I
may have mentioned before that I love to use “to-do” lists to keep me focused
on the important jobs
that need to be done. They allow me to prioritize what I do and help prevent me from getting side
tracked. Today was a pretty productive day but at some point in the mid-afternoon I got to a job where I was to install a smart dimmer switch in our family room.
There were actually three similar jobs, the smart switch, a Ring doorbell and replace
a light fixture in my closet. These jobs have been on my list for months because I keep
bumping them thinking that I can do these kinds of things in the evening after
dark. I try and do physical work in the morning so I’m not too tired later in
the day. These other jobs I could do when I’m tired.
So
I got around to my smart switch around the mid-afternoon and had the switch
wired up in about 15 minutes. I went to fire it up and it didn’t work. I got checking
things out and realized that my dining room light and my kitchen light (both smart
switches) didn’t work either. Well if working on one switch messed up other switches
then it must have been that power to those lights came through the switch I
just worked on. I double checked and I had it wired correctly so then I checked
to see if I had power. Since the neutral wires had a wire nut on them I just checked
the hot wire and sure enough, there was power.
I
then tore apart the dining room and kitchen switches. That was a nightmare
because they were two fat switches packed into a double box with a mess of
wires going through it. It is a very tight fit. So I pulled those switches out
and they also had power. Very confusing. I then disconnected the switches and
remove them so all I have is bare wires. No fancy electronics with WiFi radios
in them, just bare wires. The hot wire had power but when I touched them to the
switch wire nothing happened. It didn’t seem possible.
It
was then that I noticed that the lights in the computer room weren’t working
either. It was on a dimmer switch so I started getting worried. The four
switches that didn’t work were all switches with fancy electronics. Was it
possible that I had created voltage spike and had fried all the electronics. That
thought was compounded when I realized that a lamp in the front room (on a
smart plug) didn’t work either.
As
I thought it all out I realized that couldn’t be the problem because I had
removed the kitchen and dining room switches altogether. No electronics.
After
scratching my head for a while I decided to go back to the source of the problem,
my new dimmer switch. I remove it entirely and looked at the wires I had left. I
had a hot wire coming in and a hot wire going out. The two neutral wires for
those hot wires and then I had a wire going to the light. I checked power in
all the wires and confirmed that the hot wire was hot and I connected it to the
wire leaving the plug for the kitchen etc. It had to take the power to the
kitchen but nothing. I then connected the light to the hot wire and it worked
so that was progress.
It
was so confusing that I was considering calling an electrician but this wasn’t
rocket science and I knew an electrician would do the same thing I was doing.
Finally,
after playing with these wires for at least three hours I was pulling on one of
the neutral wires and it wiggled. That was weird, these are 14 gauge solid
copper wires, they are rigid and they don’t wiggle. Upon closer examination I
realized that about three inches down the copper wire was broken. I have no
idea how that could happen but an intermittent open circuit like that can make
trouble shooting very difficult.
It
took another 20 minutes to wire everything back up and get them stuffed into
their boxes and Alexa was back in business. As of now every single light in my
downstairs is controlled by Alexa except the computer room (its next), the
laundry room, the bathroom and my office. My thermostat and television are also
controlled by Alexa. 
