I've got 2 in my kitchen that I have no idea what they do. One is in it's own box on one side of the sink, the other is in a 2 gang box with a switch that controls a light above the sink. There is no box under the sink for a disposal, none of the outlets top or bottom are switched, and there is nothing in the attic for an outside light.

I'm stumped.

How old is the house? Got power at the switch(s) in question?

I have one in the master bath. I can only assume there were two lights above the double sinks and the previous owner made it into a single light

Maybe the one next to the sink is for a disposal and the wire might be buried in the wall?

Have you removed the cover plates to see if the switches are even wired?

I have two in my home. One is in the bathroom and was supposedly going to be for an external light. One is next to the front door and I have absolutely no idea what it's for.

House was built in the 80s.

quote:

Originally posted by GaryBF:
Have you removed the cover plates to see if the switches are even wired?

I just pulled one of them, the switch isn't connected, the hots and neutrals are tied/taped with wire nuts. Wherever the wire runs, it's sitting there hot. I suppose it could be for a switched outlet that is no longer switched.

Dishwasher shut off? We have one by our disposal switch.

We have one in our new (old) house that doesn’t seem to be connected to anything. Shortly after moving in I’d go over and flick it on and off a few times just for the heck of it. About a month later I got a letter from a woman in Germany saying “Cut it out!”

quote:

Originally posted by bronicabill:
We have one in our new (old) house that doesn’t seem to be connected to anything. Shortly after moving in I’d go over and flick it on and off a few times just for the heck of it. About a month later I got a letter from a woman in Germany saying “Cut it out!”

Reminded me of a scene from married with children.
Al could not figure out what a light switch was for.
As he is flipping it on and off a light over the dog house is going on and off.

Sounds like a Steven Wright joke.

quote:

Originally posted by Orguss:
I have two in my home. One is in the bathroom and was supposedly going to be for an external light. One is next to the front door and I have absolutely no idea what it's for.

I have 1 by my front door, it controls 2 wall plugs. Instead of putting overhead lighting they just wired the switches so you would have light when you came home...I put in ohl when we bought but that dam switch controls were are phone base is plugged in. My daughter resets my phone every time she brings her dogs over, the switch next to it is the porch light.

reminds me of a trick the framers played on an electrician once who was always grumpy.

being in the construction business now and then we would play tricks on each other, one day the framers were dealing with a grumpy electrician and after he was finished and before sheet rock went up a guy nailed a wire to the wall studs that went nowhere labeled it stereo power and let it stick out the wall, when the electrician came back to hook up the final plugs he spent a full day trying to make the stereo plug hot finally gave up and tore off some sheet rock. he never figured out who did it and no one confessed.

quote:

Originally posted by XLT:
...one day the framers were dealing with a grumpy electrician and after he was finished and before sheet rock went up a guy nailed a wire to the wall studs that went nowhere labeled it stereo power and let it stick out the wall, when the electrician came back to hook up the final plugs he spent a full day trying to make the stereo plug hot finally gave up and tore off some sheet rock. he never figured out who did it and no one confessed.

How much did the homeowner get charged for the materials and labor for that day?

Yeah, I know, I'm kind of a stick-in-the-mud, but this is one of the reasons I hate practical jokes.

quote:

Originally posted by Gustofer:
How much did the homeowner get charged for the materials and labor for that day?
Yeah, I know, I'm kind of a stick-in-the-mud, but this is one of the reasons I hate practical jokes.

Nothing extra, that's not how it works.

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Phantom light switches

I'm original owner of a 2016 home and had some "phantom" light switches.

One in the kitchen is for those dangly lights that hang over the island. My kitchen has 6 recessed lights so it's plenty bright and I didn't want to spend the money. There are single gang wall boxes with plates over them in the ceiling.

I have a wall switch on the other side of the kitchen for the outlet with the garbage disposal in the island. Took me a while to figure out why the garbage disposal stopped working suddenly.

In other words, the OP should look for plates in the ceiling for future lights and switched outlets.

The wall switch in one of the two bathrooms used to turn the vanity mirror light on/off, and the outlet next to the vanity. I thought that was pretty stupid.

When I removed the plate for the wall plug, to install a GFCI outlet (bathroom), I found a pair of wire-nutted wires in there, along with the wires connected to the outlet and that went elsewhere. "What the...?" Tested. Hot. Removed the outlet from the circuit it was on and put it on the constantly-hot pair.

Why blazes somebody did that I've no idea. There was no rhyme or reason to it.

quote:

Originally posted by Jimg1960:

quote:

Originally posted by Orguss:
I have two in my home. One is in the bathroom and was supposedly going to be for an external light. One is next to the front door and I have absolutely no idea what it's for.

I have 1 by my front door, it controls 2 wall plugs. Instead of putting overhead lighting they just wired the switches so you would have light when you came home...I put in ohl when we bought but that dam switch controls were are phone base is plugged in. My daughter resets my phone every time she brings her dogs over, the switch next to it is the porch light.

Simple Fix - delete the switch, disconnect the wires from the switch, wire nut them together, then install a switch blank in the cover plate. Just make sure you kill power to the circuit first

No phantom switches in my house, but after reading this thread there will be when it comes time to sell. I've got plenty of old work boxes and switches laying around.

quote:

Originally posted by P250UA5:
Dishwasher shut off? We have one by our disposal switch.

I've got 3 switches near the kitchen sink, 1 for the light over the sink, 1 for the disposal and 1 goes to the outlet for the dishwasher. I always wondered why the dishwasher would need a switch...