2848: Breaker Box

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Breaker Box

Title text: Any electrician will warn you to first locate and flip the house's CAUSALITY circuit breaker before touching the CIRCUIT BREAKERS one.

Explanation

This explanation may be incomplete or incorrect: Created by a HIGH-PITCHED HUM GENERATOR THAT WAS LAST MENTIONED EXACTLY 1258 COMICS AGO - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon. If you can address this issue, please edit the page! Thanks.

A distribution board, referred to as a "breaker box" here and also commonly referred to as a "fuse box", "breaker panel", "DB box", and many other names, is a metal box attached to a wall, usually in some maintenance area, containing multiple circuit breakers that distribute electricity to various parts of the building. A circuit breaker is an electrical switch, usually in the form of a small lever that can be used to manually isolate the electrical connections it controls from the incoming power supply. These breakers are designed to automatically open if too much electrical current flows through them. This is a safety measure to reduce the risk of damage, fire or electrocution in the event of a short circuit or higher load being asked for than the wires are rated to handle.

In breaker boxes, each individual breaker is ideally labeled to let the operator know what that specific breaker controls. Typically, the circuit controlled by each breaker will feed an intuitive set of connections: a certain room, or set of rooms, or possibly a set of related services (like overhead lights, or all the outlets on one floor). Some large appliances will have a dedicated circuit and breaker.

However, in houses that have been rewired multiple times (or are poorly wired), this can quickly become overcomplicated with seemingly random connections. Randall lives in Boston where much of the housing stock is from the late 1800s and early 1900s, and he is likely to live in a house with non-ideal wiring, which may have inspired this comic.

The comic satirizes these complex wiring setups, with multiple breakers "controlling" arbitrary things, including some that – in the classic style of XKCD – are puns on the word "breaker" or may be impossible to hook a breaker up to, getting progressively more absurd to the point of "breaking" certain laws of physics.

