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| Savor the limelight |
My Dad called me last night and said a dozen or more circuits in his house suddenly stopped working. Lights and outlets in various rooms, the AC, etc. He says the breakers are all on. He also says the non-working circuits are on both sides of the panels and some of the lights will come on for a few seconds every once in awhile even though the switches are off. | ||
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Might be some type of grounding issue? Just a guess. End of Earth: 2 Miles Upper Peninsula: 4 Miles | |||
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Trapper - Have your dad look for a tripped GFI plug in his bathrooms, kitchen area, or outside plug units. I bet he has a tripped GFI that is actually the first plug on a series of plugs. | |||
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| Green grass and high tides  |
something like one leg of his power is not copacetic for some reason maybe. Rodent chewed wires? "Practice like you want to play in the game" | |||
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I believe things like that are possible when you lose a leg of power coming in from the utility. He can report it to the power company or have an electrician check incoming voltage at the meter. | |||
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| Vote the BASTIDS OUT!  |
That is probably correct. Looks like he lost one hot leg in the panel. Could be a bad main breaker or even in the meter socket, or a problem with the line coming into the house. Be nice if he knows how to check for incoming power on the wires that feed into his main breaker. John "Building a wall will violate the rights of millions of illegals." [Nancy Pelosi] | |||
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| Savor the limelight |
Shoot, I didn’t even think of the incoming feed. Thanks guys, I’ll bet that’s it. Just had a new house built next door and hooked to the same transformer my dad’s house is on. Plus with the hurricane, there may well be an issue with the transformer. | |||
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Optimistic Cynic |
I would hope that a genuine electrician will chime in, Skins, Skins, wherefore art thou Skins? But, this sounds like a potentially dangerous situation to me, an intermittent connection with the energy levels found in residential electrical circuitry can easily cause excessive heat buildup leading to a fire. I would speculate that this is a grounding issue where a neutral connection has worked loose, or built up corrosion in a connector possibly leading to a high resistance partial connection. High resistance == heat. If the lights come on when the switch is off, their must be a current flow, perhaps the grounding circuit has been energized. This is not something to put off, get a licensed electrician on it right away. At the very least, I would de-energize the circuit(s) at the breaker panel, pull all outlet and switch cover plates and closely examine all connections and conductors for corrosion and signs of arcing. A multimeter would help here. The intermittent could be inside a switch or outlet (e.g. a GFI pass-through outlet) so don't rely on a visual inspection as determinant. And, if you find a problem, do not assume it is the only one. Electrical problems can propagate, e.g. where heat buildup causes insulation failure in an adjacent circuit. | |||
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Nullus Anxietas |
That was my first thought, until I read... So that kind of rules that out, in my mind. Then there's... Poltergeists? Seriously: That literally does not make any sense at all. If they're actually old school switches: Off is off. The hot side of the circuit is open. Current literally cannot flow. Unless Joe Homeowner has done some truly strange things with the house wiring, the likes of which I cannot imagine could result in such a thing--and I've been doing electricity for nigh on sixty years. But, ICBW. Hopefully Skins will be along shortly with an possible explanation. It sure does! Personally, I'd be inclined to go out to the distribution panel(s) and throw the main disconnects on each. trapper189, does your dad have LED lighting, by chance? "America is at that awkward stage. It's too late to work within the system,,,, but too early to shoot the bastards." -- Claire Wolfe "If we let things terrify us, life will not be worth living." -- Seneca the Younger, Roman Stoic philosopher | |||
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| My other Sig is a Steyr.  |
Missing three phase power? Are all the dead circuits on the same side of the breaker box plus the dryer & range? | |||
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semi-reformed sailor |
Lightning is my guess "Violence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than has any other factor.” Robert A. Heinlein “You may beat me, but you will never win.” sigmonkey-2020 “A single round of buckshot to the torso almost always results in an immediate change of behavior.” Chris Baker | |||
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Acrylic, acrylic, acrylic ! | |||
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אַרְיֵה |
הרחפת שלי מלאה בצלופחים | |||
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Both sides of a panel have both legs. Every other spot is on a different leg. That is how a 220 breaker works. | |||
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Unflappable Enginerd |
Can't say I've spent much time in any "home" on this planet with 3 phase power...  __________________________________ NRA Benefactor I lost all my weapons in a boating, umm, accident. http://www.aufamily.com/forums/ | |||
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I have seen this exact same issue . One side of the main breaker is possibly bad . That " leg " of the circuit feeds breakers on both sides of the panel . One leg of the 240v input is open somewhere . | |||
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| Nullus Anxietas |
Oops! You're right. Synapse lapse on my part. "America is at that awkward stage. It's too late to work within the system,,,, but too early to shoot the bastards." -- Claire Wolfe "If we let things terrify us, life will not be worth living." -- Seneca the Younger, Roman Stoic philosopher | |||
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| Savor the limelight |
Both feeds into the panel measure 120v. He's got an electrician coming tomorrow and all the breakers except the fridge are off until then. He'll stay in the addition, which has its own electrical panel and AC, where everything seems to be working. He does not have LEDs. Maybe it's the main breaker in the panel, but he's reached his limit on troubleshooting at this point. There's a surge protector wired into the panel in question, but I don't know if that could be the issue. | |||
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Both legs will read 120 volts with one leg out . You're reading the same leg that's feeding through a device . Water heater element would be my guess . You learn things like this over the years . | |||
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A few years back we had an outlet that was behind our bed. The wife pushed the bed tight against the wall which cracked the outlet. All outlets and lights down the line started working sporadically. That would explain one circuit but not the problem your dad is having. Is the panel OK. That is the only thing I can think of that would be common to all problematic circuits. | |||
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