Well, Crud
My new goal for the back yard has been to restore power so that a) electrical power tools can be plugged in outside instead of through the door and into the dining room, and b) I can explore new lighting and water design options.
So, I pulled out the dead outlet, which I know at some point suffered a terrible death by way of a metal object being poked into it. I know this because there's still a piece of that metal object sticking out of it. I was hoping that the dead outlet was the problem. However, my voltage detector couldn't find a lick of current even coming into the box. Which means something beyond my reach is preventing power from reaching those wires, and a new outlet isn't going to do me much good.
So now, I don't know what I should do. Either a) I find someone to fix the electrical problem surrounding the outlet, or b) I rig the porch light with a socket adapter to allow things to be plugged in up there.
GAH!
So, I pulled out the dead outlet, which I know at some point suffered a terrible death by way of a metal object being poked into it. I know this because there's still a piece of that metal object sticking out of it. I was hoping that the dead outlet was the problem. However, my voltage detector couldn't find a lick of current even coming into the box. Which means something beyond my reach is preventing power from reaching those wires, and a new outlet isn't going to do me much good.
So now, I don't know what I should do. Either a) I find someone to fix the electrical problem surrounding the outlet, or b) I rig the porch light with a socket adapter to allow things to be plugged in up there.
GAH!
no subject
- If it is on a dedicated circuit, I would suspect a bad breaker. They do go bad sometimes, particularly when subjected to metal objects stuck into outlets! Breakers are cheap. BTW: breakers are specific to the brand of breaker box you have.
- If there are other things on that same circuit/breaker (like the porch light), it could be that the wires were disconnected at an upstream box. Would take a bit of poking around to find where. Not sure why someone would do this, unless they just did not want to replace the $4 outlet, or unless they determined that the wires are damaged in the wall. Look for capped off wires in other boxes on that same circuit, but proceed with caution hooking them back up.