Table of the breaker labels

Label next to breaker	Explanation	Note
Left column of switches
Kitchen lights	The lights in the kitchen.	Standard items that could be separate
Living room lights	The lights in the living room.
Porch lights	The lights on the porch.
Bathroom lights and one surprise mystery outlet somewhere	The lights in the bathroom, but also a random outlet. It is not uncommon for the power supplies to bathrooms (and other rooms with water connections) to be on a separate circuit. This is because water can potentially cause a short circuit, resulting in the breaker opening, and separate curcuits minimize the impact and makes the problem easier to locate. Having initially reserved an output from the box for such a limited use, it is possible that another electrician – while adding wiring – chooses to wire seemingly unrelated things into the same circuit. This may make sense (for example, an outlet near a sink or some other water source could reasonably be grouped with the bathroom), or it may simply be out of convenience. In either case, future residents and installers may not be informed of this, and therefore wouldn't realize that the outlet is grouped with that circuit.	Standard, but 'kludged'
North-facing appliances	Peculiar and a bit complex to execute. Here's how it might have been set up: Install a breaker switch that is actually a mechanical switch to control a smart home automation instead of its normal function Replace relevant normal outlets with Wi-Fi-controlled smart outlets Use smart home software to create a custom group of all outlets that control all north-facing appliances Set up a software automation to selectively toggle this user-defined group of smart outlets when triggered. Adding a matching appliance to the house would require editing the automation. Alternative explanations: The switch may be physically wired only to outlets installed on a southern wall in the property (or all southern walls, for each room that requires them), and you'd ensure that everything connected to these exclusively north-facing outlets also faces directly away from the wall(s). The switch could control appliances on the north-facing walls of the house. Note: "North-facing" has broad interpretation, as lax as northeast to northwest or as strict as north by east to north by west. It could also be as exact as perfect north, but this would render this breaker completely functionless unless an appliance happens to be ever-so-perfectly aligned.
Bathtub drain light	Bathtub drains typically do not have lights, but this breaker provides power to that and only that. Why it isn't already considered a "bathroom light" is unexplained (unless it's for the bit of the pipe that is external to that room). It obviously cannot be the "surprise mystery outlet" already referred to earlier as being covered under the switch for the bathroom lights, much apart from it not being a socket/outlet.
Appliances whose names contain the letter "F"	Another odd and amusing specification. To make it work, one might use the "North-facing appliances" setup described above, but just with a different custom group of Wi-Fi-controlled smart outlets chosen to only control appliances with an "F' in their name. Some common household appliances (kitchen and elsewhere) that this switch might control: coffee maker refrigerator freezer fan air fryer food processor waffle iron fabric steamer fireplace (electric)
Hot water heater	Usually just a heater that creates (and typically stores) hot water. But given that the next breaker controls the "Regular water heater", this breaker might actually control a water heater that pointlessly heats water that is already hot. This is probably a joke about the fact that the common phrase "hot water heater" is technically redundant or misleading: Redundant because the simpler term "water heater" is enough to describe a device that produces hot water. Misleading because it's not the purpose of residential water heaters to heat water that is already hot. Trivia: In some languages, "hot water" is a separate, single word, so "hot-water heater" is accurate.	Two "heaters"
Regular water heater	The heater for regular water. In context with the switch above, this label presumes it's for a heater for heating water that is not yet hot (usually called a "hot water heater", hence the joke). Alternatively, if we assume that a hot water heater is for making hot water, this heater must be for making “regular water”, whatever temperature that may mean.
Outlets in rooms that it's normal to eat pizza in	This controls every outlet in rooms that it's normal to eat pizza in, such as the dining room and kitchen and – depending on the "normal" habits of the inhabitants – other rooms such as the bedroom, bathroom, or living room (if not already covered by the "living room lights" switch above). Closets and single-purpose rooms such as the laundry room are presumably not included.
High-pitched hum generator	Controls a high-pitched hum generator. This is a call-back to 1590: The Source, which was released just over 8 years before this comic.
The solution to the cryptogram below:	Likely a pun on a "code breaker," something or someone that solves a code, such as this cryptogram, a type of puzzle where a sentence has been encoded using a cipher, usually simple, and the goal is to determine the cipher and recover the original sentence from the encoded one. 2 other explanations: The identity of the electrical load sourced from this breaker can be found by solving the cryptogram. This switch enables or disables the code's solution somehow, perhaps toggling its knowability or solvability or turning on a computer for solving cryptograms.
