I was replacing some light switches yesterday (wrong color) and didn't disconnect the circuit. On the last switch, I think I may have let the power lead touch the adjacent switch's front metal. The switches are not grounded but the box is metal and apparently it is grounded. So when you screw the switch down, that would ground it. I am not 100% sure that is what happened but it makes the most sense. At about the same time, my wife yelled that the Joey (dish device for extra TVs) blew up. I think I delayed going to see it to connect the hot wire to the switch. What I remember for sure is when I came back all that was left was putting the switch into the box. What may have happened is the two front plates of the switches touched, one grounded and the other not. But why would that spark? It wasn't big time stuff at the switches, just a black mark on the one switch about where the bottom screw goes. No significant pit in the metal.
LOML said the Joey threw up a major spark and started smoking. It was plugged into what I thought was a surge suppressor but may be just a power strip. Everything plugged into that strip doesn't work. A 42 inch plasma TV, a almost new blu-ray/streaming device, the Joey (which has a transformer at the strip plus little cord presumable low voltage) and a cheap clock. No breaker tripped.
There are two circuits in the switch box neither of which is on the same breaker as the bedroom where the Joey was. One of the circuits in the box had the hopper and another TV connected to it. They are on another power strip that might be a surge surpressor. Neither the outlet with the hopper in the great room or the bedroom outlet is grounded. They have three plug outlets but our tester says they are ungrounded.
So was this a weird coincidence or did the short at the switch, on a different circuit, cause the Joey to blow and all the other stuff too? Did the Joey catastrophically fail on its own and damage the TV and blu ray through the HDMI circuit?
LOML said the Joey threw up a major spark and started smoking. It was plugged into what I thought was a surge suppressor but may be just a power strip. Everything plugged into that strip doesn't work. A 42 inch plasma TV, a almost new blu-ray/streaming device, the Joey (which has a transformer at the strip plus little cord presumable low voltage) and a cheap clock. No breaker tripped.
There are two circuits in the switch box neither of which is on the same breaker as the bedroom where the Joey was. One of the circuits in the box had the hopper and another TV connected to it. They are on another power strip that might be a surge surpressor. Neither the outlet with the hopper in the great room or the bedroom outlet is grounded. They have three plug outlets but our tester says they are ungrounded.
So was this a weird coincidence or did the short at the switch, on a different circuit, cause the Joey to blow and all the other stuff too? Did the Joey catastrophically fail on its own and damage the TV and blu ray through the HDMI circuit?
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