While renovating my mother's family room, I need to remove the light fixtures. So I flipped the breaker. The lights went off. I was about to remove and luckily double checked for voltage. I found it was still live. Went back to the breaker switched it on and all the lights came back on. Does anyone have an idea what's wrong with my breaker or is it just a bum current detector?
Wiring – Why is there still voltage in the wires when the breaker is off
circuit breakerlight-fixturewiring
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Best Answer
What you are seeing is called phantom voltage. This is a voltage induced from another live circuit that is running parallel to your now dead circuit.
Proof the breaker worked all the lights went out.
Phantom voltage is a voltage and depending on several factors it may be 120v but there is no current potential thus the lights are out.
There is a possibility that this could be part of a multiwire branch circuit And the neutral is conducting the other circuits power back to the source. And that’s why multiwire branch circuits require handle ties by modern code.