Bugs	Several interpretations are possible: Disable all software bugs in the house* Disable all insect bugs in the house – as an efficient form of pest control – perhaps using ultrasonic emitters that drive away bugs (may be a reference to 2753: Air Handler) – or perhaps the house contains noise machines that play sounds of insects or other ways of simulating insects. Disable power to all covert listening devices, which would be able to be switched off if wired into the house's electrical grid. Disable the whole global category of bugs (insects, arachnids, and other small arthropods), in which case we'd have no more pests and we'd reduce disease like malaria and Lyme disease! Of course, food webs would also collapse, and our world would be overrun with waste. *Though it's unlikely that it's what Randall is referring to, computer bugs switches actually exist. It's a feature in some video game emulators to either run an unofficial patched version or to stay true to the original system, for example to allow bug-exploit speedruns of a video game.
Right column of switches
A whirring fan you didn't realize was on until now	Fans generally produce a steady, low-level 'white' noise that people generally stop noticing. When such a fan is turned off, the absence of that noise is quickly noticed. Shutting down a fan that you didn't realize was running could be worrisome for a couple of reasons: it could be serving an important function (like HVAC or server cooling) and cause a problem when it's off, or it may be a fan that wasn't supposed to be running, but had been for some time with being noticed.
Dishwasher	Although dishwashers aren't typically high-load appliances that require a breaker to themselves (unlike, for example, the water heater), if the house wasn't originally built with a dishwasher in mind, it is likely new wiring had to be added during its installation, resulting in a breaker that exclusively controls the dishwasher. Though what "dishwasher" actually means may depend on what the "dishes" of the next switch might be, and thus what additional device may be required to ensure they remain clean. Even at the more trivial end of the interpretation (though not then explaining the following "dishes"), a busy restaurant might have an employee section equipped exclusively for the dishwashing role and separately supplied with power in a similar manner to that suggested for the bathroom.
Dishes	Likely a pun on being a "breaker of dishes." Or the switch powers/controls two or more satellite dishes. Traditionally, dishes cannot be turned off, as they do not normally require electricity, outside of certain novelty dishes with battery-powered LEDs.
Hallway lights	The lights in the hallway or hallways.	"Hallway" regions
Hallway outlets	The outlets in the hallway or hallways. A common confusion when turning off breakers is separate wiring for outlets and lights in the same room. Though having the room go dark is a good mnemonic that it is unpowered, it is not a guarantee, and indeed, wiring them separately allows working on the outlets without having to do it in the dark.
Hallway floors	This breaker has several potential interpretations: A master switch for all floors (stories) in the building which include hallways, e.g. the guestroom areas in a hotel, whilst possibly excluding the lobby and service levels Outlets in the floor Electric underfloor heating (heated bathroom floors are a feature in some houses) Electrification of the floors -- not common outside of horror and heist movies Disabling all floors entirely, so everything resting on the floors falls through
Social media	This breaker also has several potential interpretations of "turning off social media": 'Digital detoxes', where someone says "I'm going to turn off my social media" and intends to deny themselves access to all their social media apps. A switch for a parent to turn off all social media entering the house to protect their kids and themselves, which references a type of specialized content filter available through Wi-Fi router settings, not traditionally a breaker box. A callback to 908: The Cloud. Since most social media platforms are centralized services, it would be theoretically possible to hook up a switch to the main power supply of every server building at once, given some extremely long wires, a breaker capable of handling the abhorrently massive electric load, and agreement from every social media provider(optional). The theoretical desire by some to "turn off social media" for the world due to its harmful effects on society. As someone who lived before social media and saw its spread over two decades, Randall may be ruing the impacts of social media on civilization and channeling his desire to put the genie back in the bottle. A play on the phrase “breaking the internet”, meaning going viral on social media.
State law	Likely a pun on "State Law Breaker." Taken literally, it would either disable enforcement of State Law or nullify every single one, creating a state of martial law similar to the premise of the popular movie, "The Purge". It's unclear if this refers to Randall's state of Massachusetts or State Law as a general concept. If the switch just nullifies State Law within the confines of the house, that would make the home a place where State Law could be broken without consequence, with some exciting implications: No More Licenses: Practice medicine, law, or cut hair without the need of a license! The Ultimate Man Cave or She Shed: Pet lion, or maybe a nuclear reactor in the basement. 24/7 Parties: No noise complaints. Late-night parties with blaring music can continue indefinitely. Tax-Free Zone: Sell goods from the home without any sales tax. Unusual Living Arrangements: OK to live with 50 other people in a 2-bedroom house, with no zoning laws or housing regulations. DIY Everything: All those building codes and safety regulations wouldn't apply. OK to install an indoor waterfall or convert the living room into a beach. Gambling House: Turn the living room into a full-blown casino, no license needed. Ultimate Privacy: No worries about warrantless searches. State law enforcement would have no jurisdiction inside your house.	"Legal" items
