Electrical Issue- in a house

Dani

Dani

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Hey y'all! Hope y'all had a great Christmas. We're not seeing much duck wise here in FL. So we haven't been out much. When we've been out, we've done well for the most part. Went out to the Gulf one day and we saw more sea turtles than we did ducks. Ah well...I have another month left so maybe something will happen

Anyway, I have a question for the electrical whizzes here......I turned my living room light on last night. It's a double switch (one for the living room, one for the outside porch light). The back of my finger brushed one of the face plate screws and it felt sharp, like it had a burr on it. I hadn't noticed that before, so I ran my finger over it thinking maybe I could find the burr and could feel the sharp but not really "where" so I stuck my finger on the screw and held it there......and very quickly removed my finger as it felt like the electricity from a shock with a shock collar. I haven't tried it again this morning to see if it's still electrified and I didn't get the volt meter out last night to see how much is going through the screw. I have no clue at where to start/how to fix that problem and don't want to start by just calling an electrician if it's something simple. Any thoughts?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Dani
 
Maybe a crack in the switch housing. Remove the cover and look for anything loose or cracked. I'm sure someone with more experience will post up soon.
 
Dani,
What you describe is not good. Find the breaker for that circuit and turn it off ASAP. Then open up the switch cover and check for bare wires exposed and touching. Disconnect the switches in that box (both of them) and test them out with a good tester. Look for a short to the metal mounting plate as well as for proper function. If you don't see any problems or bare wires, KEEP LOOKING!!
There HAS to be something energizing the screw you touched. Replacing the switches is easy and cheap. Might be the first thing to try if you don't find anything else. Is the box metal or plastic? Maybe the wire(s) is/are scrapped bare where they enter the box?
 
As Dave mentioned check for faulty insulation. Check your ground wire[bare no insulation] if it is attached to box or other grounds. Three wires are used for the switches to work. Check at the panel if the ground wire is also loose.
If you are not handy, have a electrician check it. If you mix up the wires, it will not work...
 
As Dave said. flip the breakers or pull the screws. Examine the wiring in both the panel and the box. Unless you can clearly see the issue replace both switches. Switches are cheap, homes and lives are not. If it is part of a 3 way circuit I would replace the other switches as well.
 
How old is your house? Do you have circuit breakers or fuses? Before you start poking around in that box please turn of the power. I agree with some of the guys that there is likely a wire that is making contact with the box and causing the problem. If it were the black wire it would be arching or tripping the breaker. look to see if the neutral white wire has a cut or bare end touching the box. Switches are cheap enough to replace and if they are single pole (on/off with just two wires and a ground attached it is very straight forward fix) If you see that it is this type of switch without a ground attached replace the switch and attach the ground (bare copper or aluminum wire) to the green screw.

If the switch is a three way switch and you need to replace it this is a little tougher one terminal on the switch will be a different (usually darker color) the wire on that terminal (common) must go to the off colored terminal on the new switch. the other wires can be flipped if the switch is in a different configuration than the old one as long as the common wire stays the same/
 
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