Lights went out- blown fuse- keeps blowing

[Dang921]

Hi
I have a 2021 Paradigm 390MB. Last night our living room lights went out- and the fuse blew.
Put in a new fuse 15A- and bam it blew again. I noticed the red light is on for that fuse (#4) even though there is no fuse in it. Did some research and seeing it says I have a short in my circuit somewhere so the red light is on and any fuse will blow because of this. Seems to make sense, so my question is how do I find what is causing the short???
Any ideas
Much appreciated
Dan

 

[No-Ladder]

Divide and conquer...
1. Does it blow before you turn the switch on or after? You might have to disconnect the switch when you can't visually see the state, such as a dimmer. Might get lucky and it's a bad dimmer. You can test both directions from the switch.

2 I would take a guess at midpoint of the lighting circuit pull the light down separate the wires check for a short before.. or after ...no power checking with ohm meter. It will still be a wild guess at the lights as they can splice the wires anywhere, any way. The point is you'll have to disconnect the splice hopefully right behind the light.

One more thing did you attach anything to walls or ceiling recently? Could have put a screw through a wire

 

[Dang921]

Divide and conquer...
1. Does it blow before you turn the switch on or after? You might have to disconnect the switch when you can't visually see the state, such as a dimmer. Might get lucky and it's a bad dimmer. You can test both directions from the switch.

2 I would take a guess at midpoint of the lighting circuit pull the light down separate the wires check for a short before.. or after ...no power checking with ohm meter. It will still be a wild guess at the lights as they can splice the wires anywhere, any way. The point is you'll have to disconnect the splice hopefully right behind the light.

One more thing did you attach anything to walls or ceiling recently? Could have put a screw through a wire

Thanks Ladder.
It blows if the switch is off.
No screws or drilling anywhere.

It’s weird it was running for like 3 hrs then poof.

I’ve pulled out each ceiling light for a visual inspection. I have a multimeter but am not sure where to start. I thought I had an idea of how it’s wired, but I think I need to get a wiring diagram from Alliance.

My “test” check with a multimeter was on the hallway lights since it appears to be a similar circuit, but I didn’t get the expected results. My multimeter didn’t signal a current. My other simple test was on the light above the microwave wave it signaled a good circuit but it’s a “single circuit “ not like the ceiling lights that are “daisy chained together “


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[Mike in North Wales]

It sounds like the switch or the wire from the panel to the switch is the culprit, since the fuse blows with the switch off.

Disconnect the output from the switch. Does the red light on the panel go out? Check for continuity (short) to ground from the switch. Unplug the power wire and check for short to ground. Does the red light go out when you do this?

One more thing- disconnect the power wire for the switch from the fuse panel. Check for short at the panel. There is the small chance that something went bad on the panel.

 

[Dang921]

It sounds like the switch or the wire from the panel to the switch is the culprit, since the fuse blows with the switch off.

Disconnect the output from the switch. Does the red light on the panel go out? Check for continuity (short) to ground from the switch. Unplug the power wire and check for short to ground. Does the red light go out when you do this?

One more thing- disconnect the power wire for the switch from the fuse panel. Check for short at the panel. There is the small chance that something went bad on the panel.

Thanks Mike I’ll give it a short


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[No-Ladder]

Blowing fuses with the switch off signifies a short between the fuse and light switch or bad switch if it's the dimmer style. With fuse and switch removed check for a short in both directions.
it taking 3 hours to trip fuse is what I would call a low grade short...like maybe a wire chaffing where it passes through a metal framing member. Still I would remove dimmer if one is present

 

[Terri&KevinGates]

Hi
I have a 2021 Paradigm 390MB. Last night our living room lights went out- and the fuse blew.
Put in a new fuse 15A- and bam it blew again. I noticed the red light is on for that fuse (#4) even though there is no fuse in it. Did some research and seeing it says I have a short in my circuit somewhere so the red light is on and any fuse will blow because of this. Seems to make sense, so my question is how do I find what is causing the short???
Any ideas
Much appreciated
Dan

The red light just shows that the circuit is open. If you pull any fuse out the light will come on. It makes it easy to find a blown fuse.