Federal law	Likely a pun on "Federal Law Breaker," though it could also be taken literally, as above. The ramifications of nullifying every US Federal law are immense. Disabling Federal Law while keeping State Law would theoretically fulfill the goals of the "States Rights" advocates, groups of conservatives across US history aiming to return Federal power to the States. If the switch just nullifies Federal Law within the confines of the house, there could be some fun results: Alternative Currency Operations: Inhabitants could craft their own monetary system, designing and printing their own currency. Endangered Species Game Park: The house could become a zone for hunting creatures federally recognized as endangered or protected, like the bald eagle, making it a place to shoot or trap rare wildlife. Exotic Collection Hub: With federal import restrictions made moot, the house could transform into a repository for exotic items otherwise forbidden at a national level -- a potential trove of rare fruits, plants, or artifacts. Tax-free Commercial Zone: Any enterprise operating entirely within the house's boundaries is free from federal income taxation. Experimental Culinary Experiences: Free from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) constraints, the house could offer dishes using ingredients or preparations not federally approved.
Second law of thermodynamics	The Second Law of Thermodynamics means that things naturally move from order to disorder over time. It also says you can't take heat from a place that's cooler and use it to heat up another place, unless you use some energy to do it. In short, without adding energy, only the hotter place can warm up the cooler one. Turning off (or breaking) the second law of thermodynamics would have some pros and cons. GOOD STUFF Perpetual Motion Machines: Machines that can do work indefinitely without an energy source would become possible, defying our current understanding of energy conservation. Reversibility of Processes: Many natural processes that are irreversible under current laws could be reversed. For instance, melted ice could spontaneously turn back into a solid without energy removal. Recycling Energy: We could theoretically use the same quantum of energy over and over again, leading to ultra-efficient systems and potentially solving many of the world's energy problems. Reversing Entropy-Driven Processes: Things like mixing cream and coffee or ink in water could spontaneously unmix. BAD STUFF End Life as We Know It: All living organisms rely on the second law for crucial processes, including metabolism and reproduction. If the second law were negated, life, at least as we understand it, might not be possible. No Heat Engines: Engines rely on the flow of heat from hotter to colder bodies. Without the Second Law, our cars, power plants, refrigerators, and many other devices would not function. Breakdown of Molecular Processes: Molecules spontaneously move from areas of higher to lower concentration due to entropy. Without this, diffusion, osmosis, and many biochemical reactions wouldn't occur as they currently do. Loss of Directionality: One interpretation of the Second Law provides a directionality to time (the so-called "arrow of time"). Without it, causality and our understanding of past, present, and future could be fundamentally altered. Unpredictable Outcomes: Turning off the Second Law could result in a universe where outcomes are not probabilistically predictable. You couldn't rely on anything happening as it "should," leading to chaos in every sense. This law of physics was also explored in the What If? article Fire From Moonlight.	"Physics" items
Friction	Friction is the resistive force that opposes the relative motion or tendency of such motion of two surfaces in contact. Turning it off has some upsides and downsides. UPSIDES Perpetual Motion Machines: Without friction, once an object starts moving, it would continue indefinitely unless acted upon by another force. Super-Efficient Transport: Cars, trains, and other vehicles would glide effortlessly once set into motion, leading to immense energy savings. Unique Sports: New sports and activities would emerge, where players glide or slide over surfaces without friction. DOWNSIDES Walking Would Be Impossible: We rely on friction between our feet and the ground to move. Without it, we would be unable to walk, run, or even stand. No Manual Dexterity: Holding, grabbing, or manipulating objects would be very difficult, because they would be perfectly slippery. Catastrophic Mechanical Failures: Many machines rely on friction to function. Brakes in cars, for instance, use friction to slow down and stop the vehicle. Without it, uncontrollable accidents would occur. No Sound: Friction between air molecules creates sound waves. Without friction, the world would be silent (some may consider this an upside). Breathing Difficulties: Our respiratory system relies on frictional forces when the alveoli in our lungs exchange oxygen and carbon dioxide with the bloodstream. Hard to Light Fire: Lighting a fire by striking a match would no longer work, because it relies on friction. However, there are other methods for starting a fire that don't require friction, the most famous of which just requires a magnifying glass. Collisions: Objects, once set in motion, would continue to move until they hit something, leading to a myriad of unpredictable and uncontrollable collisions. Being in a frictionless environment (and a vacuum, as physicists love...) was the subject of 669: Experiment.
