Here are the questions asked by community members. Read on to see the answers provided by the ThriftyFun community.
No breakers are tripped, but I have no power at an outlet in one room and at the overhead lights in two other rooms.
This sounds like you have a short in your wiring.
Power in my home is lost randomly. Sometimes it happens during the day with no one at home. Sometimes it is at 2am in the morning. Sometimes, it recovers 5 minutes later by itself. Sometimes it never comes back. I need to reset the main breaker to bring power back. It happens randomly, no pattern at all. Sometimes it happens twice a week, sometimes 3 times in one day.
When it happened, I measured voltage in the panel. One leg reads 110v. The other reads zero. This explains why half of house lost power. But what is wrong?
When it happens, if I don't reset the main breaker, I have to reset one of 15A breakers, then it resolves the problem. I replaced that breaker. It didn't help. The power outage is still random.
Some forum mentioned checking the GFCI socket, how does that help?
When the problem happened, it's always the same, the feeding line read zero volt. And I confirmed, when the problem happened, no one tried to use the micro-wave oven, dryer, or any high power device.
What I am doing is swapping that breaker to a different slot in panel, which connects a different leg of feeding line.
Are you sure this is not a problem coming from your area or service provider? The first thing I would probably do is contact my power company. They would send their guys out to make sure there wasn't a faulty power line. You might also chat with neighbors to make sure they weren't having the same experience
The second thing I'd personally do is consult with an actual electrician because electricity is a dangerous thing. I learned first hand when our house went on fire due to electric trouble
The wiring from the meter to your main panel could be faulty. The utility company can check and fix that. If that is not the case, the main panel may have corroded wires. You will need a qualified electrician for that. It is worth the money. If it is wired wrong and you have a fire, insurance probably will not pay the claim.
I would be contacting the electric company
I swapped out an old painted over electrical outlet, that is connected to a light switch for a new one. Now, the light switch connected to the top plug of the outlet will not turn off. The lights are on constantly. Please help.
By Lisa L.
If the top of the receptacle is fed from the switch and the bottom is always hot (fed separately), the bridge connecting the two brass screws on the side of the receptacle, with the power off, needs to be cut.
An electrician can do this for you with pliers, bending it back and forth until it breaks under fatigue.
We live in a newly built home. This morning my wall plugs went out while drying my hair. I went to check the circuit boards, but all the switches for plugs were still flipped up. I then noticed water coming from my dishwasher and when I pulled it away, saw that some water had splashed on the plug, which probably caused the plugs to go out. I unplugged everything. Should I wait for it to dry or could it be more serious in terms of getting an electrician out? Thanks!
By Lise
Call an electrician and consult. Why take chances?
I have lost power to 4 outlets in 2 bedrooms in my older house. All of the breakers are good. I pulled all 4 outlets out to check. There is no power and no breaker problems. I have 2 questions: was it typical in older homes to feed outlets from overhead lights? I can not tell if the power to the receptacles is coming from the enclosed ceiling in the basement or from light fixtures in the 2 rooms where I have lost power to the outlets. The lights work. How can I do a continuity test from breaker to outlet to check for broken or disconnected wire?
Someone suggested that I shut the main breaker off, then leave the outlet breaker on and read across black and white to see if I have a complete circuit (continuity). Also I should mention there might be juntion boxes between the breaker and the outlets which are in a closed ceiling in the basement. I hope not to find broken or disconnected wire in the circuit, as I have no access.By Michael
These are pretty technical questions. You need professional help to answer them. Google for a forum about electrical issues. I don't know if there is one, but there are hundreds for mechanical issues, so you might find one. However, in a pinch, you could always get an electrician in to help!
I just moved into a newly renovated house and have had what I think are electrical issues. I installed two security cameras - one in the front of the house and one in the back. The backyard camera has failed twice where it won't turn on and I'm now on my third, whereas the front camera is fine.
I also had a brand new vacuum cleaner blow out while in use, which tripped the electrical socket that my washing machine was connected to.
This morning my new Samsung dishwasher started blinking on and off by itself. I turned off the power to it for a minute and then turned it on again at the breaker, and now it won't turn on at all.
Now I have a problem with my Roku suddenly not working. It's only a year old.
I feel like this frequent failure of electrical appliances is due to some wiring issue although I can't really be sure since most of my appliances are fine (seemingly). I called a few electricians who said for $200 they will test the voltage out of my sockets, but couldn't really do much else.
I'm worried about having to replace thousands of dollars worth of appliances and looking for tips on any troubleshooting I can do myself?
Is it worth installing surge protectors in all of my sockets as a precautionary measure?
Could it be that the electrical box needs an upgrade? Or could it be something more sinister like faulty wiring throughout our new house?
Thanks!
I own a new condo, and have lost power at four outlets. Two of these are in the kitchen, the other two in the dining room. The outlets in the dining area have only been used periodically while vacumming. The two outlets in the kitchen that aren't working have only been used for small appliciances. None of the outlets have burn marks etc. Other outlets in the kitchen are working fine.
More then likely, a conductor (wire) has come loose in a junction box, most probably in attic. Another possibility if you have another working outlet (not refrig.) in the kitchen, is that a wire going downstream from it has come loose. You may want to check that first before crawling into attic. If you have no electrical experience, its best to find someone experienced to do it. Unless it turns out to be a nail through the wire behind a wall, it should take less then half an hour to fix.
