there was working power in the whole apartment. after turning off the ceiling fan and returning the next day. power to the bathroom has gone out. i am replacing all the outlets and switches and light fixtures, and since they all werent working in the bathroom i figured there was no power. wrong. there is power in the lines but nothing in bathroom is working. the gfi is not working, the lights, the swiches, and the fan all were out. also in the kitchen i replaced the overhead light/fan above stove, the brand new one wont turn on, but theres power to black and white wires and ground is secure. whats happening? the light swich in the kitchen that is giving power to the bathroom is working and the rest of the house is fine. why would there be power in all the lines but nothing you wire into it will work??? i followed the power using my beep beep tester through the wall to the plug in the kitchen that controlls the kitchen lights. i removed the face plate to the double swich on the wall and found 4 wires comming into the box. all the white wires from all 4 are caped off togeather. all the black wires are caped togeather with the exception of 2 black going into the switches and one 4" piece of 14gaudge white coated wire going from the switches to the bundle of blacks all caped togeather. these switches are providing power to the bathroom and overhead fan by flowthrough. so the power is making it from the box to the switches to the bathroom. only somwhere from the switches to the bathroom the electricity stops working, but still reads… the new GFI and the new overhead stove fan will not work even though the power is making it to them and it is wired properly.
the Old GFI i tested before i tried replacing it, i used a plug in tester and it said the ground and hot were swiched… wierd because when i removed it from the box, it appeared to be wired properly and grounded. so i hooked up a brand new GFI. now the plug in tester doesnot read at all, but the little square light is orange. so theres power in it but its not reading…
i do not understand what is going on or why all the white wires in the lightswitch boxes are caped togeather and going nowhere…
light switch box in kitchen have 4 going in, light switch box in bathroom have 5 wires going in. all white wires are capped togeather.
Best Answer
The problem you are describing is known as an open-neutral. Essentially, all of the black wires are connected properly, but one of the white wires is not.
You will likely have to go back through all of the light/plug/switch boxes that are on that circuit until you find a loose white wire. You may have to double check that the connections are secure by removing the wire nut.
Be sure to turn off the circuit breaker before opening any neutral connections, opening these connections with the power on can be very dangerous!