A detail-oriented and thorough home inspector tries to look at as many standard components and systems in a home as is possible. This includes flipping the light switches and those that run fans, disposals, etc. Sometimes, even though the inspector has noble intentions, it is not possible to test, or even decipher, all of the switches and what they do, or might, do. Even with fairly simple lighting arrangements figuring this all out that can be a real problem. For example, if some outdoor lights are on motion sensors or photo-cell sensors so they come on after dark, it is not reasonable to expect an inspector to test these circuits. He or she certainly cannot be expected to, in the course of a standard inspection, crawl up and put black tape over all of the photo sensor eyes to fool the lights into thinking it is night and then run back and forth in front of them.
There are other complex situations too. An instance is depicted in the photo below. This small home had three locations with banks of switches. These in the photo were by the front door, similar banks of switches were centrally located in the hall and there were others near the back door. None of these switches were labeled and there were sixteen switches just in the one of three batches shown here. Sure, I tried to operate them, but the usual occurred: Some of them obviously operated something but even more of them did nothing that was readily apparent to me.
Were those switches defective? Who knows? Since nothing was labelled, and I had no clue what the intended function was, it was impossible to dig into this very deeply. In these situations, I state that there were a number of switches and a representative number of them, to all, were tested and that some of them operated lights and there were others that did nothing that was apparent. In a case like this, where there were a multitude of major electrical issues, I thought it best to refer all electrical matters on to the electrician who was a MUST at this home. Usually that is not required and an inspector can comfortably suggest that the homeowner first replace any light bulbs, which might be burned out and, if it is necessary, consult an electrician. More often than not, in a newer and properly wired home, switches that do not work are related to defective bulbs.
Thanks for dropping by.
Steven L. Smith
Bellingham Home Inspector
Check out "This Day In History" -- music and vintage television from the 1950's through the 1980's. I enjoy writing these articles because they take me back to my days in radio broadcasting. Click on Elvis' gold record, below, to revisit those golden hits of yesteryear.
It is difficult to imagine a scenario that would explain that many switches. There are similar set-ups with lows voltage systems that allow the home owner to operate many of the homes electrical components from several different locations. This set up does not appear to be a low voltage system but the intention may be such that anyone leaving the home would be able to make sure that everything in the home was shut off----all from one location. Very strange looking however and labeling would be a great idea:)