# Do you have "mystery" light switches? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 18, 2012, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-mystery-light-switches/638134 "2012-10-18T15:54:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-mystery-light-switches/638134/21 "2012-10-18T17:43:13Z")
> [@johnpost](#): > > 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. Is there a national standard for that? ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-mystery-light-switches/638134/22 "2012-10-18T17:46:37Z")
> [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](#): > > 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. A garbage disposal may have been wired to that outlet at one time. But it’s still silly to do that. Maybe a disposal was removed and someone thought that was an easy way to add an outlet. If you have an outlet tied to the light switch in your bathroom, and a waterpik, fill the waterpik and point it at the door, then turn off the light switch and turn on the waterpik. My mom loved that prank so much she threatened to kill me. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-mystery-light-switches/638134/23 "2012-10-18T17:54:51Z")
We have one switch in the living room and another downstairs in the front room that no one has any idea about the function of. We could’ve easily ended up with a third “mystery switch” in the hallway, because when we redid the bathroom I insisted on having the light switch actually _IN_ the bathroom. (For some reason, most Massachusetts homes have the switch outside the bathroom. Even if the switch is nowhere near the sink or tub.) But I also insisted on blanking off the extra switch instead of leaving an inoperative one in the two-switch plate. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-mystery-light-switches/638134/24 "2012-10-18T18:07:32Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > (For some reason, most Massachusetts homes have the switch outside the bathroom. Even if the switch is nowhere near the sink or tub.) Perhaps some old code from the time before GFCI outlets were required. Still odd though. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-mystery-light-switches/638134/25 "2012-10-18T18:44:04Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > Perhaps some old code from the time before GFCI outlets were required. Still odd though. Or the reason for hall closets near the front door. Something about being qualified for government loans, as I recall. I was going to guess building codes. ---
**Author:** ![corkboard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9bcb4/32.png) [@corkboard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/corkboard)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-mystery-light-switches/638134/26 "2012-10-18T18:45:30Z")
We have a door just off of the kitchen that opens to a flight of stairs that lead to the basement. On the basement side of the door there are two switches. One turns on a light at the bottom of the basement stairs, and the other… does nothing, evidently. It doesn’t control anything in the basement. There are no outlets nearby on either side of the door that it would logically control. It was up when we first moved in, and now it’s sometimes up, sometimes down, because for a while we kept hitting it thinking it was the switch for the basement light. After about 3 years in the house we finally discovered its purpose- it controls an outlet outside, to the side of the front door. But it’s odd that the outdoor outlet in the back of the house doesn’t seem to have a switch. I don’t know why the house was wired with a switched exterior outlet in the front and a live outlet in the back. ---
**Author:** ![RalfCoder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f1d935/32.png) [@RalfCoder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RalfCoder)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-mystery-light-switches/638134/27 "2012-10-18T18:47:27Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > 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. I’ve seen stuff like this. It was when a homeowner added an outlet, and tapped into the nearest hot wire to power the outlet. In your case, that might have been the line going to the basement and side door. I have a couple of outlets like this in my house. Here’s a similar story from when I was just a young’n: A friend moved into a big old house on a major intersection, with lots of bedrooms upstairs. (in the house, I mean - not the intersection. That would be silly). In a side room off the kitchen, there was a pipe with a shutoff valve that didn’t seem to do anything. His mom tried the valve several times, then ignored it afterwards. That winter, there was a puddle in the school playground next door that never froze. After some investigating, they found that the house had been an inn when it was first built, and the stables stood where the puddle was. They think that the valve controlled the water supply to the stable, and either the pipe was never capped properly when the school was built, or it rusted through over the years. When they turned it off, the puddle never formed in the following years. ---
**Author:** ![Corcaigh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Corcaigh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Corcaigh)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-mystery-light-switches/638134/28 "2012-10-18T18:52:16Z")
One at the front door and one at the back door. I think whoever put in the lightswitches in this house got a great deal on double switches and put them in anywhere regardless of how many lights there were. From the front door (4 switches) there are 3 lights - the one outside, the one inside and the hallway. From the back door (also 4 switches) there are also 3 lights, the one outside, the one inside and, for some strange reason, the light in the kitchen. I came to the conclusion it was a Cardassian torture chamber of sorts. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-mystery-light-switches/638134/29 "2012-10-18T18:58:08Z")