Gravity	Gravity is a natural force that attracts two bodies toward each other, proportional to their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between their centers. Turning off gravity would have some advantages and disadvantages. ADVANTAGES Flight: Without gravity, every leap could turn into a flight. We could push off surfaces and float effortlessly through the air. No Weight Restrictions: Large structures could be built without concern for weight-bearing loads. This would drastically change engineering and architectural designs. New Sports: Zero-gravity sports and activities could become a reality on Earth. Imagine playing basketball or soccer without gravity! DISADVANTAGES Flight: Without gravity, every leap turns into a flight... right out of the atmosphere of the Earth, and directly into space. Loss of Atmosphere and Oceans: Without gravity, Earth's atmosphere would dissipate into space, and water from oceans, rivers, and lakes would float away, making life as we know it impossible. Unanchored Chaos: Everything not fixed to the ground, including people, animals, vehicles, and foundationless structures, could become airborne, causing massive destruction and chaos. Disruption of Celestial Order: Earth would no longer orbit the Sun, the Moon would drift away rather quickly, and the structural integrity of the universe, including galaxies and solar systems, would be jeopardized. Everything Exploding: Most celestial bodies, ranging from the moon to supermassive black holes, would explode from internal pressure and centripetal forces no longer fighting against gravity, throwing everything into space. Aggregation Absence: Stars, galaxies, and basically anything in space requires gravity to form. Without gravity, no stars, planets, or meteors would form ever again. Of course, if this switch is turned off, it may simply mean that objects within the house itself are no longer subject to gravity. This would be far less cataclysmic, and as a bonus, this would make it much, much easier to move around the house, get to higher areas, and move objects, but could prove to cause some problems once the breaker is turned back on, especially for the floor.
Circuit breakers	Possibly the "master" breaker, controlling the main circuit that supplies power to all other circuit breakers. However, given the other surreal things this breaker box controls, turning it off may possibly make it impossible to turn it on ever again as the switch will no longer function once switched off (i.e.: If this was turned off, it would presumably turn off the functionality of the circuit breaker itself, if it was wired to include itself). Moreover, if this circuit breaker disables all circuit breakers everywhere, it would result in global infrastructure collapse, halting essential services, including transportation, healthcare, and communication, and leading to widespread chaos. Note that it might be a perfectly valid label if it refers to multiple subsidiary 'boxes', cascaded off this particular one, each containing one or more additional breakers for convenience or safety. e.g. units dedicated to a shed, garage or workshop room which save the need to traipse all the way to this box's utility cupboard location in the event of an otherwise easily resolved power issue.
Title text
The title text is about causality (not to be confused with casualty), and how to use this (unseen, located elsewhere) breaker along with the last shown switch that (de)powers the illustrated box. Causality, in its simplest form, is the process of cause and effect, meaning that everything that happens only happens because something caused it to happen - in other words, every event is an effect caused by another event. For example, a bag of chips can't just fall onto the floor for literally no reason - it has to be caused by some other event, such as someone smacking it or a gust of wind blowing it down. Turning off the circuit breaker using the CIRCUIT BREAKERS switch may lead to a loop, if the disabled breaker can no longer disable itself, leading to it turning back on, etc. Alternatively, turning off the CIRCUIT BREAKER switch might be a one-way street. Turning the CAUSALITY switch from OFF back to ON might be unlikely to do anything if the circuit breakers upstream of it have been fully deactivated. The separation of cause and effect would ostensibly take precedence over the current switch setting. Turning off CAUSALITY first would prevent either the loop or the permanent disabling of circuit breakers, but would also have many other side effects, including letting switches potentially serve power even if there is no power being served to them, or even spontaneously switching (on or off) without any intervention or reason. The 'warning', from an electrician, could even be to locate the nominally off CAUSALITY switch in order to turn it on, or else all other intended effects will possibly not end up being actually actioned. Either way, whether or not turning on/off causality would change the state of causality (at one stage or other being rendered ineffectual) is an exercise left for the reader.

