Random wiring

keithdc

We moved in to our house a couple of months ago.

It was rewired approximately 2 years ago.

There are two oddities:
1) We have a switch on our kitchen wall (with integrated fuse), but we can't work out what it does. Have changed the fuse- made no difference.
2) We have an outside light in our back garden, but are unable to find a switch for it. I have changed the light and tried every switch- made no difference. The wire going in to the light looks new, so assume it was changed when house was rewired.

Is there any way (that doesn't involved taking walls/ ceilings apart) to follow wires and work out what is going on?

EssexExile

If you know what you are doing with electrics then yes you can check to see if the switch is connected to the light with a continuity tester or even a battery & a bulb.

societys_child

So the switch has nothing to do with the outside light, have you checked the bulb?

Is there any way (that doesn't involved taking walls/ ceilings apart) to follow wires and work out what is going on?

Yes, if you can't work it out, a sparky should be able to help.

Browntoa

Is there 240v at the outside light ?

Same on the wall switch .

Cheap multi meter will tell

coffeehound

The switch with fuse normally controls a socket below for a w/m or d/w — is there any such socket?

keith969

keithdc wrote: »

1) We have a switch on our kitchen wall (with integrated fuse), but we can't work out what it does. Have changed the fuse- made no difference.

Switches with integrated fuses in kitchens are often to isolate appliances e.g fridges, washing machines, dishwashers. do any of these stop working if you turn it off?

keithdc wrote: »

2) We have an outside light in our back garden, but are unable to find a switch for it. I have changed the light and tried every switch- made no difference. The wire going in to the light looks new, so assume it was changed when house was rewired.

Is there any way (that doesn't involved taking walls/ ceilings apart) to follow wires and work out what is going on?

More tricky. Perhaps as said the fitting is faulty?

keithdc

Thanks all- the switch with a fuse has no appliances nearby, and does not seem to do anything. (This is why we assumed it controlled the outside light as nothing else seemed to control it).


Assuming that the switch isn't for the outside light, is there any way to detect where the wiring from the outside light goes once inside to try and get an idea of what it is connected to?

If the house had not recently been re-wired, we would have just assumed it was some sort of random thing switch that controlled something many years ago.

Owain_Moneysaver

If (1) is near the sink it might be a point for a future waste disposer. If near the cooker, for a cooker hood.