Intermittent Electrical Receptacles

Q: This house is only about 3 years old. We have a strange problem with the electrical outlets. It seems that sometimes they go dead. For instance, I have a AA battery charger plugged in here. If I do not use it for a while then put some batteries in it, the charger will not come on. I plug other things in and they will not work either. After a couple of days the outlet starts to work again. We have a laptop plugged in downstairs and yesterday it shut down because the battery went dead. I unplugged it and plugged it back in at the next outlet a few feet away and it started right up. Today I went to turn a stereo on that is on the same wall and I am guessing the same circuit and it would not come on either. What could possibly cause outlets to go dead like that? I am no electrician but I have a basic grasp of electricity and I am completely baffled.

A: It is most likely a loose wire on a terminal on a receptacle or at the main distribution panel on the breaker terminal or the neutral terminal. More complex however, it can also be loose connection in a wire connector, one bad receptacle or a nail in a wire that has split a conductor.

The first thing to check is the distribution panel. If those two terminals are tight, (black on the breaker and white on the neutral bar) try to locate the first device in the circuit, in 95% of the cases the wires are run to the physically closest device on that circuit and then to the second closest, etc. Remember that the bad connection can just as easily be in a light fixture or switch box.

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Light Wiring

Q: I took out an old fixture in the kitchen. It was a box with 2 sets of wires running to it. This is old wiring so each black insulated wire contained one brown and one black wire. I should have noticed how they were intermingled but I didn't although I seem to remember that one brown and one black were together. So first I wired the light to just one set of brown and black. Sure it works but does not shut off with the switch. Then I tried wiring to just the 2nd set. I got nothing. Then I tried brown to brown, black to black-both into light-the light works but does not turn off. Tried cross wiring, brown to black, brown to black. Fuse blew, so there must be power to the switch in the 2nd set of wires, but how to I wire them into the set that I hooked up to the light? I don't want to have climb up on a ladder and unscrew the bulbs every time. And the fuse also controls the basement lights, where the fuse box is of course, and I don't want to blow a bunch of fuses trying other combinations. Any insight appreciated.

A: What you have is a standard light controlled by a switch. One set of brown and black wires brings in the power to the light and the other set of brown black wires is from the switch.

Join the two black wires together.

Join one brown wire to the white wire on the light fixture.

Join the other brown wire to the black wire on the light fixture.

It doesn’t matter which brown wire goes to the white wire and which brown wire goes to the white wire.

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