How to figure out what an unswitched wall light is connected to
Wall lights that do not respond to the standard room switch are often wired in parallel with an unknown source, leaving homeowners completely stumped. Without knowing what the fixture is linked to, it becomes impossible to trace its circuit or determine how to power it down.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
- 1cutting all three breakers at the same timeDid this help you?
- 2calling a licensed electrician and paying hundreds of dollarsDid this help you?
- 3leaving the original setup in placeDid this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“The biggest problem is the walls in these things are very thin and will not accept a normal box, and at the same time dimmers rarely fit into shallow 1-gang device boxes, especially with three cables.”source ↗
“I'm having trouble committing to starting just because I'm confused by this configuration.”source ↗
“I'm more asking about what exactly it is in the jacketed cables and what am I looking out for before I make the cuts.”source ↗
“The wall light in my utility room has me stumped. It isn't connected to the light switch for the ceiling light.”source ↗
“It appears to be wired in parrallel with something, but I have no idea what?”source ↗
“Any idea on what this is connected to, or how to figure it out?”source ↗
“I have an attic ventilation fan that recently was replaced. When I went to power down the circuit, none of the possible 3 breaker it should have been would cut power.”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
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- 6Why do outlets stop working when the breaker isn't tripped?
- 2Why does turning off the light switch turn off the outlet?