fisherelectric
Senior Member
- Location
- Northern Va
Stopped by one of my jobs today and the electrician working there was repairing some totally screwed up existing wiring. He went down to turn on the breaker to the circuit he was working on. When the power came on a table lamp with a cfl in it came on but was flashing a couple times a second. I was looking at it, scratching my head, when I noticed a computer across the room was also flashing on and off. I unplugged the computer immediately and when I did the lamp across the room quit flashing and went off. Plugged it back in... lamp and computer started flashing again. Checked out his wiring and found that he had miswired something and somehow had the receptacles wired in series through a switchleg (all the receptacles were half-hot) When the computer was plugged in it completed the circuit and allowed the table lamp to come on. Not sure exactly what he did wrong because we just took it apart and rewired it correctly. I figure that maybe the computer was completing the circuit, coming on for a second, and then shutting off immediately, then coming right back on causing the flashing effect. Never seen anything like that before.
