Question Details	Asked By	Asked On
Low current to outlets	caldera	08/22/04
One outlet circuit in my home is not working properly. When I plug a lamp into any for the sockets you can barely tell the light bulb is burning. In fact you would swear it wasn't. There is just enough juice coming through that the filament in the bulb burns red. Nothing wrong with the light bulb or lamp. Nothing else plugged into any of the outlets and the wall switches on the same circuit don't work either. What could be wrong?
Answered By		Answered On
labman		08/24/04
The problem could be a bad connection anywhere from the circuit breaker or fuse to the first outlet or switch that isn't working. This includes the circuit breaker or fuse itself. Check both the black and white wires. The white wire may be grounded, but current must have a low resistance path through it back to ground. Check at an outlet. You should have about 115 V between the black and both the ground and white wire. The white wire and ground should have a low resistance between them. All electrical connections are required to be assessable. In a house, most of the branch connections are in switch or outlet boxes. Another possibility is the main fuse or circuit breaker. If one side is open, power will flow from the other side through any 220 volt circuit in use to the open side. This will create a low voltage in that side. If you have many circuits, I would expect you would be having trouble in more of them.

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