New mystery!! Insulation breakdown or some sort of capacitance?
I was replacing a perfectly normal ceiling fan with something my wife likes better when I came across this mystery. The fan itself is controlled by the fan switch, while the light can be switched with either the light switch, or a wall switch.
I turned off the breaker, and removed the entire fixture. I then wanted to verify which hot was for the light, so I re-energised the breaker and put my meter on the bare wires in the ceiling. The black was 120v as expected, but when I checked the red to neutral I got 46v??? I checked the black to red and got around 65v???
Thinking the switch might be bad, I removed the red and left both ends open. Then tested the switch. Nothing. I then energised the black, and tested to neutral. 120v. Red to neutral 46v?? (The red is disconnected at BOTH ends!!!) Then I went to the wall switch side and repeated the test and got 20v red to neutral??
Then I set the meter for resistance and checked for continuity red to black, and neutral... none. Then I set it for AC current and got 20uA red to neutral. So there are NO physical connections!!! I Didn't think there could be inductance here with such low voltage?? What gives?? I disconnected the red and taped off the ends so I'm using only the black for both fan and light. Replacing the 14/3 is gonna be next to impossible since the basement is finished. I even thought about the neutral being hot until I got 65v red to black. Any thoughts???
I was replacing a perfectly normal ceiling fan with something my wife likes better when I came across this mystery. The fan itself is controlled by the fan switch, while the light can be switched with either the light switch, or a wall switch.
I turned off the breaker, and removed the entire fixture. I then wanted to verify which hot was for the light, so I re-energised the breaker and put my meter on the bare wires in the ceiling. The black was 120v as expected, but when I checked the red to neutral I got 46v??? I checked the black to red and got around 65v???
Thinking the switch might be bad, I removed the red and left both ends open. Then tested the switch. Nothing. I then energised the black, and tested to neutral. 120v. Red to neutral 46v?? (The red is disconnected at BOTH ends!!!) Then I went to the wall switch side and repeated the test and got 20v red to neutral??
Then I set the meter for resistance and checked for continuity red to black, and neutral... none. Then I set it for AC current and got 20uA red to neutral. So there are NO physical connections!!! I Didn't think there could be inductance here with such low voltage?? What gives?? I disconnected the red and taped off the ends so I'm using only the black for both fan and light. Replacing the 14/3 is gonna be next to impossible since the basement is finished. I even thought about the neutral being hot until I got 65v red to black. Any thoughts???