Electrical – Room dead from light switch

electrical

I live in a sun home trailer and the light really got on my nerves because when you flip the switch the light takes a minute to kick on and when it kicks on it is dim but it flips back and forth from dim to bright over and over for a while then it stays bright until you turn it off. So I decided to try and fix it myself. Nothing was wrong with the light itself, but I went into the light switch to see what's up and I thought "let me try to connect this weird copper wire (that's connected to nothing, it's just in there) to the screw holding the wire from the side of the switch". I flipped the switch on on and all I heard was a small buzzing sound, the light didn't turn on and the TV cuts off. I instantly cut the switch and disconnected the copper wire and now now nothing in my room works. No outlets or the switch works but everything else in the house works but this room. Help me out – I'm lost. I tried doing the fuse box it didn't work.

Best Answer

I hate to put it this way, but you are in way over your skill level. I highly recommend getting a professional electrician to help at this point.

You connected the ground wire that to the switched hot. When you turned on the switch, you shorted the circuit. That should have caused a fuse to blow or a breaker to trip. Based on "I tried doing the fuse box it didn't work.", you either have not found the correct fuse or breaker, or some part of the electrical wiring in the room (possibly at the switch, possibly at an outlet) burned up (literally) and broke the circuit.

Hopefully a fuse or breaker did trip - if not then the safety of your fuses/breakers is questionable. But even if you find the fuse (and replace it) or breaker (and reset it), there is definitely a possibility of damage due to arcing in any/all of the devices on that circuit (switch, receptacles, any wire junctions).

Now for the educational part: Most circuits have a hot wire, a neutral wire and a ground wire. Normally (there are exceptions in various situations), the hot wire is black or another color besides white, gray or green; the neutral wire is white or gray; and the ground wire is green or bare copper. There are a number of situations where the ground wire is not connected - particularly switches. In those situations, there still should not be any loose ground wires - they should be connected to each other, to metal boxes or capped - they should not be floating around loose as you found. Simply connecting wires "because it is there" doesn't usually end very well.

As for your specific original problem, my hunch is you have a fluorescent light that needs a new ballast and/or starter and/or bulb.