Silly question about mystery electical wall switch

[crimp56]

I purchased my 1989 shamrock MH 2.5 years ago. The previos owner gave me no imformation about the home and I have had to discover/figure out things on my own. I still have a few mysteries that I have not been able to figure out. One is: next to my front entrace way, I have a set of three electrical switches (indoors on the wall next to the door) One is for my outdoor light, one is to switch on and off an electrical outlet just below it, but for the life of me I can not figure out what the third switch is for. It does not control any of the other nearby wall outlets and I have no overhead ceiling lights in that room or the ajoining room, so its not for that. Short of hiring an electrition, how can I found out what that switch is for? Any suggestions/ideas? I also have a mystery outdoor water shutoff valve problem, but that will be in another question. BTW this site is great!

[Brenda (OH)]

You may want to search the archives, but i remember one post last year, the mystery switch was for the furnace, probably gas furnace? so that is was able to be turned off from the near the door if there was a fire..... I think that switch had a red cover.

I also have had mystery switches near exterior doors be for wall outlets, so that a lamp can be switched on when you enter the home. it may only go to one of the two plugs in the outlet. that one you could test by sticking a radio in the wall outlets in the room that the door enters into, and throw the switch.

hope that is a start....

Brenda (OH)

[crimp56]

Thank you for the quick reply. It is definitly not a furnace switch, because mt furnace swith is next to my back door right in the vicinty od the furnace. The mystery switch near my front door does not appear to control anything that I can pinpoint. As I mentioned in my original post, it does not control any of the outlets in that room or any adjoining room, I have tested them all. I do have an outdoor electrical outlet wich I thought that switch might control, but Ive tested it and it doesnt. It is not for my heat tape, as the heat tape has a thermostat on it and I have it on a breaker. I have even wondered if my front sidewalk icould be electrically heated in the witer, but toggleing that mystery switch makes no differnce when snow or ice is on the walkway. Im totally stumped! That switch must have been put there for something. When I sold my house to buy this MH, I told the buyer of my house EVERYTHING I could think of about the house so he wouldnt have to wonder about what does what, or where is this or that. I wish the sellers of my MH had done the same

[gman]

I have three at my front door also. One runs outside light one runs my ceiling fan and the last one runs a three can light bar mounted to the ceiling in front of my TV cabinet.

These are all factory installed. You may have had a similar thing but one of the ceiling lights may have been removed during a repair or renovation.

[Greg]

It may very well be for a ceiling fan. Do you have a blank box in the ceiling? if so it could be prewired for a fan. Greg

[Bea]

The mystery switch in my bathroom turned out to be an outside light on the end of the house with no windows. It took me about six months to figure it out.

But then maybe it goes to the fan in my old (stick-built) house. There was a fan but no switch, and it wasn't tied in to the ceiling light. Sigh, somebody else's problem now, lol.

[Brenda (OH)]

renovations... and creating mysteries...opps..lol

yup, just remembered, my electrician "created" a dead switch when we worked on the garage door opener, and he did not have a blank cover plate to put over the box, and I am supposed to go get one, and take out the switch, it is an older unusual sized box..

and another electrician created a mystery breaker in my my breaker box in the mobile home I am rehabbing, when we had to leave a disconnected breaker in position to fill a space in the service panel when he had to use different combination of breakers to repair it... and I better get that labeled soon too... lol

guess what I am saying is, electricians will leave behind disconnected switches, if you do not insist on them cutting out the switch and joining the wires and then putting a blank cover over the space, because it costs more, and the special switch plate that is solid is a speciality item they don't always have with them. and the disconnected switch is "not hurting anything" so they told me.... except future owner's sanity.....


Brenda (OH)

[tritontr]

Before doing this turn off the breaker to those switches and still be careful in case one of the switches is still hot. First thing I would do (and you may have done this) is take the switch plate off and look to see if any wires are connected to the mystery switch. If not no sense in looking any further. If there is wires connected to that switch see if there is a wire on the top screw and one on the bottom screw of the switch. If there is only one wire connected to either the top or bottom screw and the other is empty no need to go any further again. I have three switches one goes to the porch light one to the overhead light inside when you enter and the third to outside flood lights. Good luck

[SchemeFighter]

One good silly question deserves another good silly question.

I vaguely seem to remember a testing device to trace wires behind walls. I think I saw a similar thing in the hardware store the other day. It looked like a transmitter that you stick in an outlet, then you could go to the breaker box with a receiver and detect which circuit breaker to use to turn off the outlet. I vaguely seem to remember a similar device that essentially was a transmitter that you could attach to a wire to an unknown switch then you could use a receiver to locate and to track the approximate path of the wire so you could find where the wire went.

Do these devices still exist other than my memory and or imagination?

If so how much do they cost? Would it be a violation of message board ethics to name names if there are any? If it isn’t a violation of ethics; could someone list some names? I don’t want to be accused of being a spammer.

Perhaps if someone answers my silly question it might help me and other people.

I also have a mystery switch.

In trailers I think sometimes mystery switches are used for seasonal devices; such as an improvised outlet near the water shut off. The switch is often used to switch an outlet to turn on and off heat tape to prevent the waterline entry from freezing, sometimes it’s used for external Christmas lighting, or lighting to work on the water heater box or and outside outlet for mowing the lawn with electric mower or to provide power to a patio/deck/grill or picnic table. I think these outlets are often switched so that the heat tape will last longer and won’t waste electricity and I think sometimes outside outlets are switched so that neighbors can’t easily steal electricity while you’re gone.


I did a similar search and found an improvised outlet under the skirt underneath the water heater box right next to the waterline. I made a glorified extension cord that runs into the GFI outlet to my deck. On my deck it looks like fairly professional and permanent outlets switches and lighting; little do most people know it’s a glorified extension cord. I could just unplug a few things and drive off if need be. The way I did it was a way to get around some of the local codes but yet still be practical and safe for the application. When I first looked at it, it was muddy and laying in the muddy water with no GFI and electrically hot. I replaced the outlet with a GFI and mounted it at a higher elevation in a dry place.

I really did not like the idea of an outlet laying on the ground as a hidden shock hazard in the muddy water and attached to an old frayed rusted and rotted heat tape attached to my copper plumbing with the neighbors downspout from his carport just a few inches away.

The carport and down spout were metal and it was in ane area that the water frequently pools; it was an accident just waiting to happen. As I said it originally was not a GFI outlet when I found it laying in the muddy water under the trailer.

[Yanita]

Hi,

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