odd wiring results

[Bill George]

That is why I carried a Wiggy as a real electrician, it puts a load on the circuit. With a digital you will never know what your reading, unless you have a actual neutral or ground wire. I carried a Fluke 77 for the electronics stuff. BTW my son has a circuit in his house that the siding guy nicked with a staple or nail and it can not be used.

[Jim Koepke]

There should have been no load. The wiring to the switch was floating at the non switch end. It was just acting as an antenna. the switch was off. Voltage to ladder was just touch one meter lead to ungrounded aluminum ladder on rubber feet on dry concrete floor. Other lead to incoming hot lead. I suppose the neon lamp could be a current draw but one side is tied to the neutral wire was not connected at the far end.
Bill D
Bill D

The ladder is working like one plate of a capacitor. With AC, a capacitor may act like a resistor.

The other plate of the capacitor is the ground. My father showed me this principle many years ago with a neon test light, holding one probe and touching the other to the hot side of an AC line.

Are you sure of your wiring and how it is done?

Are you sure you're not working with a multiple switch circuit?

I think a wire nut connection jumped loose in the ceiling box and turned out the lights. So two seperate problems that breaker may have been tripped off for three years or more.

In an earlier post you mentioned some questionable practices of the person who wired this. Is it possible there are junctions somewhere else that could be causing the problem?

Having worked with electrical things for over 65 years, my confidence in working on electrical things is pretty good. I do know there are things with which I shouldn't mess, and things where extra care is needed.

Some recent electrical work for my greenhouse, finished yesterday, involved changing out some breakers. It also involved wasps making nests inside of one breaker panel. Even after all of these years it brought me to learn a few new things.

Without knowing your level of electrical training, it is worrisome to advise you to do something that could lead to serious damage or injury.

Not being able to see your situation makes it near impossible to recommend any course of action other than calling a professional to do a proper rewiring.

jtk