Grabowski wrote:

too many wires and variables to figure it out from a distance.
something may not have been wired correctly from the beginning.
bring in an electrician to fix this?

Hi John,
I do thank you for your help. I may very well need to bring an electrician
in. I've never done that before but it sure seems like I'm (almost) stumped
on this one. I just hate to let go (can you tell?).

It really irks me when I can't figure out a home repair on my own or with
help here. So, I may very well conclude that ... but I first want to
understand what is going on.

Bear in mind, the GCFIs were all working so whatever was wired to the
two-wire SPST switches before I put the three-wire automatic-shut-off
switches in was working properly (albeit I never tested the voltages).

I'm going to mull deeply over the GCFI information from Telestra to see if
I can understand it. At the moment, I realize I have "crossed neutrals" but
I need to re-read and re-read his explanation before I will know what to do
to resolve the problem.

I posted 17 well-annotated pictures of the situation at the slideshow
http://www.flickr.com/photos/2702997...74838278/show/


D.

Donna wrote:
....

I'm going to mull deeply over the GCFI information from Telestra to see if
I can understand it. At the moment, I realize I have "crossed neutrals" but
I need to re-read and re-read his explanation before I will know what to do
to resolve the problem.
....

Uncross them...

If you can reconstruct the initial situation, then you should be able to
trace which neutral belongs w/ each circuit and wire it appropriately.


--

"Donna" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 27 May 2008 07:51:34 -0400, John Grabowski wrote:

too many wires and variables to figure it out from a distance.
something may not have been wired correctly from the beginning.
bring in an electrician to fix this?

Hi John,
I do thank you for your help. I may very well need to bring an electrician
in. I've never done that before but it sure seems like I'm (almost)
stumped
on this one. I just hate to let go (can you tell?).

It really irks me when I can't figure out a home repair on my own or with
help here. So, I may very well conclude that ... but I first want to
understand what is going on.

Bear in mind, the GCFIs were all working so whatever was wired to the
two-wire SPST switches before I put the three-wire automatic-shut-off
switches in was working properly (albeit I never tested the voltages).

I'm going to mull deeply over the GCFI information from Telestra to see if
I can understand it. At the moment, I realize I have "crossed neutrals"
but
I need to re-read and re-read his explanation before I will know what to
do
to resolve the problem.

I posted 17 well-annotated pictures of the situation at the slideshow
http://www.flickr.com/photos/2702997...74838278/show/


D.


Donna, If I was to come over and work on this, my first step would be to
identify each conductor's function. Is the white really a neutral or is it
carrying juice to feed a switch? What are the red wires for? How does each
box and receptacle get fed? Which wires are the feed from the circuit
breaker?

Get some numbers or white tape and start labeling everything. Draw a
diagram so you see what is happening on paper.

Don't be hard on yourself for not being able to figure it out. It doesn't
seem like a normal situation for one thing and for another, everyone has
limitations. Even the pros get stumped occasionally.