Transcript

This transcript is incomplete. Please help editing it! Thanks.

[An open breaker box is shown. There are 26 labelled breakers, all of which are on, paired back to back in thirteen rows as a label, switch, switch and label.]

Kitchen lights / A whirring fan you didn't realize was on until now

Living room lights / Dishwasher

Porch lights / Dishes

Bathroom lights and one surprise mystery outlet somewhere / Hallway lights

North-facing appliances / Hallway outlets

Bathtub drain light / Hallway floors

Appliances whose names contain the letter "F" / Social media

Hot water heater / State law

Regular water heater / Federal law

Outlets in rooms that it's normal to eat pizza in / Second law of thermodynamics

High-pitched hum generator / Friction

The solution to the cryptogram below: [Additional squiggled words that are too small/indistinct to read.] / Gravity

Bugs / Circuit breakers

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Discussion

added transcript and got to change the name of the thing that created the explanation incomplete tag WOHOOOOoO Me^{[citation needed]} 02:25, 31 October 2023 (UTC)

can't help but notice the 1590 reference someone, i guess^{(talk i guess|le edit list)} 02:43, 31 October 2023 (UTC)

Added explanation! Simple, but it'll do. How do I sign? 172.69.34.159 03:42, 31 October 2023 (UTC)

four tildes (~~~~) someone, i guess^{(talk i guess|le edit list)} 03:08, 31 October 2023 (UTC)

Thanks. I thought that I had tried it earlier and it hadn't worked, but I guess I was wrong. 172.69.34.160 03:46, 31 October 2023 (UTC)

Just added headers, but not good enough with this stuff to add descriptions. go nuts someone, i guess^{(talk i guess|le edit list)} 02:52, 31 October 2023 (UTC)

Got a good laugh out of this one. Does anyone have a guess as to whether the "bugs" at the bottom of the second column refers to computer bugs or insects? Also, some self-referential humor going on at the end there. I guess the breaker box which contains all breakers would indeed contain itself. Jrfarah (talk) 04:31, 31 October 2023 (UTC)

I thought it was some sort of reference to 2753 someone, i guess^{(talk i guess|le edit list)} 04:58, 31 October 2023 (UTC)

It turns off the bunny. 172.69.194.194 11:27, 31 October 2023 (UTC)

Computer bugs switches actually exist. It's a feature in some emulators to either run an unofficial patched version or to stay true to the original system, for example to allow bug-exploit speedruns. Shirluban 172.71.130.70 13:34, 31 October 2023 (UTC)

So... discussion about "Hot Water Heater" vs. "Regular Water Heater"... I was assuming this was a joke regarding the redundancy of the term "Hot Water Heater" since "Water Heater" is already making the water hot, so why would you need to heat water that's already hot? Similar to RAS Syndrome, I thought Randall was making fun of that, but the explanation has a different idea... which... kind of makes sense? But... I've never seen anything like what is being described. Admiral Memo (talk) 05:22, 31 October 2023 (UTC)

After reading "Regular Water Heater", I assumed it was implying that the "Hot Water Heater" was somehow more physically attractive and thus "hotter". --Galeindfal (talk) 14:41, 31 October 2023 (UTC)

Regarding the "one surprise mystery outlet", I don't think it's necessary to assume it was wired that way by mistake. When extending the wiring in an existing house, it's not always easy to wire up an extra breaker, or use the most logically labelled one, and there may not be a compelling safety reason to do so. For instance, in my parents house, the original sockets are all wired from the floor, and when an extra one was needed for a boiler control, it was easier to run a conduit down from the floor above; so that particular socket is on the ring marked "Upstairs Sockets" on the consumer unit. - IMSoP (talk) 09:18, 31 October 2023 (UTC)

I read the "state/federal law" switches as required by said laws. i.e. respective building codes require a "foo switch" always to be installed, whether or not a foo is required, reasonable or even practicable. The switches may be left unlinked to anything that is serviced, or run to the household outlet/power-switch with the label plastered over it saying "don't use for anything but the quarter-inch hoojamaflip grinder" (or whatever it is, in the same sort of manner as "Refrigerator, do not unplug/turn off!" in a communal kitchen.... 141.101.99.166 10:09, 31 October 2023 (UTC)

Some laws contain "circuit breaker" provisions, where some action is triggered when a condition reaches a threshold. Maybe that's what state/federal law refers to. Barmar (talk) 14:25, 31 October 2023 (UTC)

You guys are way too serious. It's a joke, so pick the funniest interpretation possible. Don't try to make it realistic. A circuit breaker turns off the electricity so you can work on the wiring without getting shocked. By analogy, you should be able to use a circuit breaker to turn off the laws when you want to avoid getting fined or arrested. Now that's funny. Rtanenbaum (talk) 12:43, 1 November 2023 (UTC)