Do you have any lights on the outside of the house that you don’t think you ever use? I had a light switch at my last apartment, clear in the back of the apartment, that would turn on a light on the front porch. I could look out the window and flick the light on and off and not see any change. I think it was intended as some sort of panic button, I guess… wake up in the middle of the night, hear something prowling out front, hit the switch, grab baseball bat. ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-mystery-light-switches/638134/30 "2012-10-18T18:59:44Z")
We had one flarpswitch in our hallway that turned out to be a broken 4-way switch. Someone in the past just wire-nutted the wires and left the broken switch in the wall. ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-mystery-light-switches/638134/31 "2012-10-18T19:00:10Z")
We have one in our kitchen and one in our living room. But they aren’t useless. Our neighbors actually have a few switches like this… and when we all flip them into the correct configurations, a secret chasm in the sidewalk opens up, perceptible only to us, and takes us to our secret underground lair. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-mystery-light-switches/638134/32 "2012-10-18T19:03:15Z")
> [@drewtwo99](#): > > and when we all flip them into the correct configurations, a secret chasm in the sidewalk opens up, perceptible only to us, and takes us to our secret underground lair. Well, Einstein, you just blew that. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Regallag\_The\_Axe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/regallag_the_axe/32/445_2.png) [@Regallag\_The\_Axe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Regallag_The_Axe)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-mystery-light-switches/638134/33 "2012-10-18T21:04:07Z")
There’s one of these in the middle of the house. Right in the middle. It doesn’t control any outlets (I’ve checked, even though there aren’t any outlets near it, I’ve checked every outlet in the house), no outside lights, nothing. Then there’s the over head lights in the living room. There are three way into the living room (one from inside the house, two from outside) and every one those entrances has a switch for the over head lights next to it. This would be convenient if not for the fact that all three of the switches has to be in the correct position for the lights to turn on. If someone flips one of the switches to the wrong position you’ve got to go around to each of the switches and flip them so they all are in the right position. ---
**Author:** ![Misnomer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/misnomer/32/14897_2.png) [@Misnomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Misnomer)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-mystery-light-switches/638134/34 "2012-10-18T21:12:14Z")
I have one in my living room: it would be both handy and sensible if it controlled a switched outlet, but of course it doesn’t. It doesn’t do anything. I’ve lived in the house for just over 3 years now, and I plan to move in the spring (I’m a renter) so I’ll probably never solve this particular mystery. ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-mystery-light-switches/638134/35 "2012-10-18T21:54:33Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > Well, Einstein, you just blew that. :rolleyes: Nooooooo!!! ---
**Author:** ![PatriotGrrrl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9dc877/32.png) [@PatriotGrrrl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatriotGrrrl)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-mystery-light-switches/638134/36 "2012-10-18T22:04:58Z")
I have one in my living room that controls an outlet in the crawlspace. Why would you want an outlet in a tiny crawlspace? For heat tape, or for a hair dryer if you forgot to turn on the heat tape and your pipes froze. I just leave it on all winter. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-mystery-light-switches/638134/37 "2012-10-18T22:27:46Z")
We don’t have one, we installed one. Our old kitchen had a two switch panel for the horrible overhead fluorescent lights. When we redid the lights, they all went on one switch, with a dimmer (incandescents of course), and the other half of the panel was given a switch which does nothing. I assume the people we sell the house to will be mystified about what it is doing there. ---
**Author:** ![ems](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/cdc98d/32.png) [@ems](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ems)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-mystery-light-switches/638134/38 "2012-10-18T22:34:57Z")
> [@Misnomer](#): > > I have one in my living room: it would be both handy and sensible if it controlled a switched outlet, but of course it doesn’t. It doesn’t do anything. I’ve lived in the house for just over 3 years now, and I plan to move in the spring (I’m a renter) so I’ll probably never solve this particular mystery. This exact thing right here. It is on the wall at the right hand side of the fireplace which is itself in a weird place in the room. We thought it was part of a three way switch for another light but no. No freakin clue. We are moving soon but after 16 months I still don’t know what it does. Bugs the hell out of me! ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Girlfriend](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.girlfriend/32/193_2.png) [@Dr.Girlfriend](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Girlfriend)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-mystery-light-switches/638134/39 "2012-10-18T22:52:51Z")
It took my mom about a year to figure out what the seemingly useless light switch next to her back door did. It’s for a light fixture in her detached garage. She accidently bumped it one night while carrying something and saw the light in her garage come on. ---
**Author:** ![River\_Hippie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/river_hippie/32/26_2.png) [@River\_Hippie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/River_Hippie)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-mystery-light-switches/638134/40 "2012-10-18T23:00:13Z")
I had a ceiling light fixture over a little nook in the kitchen that had no switch. Screw in a bulb, it was on. Unscrew the bulb for off. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-mystery-light-switches/638134.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-mystery-light-switches/638134.md?page=3)