Broken light switch

Posted by John Grabowski on September 3, 2008, 7:11 pm

>I recently moved into an older house. There is a light switch by the front
>door that doesn't seem to do anything. All the light fixtures inside and
>outside have good bulbs in them and switch on and off.
> Why would there be a switch by the door with no light?

As others mentioned there could be a wall receptacle controlled by that
switch. Since it is an older house anything is possible. I've opened up
switches in homes only to find that no wires are connected to them. There
may have been some additional lighting outside that was eliminated at some
point. Like someone else mentioned there may have been a ceiling fixture
that was eliminated and the ceiling electrical box was covered over. When
you do some remodeling you may find out what it is for.

Posted by RBM on September 3, 2008, 7:19 pm

As others have said, it could be for a switched outlet or half outlet. It
could also be for a switched outdoor outlet, possibly used for Christmas
lights, or possibly for a future post lamp that never materialized

Posted by Cheri on September 3, 2008, 7:58 pm

>>I recently moved into an older house. There is a light switch by the

front

>>door that doesn't seem to do anything. All the light fixtures inside

and

>>outside have good bulbs in them and switch on and off.
>> Why would there be a switch by the door with no light?
>> TIA
>> Anna

Good question. There was one of those in this house when we bought it
many years ago. It's on the inside by the slider that goes to the
patio, but I've never found out what it's for. :-)

Cheri

Posted by Rudy on September 3, 2008, 7:21 pm

Look around OUTSIDE near the eaves of the home. Our place (and our last one
also) had two outdoor duplex outlets up near the gutters that were intended
to be used to plug in Xmas lights. Switch(es) were inside

>I recently moved into an older house. There is a light switch by the front
>door that doesn't seem to do anything

Posted by Walter R. on September 4, 2008, 12:48 am

My inoperative switch actually led to a transformer for low voltage outdoor
lights. Lights had been long removed, huge transformer was still in the
attic.

--
Walter
www.rationality.net
-

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