...in a separate comment, I have a fuse/switch labelled "Do not turn on!" in my house. It was turned on when I moved in, and (barring actually any reason to mess with anything/’get a man in' for any other purpose) I've left it on. Ditto, for these last six or seven years I've remained ignorant of the purpose of various wall switches (floor-height, one in living room, one at top of stairs, another in a bedroom) that are unlabelled and off (though I have switched them on... no obvious difference to lighting, alarm system, any other system I can imagine they're wired up into and left it pending some future time when I actually have to do something like strip plaster back and discover which (if any?) run of cable leads from/to them. 141.101.99.166 10:11, 31 October 2023 (UTC)

Regarding wall switches that don't have any apparent purpose. Many houses or apartments were not built with lights in the ceiling. So all your lighting came from lamps plugged into wall outlets. They would wire one of the wall outlets to a wall switch, usually near the door. This way you would leave the lamp turned on and use the wall switch to turn it off and on. It takes a little investigation to figure out which wall outlet is being controlled by the switch. Rtanenbaum (talk) 12:43, 1 November 2023 (UTC)

Not applicable, in my case (above 'owner' of the floor switches) because all my sockets(/outlets) in my house have switches on them. One of the mysterious floor switches is indeed very close to a wall-socket, but that wall-socket is a double already with two independent switches (example image). And is of a very similar vintage to the 'mystery switch', by both actual appearance and the how the wallpaper/etc looks. (The house itself is 1930s vintage, but clearly fully updated and rewired to essentially modern standards some time in the last 50 years, and probably far far more recent. No reason for a 'leftover' separate socket switch to have remained/been kept instated.)

The two main possibilities of purpose that I still imagine they controlled are: 1) The burglar alarm, and 2) The storage heater. Originally. Assuming you'd even want multiple different control-switches. But completely bypassed by a later reinstallation. The newer central heating (replacing the storage system) is entirely controlled from a kitchen wall switch, and its own fusebox breaker. And the alarm system has a hallway pad and if it was ever connected to the "Do not turn on" switch (that was actually on), it hasn't suffered at all from the experimental instances of it being turned off (when I thought I'd check).

...it'll all have to wait until I have the next major overhaul, I think. I'll get the next electrician I need (perhaps when replacing the current boiler, or needing more sockets in the workroom) to try and work it out using their usual tricks and tools. 172.70.85.29 15:29, 1 November 2023 (UTC)

LoadingReadyRun did a very funny sketch on a "mystery switch" in their office. [1] Admiral Memo (talk) 03:14, 11 November 2023 (UTC)

In my last house, there was a switch that we couldn't figure out for anything. Finally, we asked the previous owner: they had damaged the wall there during construction, and it was cheaper to put in a dummy switch than to repair the hole! L-Space Traveler (talk) 15:06, 3 December 2023 (UTC)

I believe that the cryptogram may be an attempt to pun on a "code breaker" as a reference to people who solve ciphers. Aberdasher (talk) 13:48, 31 October 2023 (UTC)

Depending on interpretation, "North-facing appliances" could make sense. In my house, I have two main breakers, East and West, each covering (almost) everything in one side of the house. EHusmark (talk) 14:52, 31 October 2023 (UTC)

And, contrary to the "how would the system know?", regarding north-facingness, if you had a ring-main/set of sockets servicing one particular wall (to just one side), there'd be a good chance that anything plugged in there (at least bulky "white goods", even if not smaller things that you might move and turn, like irons and fans) faces away from that particular wall. 172.70.91.236 16:54, 31 October 2023 (UTC)

Definite Borges vibes from the "appliances that face north", "appliances whose names begin with the letter 'F'", "outlets in rooms that it's normal to eat pizza in" section. 172.70.85.50 17:31, 31 October 2023 (UTC)

Amongst other things, there are problems under the "no friction" section. e.g. You might have a perpetual motion machine that would go forever, but without something else (e.g. the anullment of 3LoT) it couldn't also do external work. And of course you can still hold something with zero friction, if you can sufficiently surround, support and/or impale the thing. 172.70.90.230 19:24, 31 October 2023 (UTC)

