Soooooooooooooo, we had a light that didn't work

[conuly]

in the downstairs front hall. Hasn't worked in over a decade. Flip the switch, nothing happens.

I happened to be lying on the floor today when I saw....

Me: Huh. Hey, Jenn? Does that hall light have a pull cord?

Jenn: What? No, I don't think so.

Me: I'm looking right at it. You just can't see it because there's less than an inch of it left, right up against the ceiling.

After I sourced the stepladder and a new light bulb it turns out - the whole time, the only reason it didn't work was because the pull cord was set to off.

Welp, it's fixed now!

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Comments

[adafrog]

Woo!

[conuly]

We’re so excited.

[archersangel]

kind of weird that a ceiling light would have a switch and a pull cord. but what do i know?

glad there's a light in the hall now.

[conuly]

It wouldn’t be so weird if that switch controlled two lights (but it doesn’t) or if there was a fan (there isn’t) but I’ve given up understanding the weird wiring choices in this house!

[movingfinger]

It was likely a switched light and someone replaced the fixture with a pull-cord one. But just leaving it OFF!??

Congratulations on your better-lit hall!

[conuly]

I'm assuming that the cord broke as they turned it off using the cord, and nobody could be bothered to ever clamber up there and pull it back on, so eventually everybody just forgot about it.

[malada]

Yeh! Fix-It-Woman!

[conuly]

I am amazing.

[thewayne]

We have two light switches like that. But no ceiling fixtures that do not work.

[conuly]

Apparently that ceiling fixture worked the entire time!

[thewayne]

That's pretty awesome.  Sometimes you run into stupid things like that.

[darkoshi]

I replaced a bedroom light-switch, thinking it had gone bad. It was one of the old kind that glows in the dark with a tiny incandescent interior bulb when it is turned off. It was no longer glowing nor turning the light on or off. It controlled the light fixture of a ceiling fan which had 2 pull cords which I seldom pull (but not never).

After replacing the switch, to get the ceiling light to work, I also had to pull one of those pull cords. D'oh.
So the old light switch may have been fine all along, or perhaps its interior light only burned out. I didn't feel like swapping the light switches again to find out.

[conuly]

Fair!