It was this way when we bought the place– I cannot believe this got past inspectors (or maybe they didn’t look, or maybe the people before us never got an inspector). This mess was all covered up by a decrepit drop ceiling, so maybe that’s why they got away with it.

But I’ve run out of money to fix it.

Anyone want to donate???

Wayne, you have been a real friend for me with this. Thanks for your advice. I’m taking your advice to heart and will do it.

Chilly, I actually like electrical wiring. Of course, I’d rather me dropping Entrecards or something, but if I had to choose a job for remodeling, it’d be wiring. I just HATE having the plaster and lathe still existing. I won’t do any electrical if I have to fish the wiring through the plaster walls. Impossible. So, half the electric in the house is shut off permanently until we can gut the rooms.

Fwaggle, wow, I hear ya!

Condo Blues, I wondered where you got your name– that’s funny! Well, kinda. I am plagued with the same thing.

1. You may be getting a back feed from a bad lighting circuit, electric heater or motor.
2. There could be a problem with the neutral wire.

What kind of voltage tester are you using? I highly recommend using some type of a meter verses a neon tester, “hot stick/pen tester” or solenoid tester.

By using a meter, you can determine if you have 115 – 125 volts on the circuit or only partial voltage. Using a neon tester, “hot stick/pen tester” or solenoid tester will typically give you the same results with 125 volts as it will with 5 volts. However, knowing you only have 5 volts on the circuit helps shed more light on the problem.

When troubleshooting electricity, one of the first things you need to know is voltage readings. To determine this, you definitely need a decent voltage meter. You can typically pick up a decent voltage meter at any home improvement store or Radio Shack for under $20.00.

The picture of this light fixture and junction boxes really scares me as well. All electrical splices need to be enclosed in a 2 hour fire rated box and covered. This will prevent any loose connections from starting a fire. I highly recommend getting all of those wire terminations into a 2 hour fire rated junction box and covered. You may need to add a junction box or 2 to get everything into a box and safe.

we decided to say “screw this”. we bought a new breaker box, some heavy gauge wire to jumper from the input of the old fuse box to the input of the new breaker box (you may have to have your utility company yank the meter while you do this), and started running new electrical from scratch.

it’s 100% worth it. the less time you spend messing with old wiring, the more sanity you’ll retain.

draw a plan of what you think needs to go where, how many breakers you’ll need, then run the essential wiring to get as much stuff on the new wiring as you can. eg, run the main “trunk” of each circuit to it’s first outlet, you can then switch off each circuit and run the subsequent outlets later, where you can be sure the power’s off.

i hope you keep your sanity, and just keep telling yourself it’ll be worth it in the end.