I agree. Edited. --Hddqsb (talk) 05:01, 1 November 2023 (UTC)

So.... em if you turn off causality, would the switch that turned off causality actually reliably turn off causality, given that causality has been disabled? (added something like this as a note about the title text). (Wowitschris (talk) 19:32, 31 October 2023 (UTC)

Worse than that, if you need to have Causality turned off (for a 'legitimate' reason), there is now no way of preventing anything (including the Causality switch) to be actively toggled. Causaulity could become active again even without any intervention, as well as any number of other effects (of any spontaneous kind whatsoever) for which no cause is now required. 172.69.195.103 19:53, 31 October 2023 (UTC)

"A circuit breaker ...to... protect appliances." --- A pedant would say the breaker protects the wires. When the box is specced and installed, the appliances may not have arrived, and are sure subject to replacement. In both the US and GB Codes the breaker size relates to the wire diameter. If an appliance needs greater protection it should have its own fuse/breaker. Some do, though the trend is to appliances which will fail without flame, smoke, or loud noise.

It's a chicken-and-egg. If you've got a high-current device to install (e.g. electric cooker) then you'll ...hopefully... make sure it has thick copper cables to its outlet, and also sit it behind a fuse/breaker that will take the power throughput. But you still want your breaker to 'break' if something shortcircuity goes on in the cooker. Even/especially if the supply cables are happily feeding the power to it, or its own local fusepoint, because they're not so tightly toleranced that you end up with a long 'heating element' passing through the kitchen wall as well as on your cooker's hobtop (or in its grill/oven compartment(s)).

Overspec the wires, try to tightly spec the current limits on the switches as much as you can anticipate will not ever false-trip. (With the switch from incandescent to LED lighting, many a lighting circuit will now be much further from failure, than designed, but actual ground-faulting will still likely trigger the RCD/whatever.) The aim is to never get so far as a breaking more circuitry than an intrinsic fault has already broken. e.g. motors may burn out, if something jams them, but ideally not spark across to the casing that houses them if they don't suffer direct physical damage. 172.69.195.103 21:29, 31 October 2023 (UTC)

"Bathtub drain light" My bathtub drain is plastic pipe. If the lights are off in the bathroom, but on in the cellar, there's a "light in the drain". No, I don't have a dedicated breaker but that's an idea.....

"Hallway floors" My last house was 1830, so all the electrics were hacked-on. We had a floor outlet in the hall. This used to be more common above a wireable cellar, it avoided snaking the wall. PRR (talk) 20:14, 31 October 2023 (UTC)

Floor outlets are pretty common in large rooms. I mean rooms larger than you'd find a house, say a large classroom. They're used for things like floor polishers or vacuum cleaners, that need to be plugged in near the middle of the space, because the walls are too far away. Also, meeting rooms often have floor jacks under the central table, so people can plug in laptops. Nitpicking (talk) 15:12, 1 November 2023 (UTC)

Wait, what's the joke? I'm pretty sure my (multiple?) circuit boxes are wired exactly like this. 172.71.222.93 (talk) 17:50, 1 November 2023 (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

Would a Fujitsu laptop be turned off by "F" in the name. Sure its a laptop (no f), but perhaps the brand makes its name change. What about if it has an "f" in one language but not another. 172.70.127.158 (talk) 14:03, 2 November 2023 (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

It would depend entirely upon the language/terminology used by the switch-switcher. (Though not what the switch-switcher wants to be the case, e.g. "on this occasion, the 'fridge' is just a 'cooler', but the 'ventillation' is the 'fans'..." 'Cos that'd be silly!) 172.69.194.70 14:31, 2 November 2023 (UTC)

One minor issue: Sound doesn't depend on the friction in air. (minor nerdage alert) The inviscid Euler equations can totally support pressure (acoustic) waves. In fact, without viscosity, they'll damp out somewhat slower, so sound would travel slightly further! 172.70.131.6 00:33, 4 November 2023 (UTC)

I feel like “one niner” and “bad” were overlooked. 172.68.174.233 22:18, 12 November 2023 (UTC)