Do you have "mystery" light switches?

We moved into our new house in July and have so far found 3 switches that don’t seem to do anything. Two are in the dining room, the other is by the kitchen door. Of course we both joked about the switches running the neighbor’s garage door but in all honesty, we have no idea what they do. (I hung a calendar over one and pull the curtains over another.)

Anybody else have these?

Not now, but I have had them in the past.

I have had a mystery switch or two on car dashboards, too.

Another in the past, in both houses I owned.

I had one in my last apartment. It was in the bedroom, right where one would be for the main light–except there was no overhead lighting.

Incidentally, I also had an electrical outlet on the other side of the room that never worked.

I’m pretty sure it was on the day that I moved out that I realized the light switch provided the power for that outlet. I could have had a wall-controlled lamp the whole time. At least, having figured it out, I was able to recognize a similar arrangement in the living room of my new apartment–and take advantage of it.

Friends had one. We think there was a kitchen exhaust fan removed since there was a board on the siding outside that would be right over the stove inside.

We had one in one of our bedrooms. It was a switch for a ceiling fan, but we didn’t have a ceiling fan installed in that room.

Of course the first thing I thought of when I opened the thread was the old Steven Wright joke. :smiley:

Yep, no idea what it does. It’s part of a set of two in the kitchen, but it doesn’t run the light or fan or…anything else I can figure out. All the outlets in the kitchen work fine, so…<shrug>
Sorry, whoever’s lights I keep switching on and off when I hit the wrong one!

Cut it out. :smiley:

in the USA it is required to have lights operated for that room by a switch at the door. having it switch a receptacle (or half of one) meets this requirement. even if a room has a switchable ceiling light it still may have a switchable receptacle for different lighting effect or appliance use.

things can also get disconnected; there may be porch, garage or yard lights which no longer exist.

also what had been a 3-way or 4-way switch may have been disconnected and the circuit rewired as a 3-way or single switch.

Had friends who moved in to a new house and found two switches with indeterminate function. Their first electric bill was outrageous, but they paid it. Then they got their next electric bill and it is even more unbelievable.

They called the electric company to complain, but were told to hire an electrician. They did. The switches (which were in the “on” position this whole time) operated a heat grid in the front walk, meant for de-icing. They heated the sidewalk in June and July.

We have switches near the doors of both bedrooms that so far as we can tell do not control any outlet in their respective rooms (we checked). Maintenance is mystified.

Cite on that requirement?

There’s one by the front door of my apartment. I think it used to control the light outside the front door. But those lights are now on permanently at night as de facto street lights.

There’s a couple in my bedroom. One controls an outside light on the corner of the house opposite my bedroom (WTF!???) No idea what the other does.

Yes… a previous owner of our house added a garage and turned the old one into a rec room. The laundry/utility room between the kitchen and what used to be the garage has two switches; one for its own light and one that does I know not what.

My husband might know if I ever bothered to ask him.

Yes, we have a set of four switches by our front door. One controls a hall light, one the garage lights, one the porch light, and the other doesn’t seem to control anything. My husband thinks it used to control a yard light which is no longer there.

We’ve got three in our new house.
Actually, we have two. We finally figured out one controls power to a motion-sensor light outside.
The other two really don’t seem to do anything. One day, I’ll at least take the cover off to see if there are even wires hooked up.

My house is full of panels of four switches, where only three (or in one case, only two) actually do anything.

Also a weird one next to the stove–a single switch–that turns off the nearest outlet. That is the only thing it does. This outlet is something like ten inches from the switch. I really don’t understand the point of that one, but at least I know about it. I guess, if your crockpot is on fire and you don’t want to turn it off and are afraid to unplug it, it’s convenient to have a switch…or something.

I would so love to have one of these connected to my driveway!

But just as well I don’t, because I’d probably accidentally flip it in the summer myself.

I have sort of a mystery: two light switches that work a ceiling light that had been removed long before I bought my house.

The wiring is odd in other ways. There’s an entire circuit that works two outlets and the doorbell, but everything in the kitchen but the stove is on another. One circuit controls the basement lights, the side door lights – and one outlet in the bedroom.

My house is full of them - when I was having it built some years ago, I had them block and wire most of the rooms for ceiling fans, but I haven’t actually installed any yet. So each bedroom, and two downstairs rooms all have the “extra” switch that doesn’t do anything.