I know this isn’t really amateur radio, but I thought some of you might be interested in this. After eating breakfast Monday morning, I flipped the light switch in the dining room, but the light didn’t go off. I thought how the heck could the light switch have busted. I’ve never had a light switch fail.
I went downstairs, and turned off the circuit breaker to the light, and then, at lunch time, I drove over to my favorite hardware store—Stadium Hardware, 2177 W. Stadium Blvd., Ann Arbor. I purchased a replacement, drove home, and ten minutes later, I was back in business.
Last night, I got curious about what could have gone wrong. I drilled out the rivets holding the swith together, and when I separated the top from the bottom, the problem was obvious (see below). One leg of the plastic rocker arm broke off, and there was nothing to keep the two contacts apart. (Note that this is actually a two-way switch that I was using as a one-way switch. If the other arm had broken off instead, the switch would probably have continued working.)
Joshua DC7IA and KK4RVI says
Funny thing is: A switch like that would be illegal in Germany. It seems that Germany has higher standards to electrical installation.
Also interesting: Light switch in Wikipedia https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light_switch
Also obvious for all the other people: Playing with electrical wiring can be deadly. It should only be done by a skilled electrician. There’s a lot a things you can do wrong. So only do electrical stuff if you know what you do. :)
Merry Christmas and 73
Dan KB6NU says
What about it would be illegal? There’s always a question about whether regulations are too strict or not. Germany also uses 220 VAC mains voltage, so I’d guess that’s a factor as well.
I disagree that electrical work should only be done by a skilled electrician. If you take the proper precautions, such as turning off the circuit breaker like I did, a simple repair, like replacing a light switch or electrical outlet, is perfectly safe. And, doing it yourself saves a lot of money.
Joshua DC7IA and KK4RVI says
Maybe it has something to do with 230 VAC, maybe it has something to do with the fact that we want everything extra safe in Germany. Don’t know.
Even while replacing a simple switch there’s a risk to burn your house. Not everyone knows that you need to have a good connection betweet wires and the switch. So what I want to say: If you know how to do it – fine. But I don’t want to suggest that it is a good idea for everyone. I know enough people who would kilm themselves or nearly did. (And our 230 V are a lot more dangerous, as it only takes a few mA to stop a heart or damage it seriously.)
As a fun fact: I’ve never seen a broken switch in Germany, but people still using ~100 years old switches.
Again: Do it if you know what you do. :)
73
Vance says
Dan – I think you might have snuck in my house – just last night I went to flip the switch in my basement, and the switch felt like “mush” as I flipped it and nothing happened (lights didn’t go off). Mine is a 3-way, wired as such, so it did turn off with the other switch. When I replace it I’ll have to tear mine apart and see if it’s the same thing going on as yours – maybe they’lol start a massive light switch recall because of us ?
Dan KB6NU says
If you do tear it apart, send me the photo, and I’ll post it here.
Dave New, N8SBE says
Strikes me as unsafe because the switch didn’t ‘fail safe’. It left the circuit powered on. What if that switch was used to turn on the garbage disposal unit, and therefore, it plays a double role as an emergency off switch?
New home construction routinely uses a simple unlabeled(?!) switch for that function, where I would think they should require a proper emergency off button that you have to pull to turn on, but just striking it would turn the circuit off. Also, the switch would have to be designed so that common failure modes would ‘fail safe’, if at all.