I recently removed an old light switch that I was convinced had no power to it. After removing the switch and capping off both the black and white ends I loss power to some over head light and some receptacles. It was an old 2 wire switch and Had no voltage running crossed it when open or closed per my volt meter. Any idea what happened?
Hello and Happy new years!
In some houses, light switches don't have a neutral wire. This is because 2-wire Romex cable (containing hot and neutral wires) is pulled through all the light fixture boxes in the ceilings only. After running cable through all the ceiling boxes, electricians simply pull one 2-wire Romex down to the switch boxes throughout the house. Once the switch legs are complete, all the lighting wire pulling is finished. They then make a second trip to install the fixtures and wire the switches.
Regarding your problem: Most likely, one 2-wire Romex (without a neutral) was pulled from the ceiling box to your now-removed switch, then run to the nearest outlet. This would have made both the light and outlet controlled by that single switch you removed. Typically, electricians used two switches to control the light switch and outlets separately. The neutrals needed for the switched outlets were run from another part of the same circuit so the outlets would function properly. This can get quite complicated to explain clearly.
Things to Check:
- Wire nut those two wires back together that were previously connected to the old switch. Then check the voltage at the outlets and light fixtures in those rooms that aren't currently working. You should get 110 volts on your duplex outlets if they were wired in to the switch, and hopefully the light will turn on. Often, the duplex outlet closest to the doorway is the one switched. Rooms like bedrooms and living rooms were commonly wired with this type of feature as extra.
Let me know if you have any questions.