You could check each fuse is seated correctly - I had this problem and just needed to push one in slightly so it made the correct contact. Otherwise get an electrician - there's no second chance if you make a mistake - electricity can kill. As your condo is new is there any way you can find out who the original contractor was - you may have some redress.
Regards
Jo
THis recently happened to me, also. The plug was a GFCI and resetting it did not work......so I purchased a new one, had it installed and all is well.
I had this problem inside and outside and called an electrician. It turned out that mice were the problem inside, and bees were the problem outside.
look to reset a gfi in one of those are,
Do you have a GFCI Receptical Analyzer? If not, get one at Lowes or Home Depot. Should be less than $10.00.If one of the wires is unhocked (open), it will tell you which one and the problem. Work backwards to a good receptacle. Could be something like a loose wire at a twist nut.
I am just looking for some advice. A few months ago my living room ceiling light went off and because of the kind of very small bulbs we have been unable to change them. Suddenly last week it came on when I banged the ceiling, now it's happening to all of the upstairs ceiling lights.
All seem to have blown, but if I bang the ceiling they will flicker or come back on. I am so confused. I was thinking it was my bulbs and I was having to constantly change them, but they do occasionally work!My light went out in my master bedroom and bathroom. I went to bed with my TV and space heater on and woke up to no power. We switched the breaker back on and no lights, we changed the GFCI and nothing.
We changed the breaker and still no power. What else could it be?I have no power to the main bathroom and two bedrooms, The sockets work, but there is no power to light fixtures or light switch. The circuit breaker is fine.
My husband was trying to fix our porch light and now the kitchen light won't come on. All the appliances are working including the electric stove, refrigerator, microwave, and the overhead vent on the stove, just not the kitchen light.
Please help this blind cook.
Thank you kindly.
We lost power to one of our circuits. We changed the breaker, but there is still no power. There is power to the breaker.
Can the problem be a bad outlet if its the first one in line coming from the circuit?My power flickered when it came back on the stove, the hot water heater, and the AC quit working. There's power and all the spots, but I'm getting no hot water, the stove still doesn't work, and the AC compressor won't come on.
I have 2 outlets on opposite sides of the room, neither one has power, however, the light switch (on the same side of the room as one of the outlets) works. Also, there is an outlet in the hallway that does not have power, it is directly on the other side of the one of outlets in the room. I checked and all the breakers are on. I'm lost here, please help, thank you.
Hello, The outlets that are not working are not GFIC's, however, there maybe a one that is in that same circuit as well. I will check on that and let you know. Thank you very much.
The same thing is happening to me right now! I plugged up my vacuum and it worked and then it went off and everything in the dining room is not working but everything else is. My dad is at work and I don't know what to do. Please help.
I have several outlets in the living room that will not work I plug something in last night and they went off so this morning I went down to check the breakers there was one small one that was off and I flipped it but nothing still works in the living room what could be the problem
I am asking for a friend. They recently moved into a home built in the 90s which has a recalled Challenger electrical panel, and the company went out of business. Since they moved in, brand new appliances, as well as older ones have been dying at an amazing rate. This included a new electric blanket, a new outdoor extension cord melted, new weed eater, new fan/lights, light bulbs burning out all over the house, 3 bulbs in one fixture burning out simultaneously, fridge chirping and making odd noises, clothes dryer taking way to long to dry clothes, hair dryer blowing circuit, Jenn Aire range needing multiple visits to function and a 'smell' when it finally worked. Those are just the ones I remember she told me.
They have had the electric company check for surging and the results were negative, and an electrician come out and told them the box was fine except it needed one new breaker which was replaced. I have spent the evening reading everything, and it seems to point to a problem with a neutral? That a loose or damaged neutral could be causing all these issues? Problems are happening all over the house, even outdoor outlets. She has never said any outlets seemed hot or burned. Anyone have any ideas what is going on? They are using all their savings on this and are about broke. I worry about a fire, but my reading tells me that is not likely. Help anyone, please!
It could be the neutral. Here is why (assuming you have a common single phase panel):
It once was common to run a "shared neutral". The breakers in your panel provide 120VAC relative to the neutral. Adjacent breakers provide 240VAC. A black wire would be connected to one breaker, a black wire connected to the next breaker and a white wire to the neutral bus. These three wires would then be connected in the house to various 120 VAC and 240 VAC loads. Everything was good. The white wire could handle the current because the two hot wires were 180 degrees out of phase and the currents cancelled. If one black wire had 10 amps and the other had 10 amps the white would have 15 -15 = 0 amps!
And then, switching power supplies in electronics such as lighting and computers. uh oh. No longer do the currents cancel. Now they add. 15 amps on one hot wire and 15 amps on the other could now mean 30 amps on the neutral which could be a wire only rated for 20 causing overheating and damage to connections. This may even result in an open circuit on the neutral.
If the neutral opens on a circuit that has a shared neutral. Then voltages go loopy. There is still a current path but now it is through the other hot wire. We no longer have 120 and 120 on each leg. It will still add to 240 but it may be 130 and 110 or 140 and 100 or 150 and 90 ..... The voltage will depend on how evenly balanced the loads are on each hot leg.
Have an electrician
- confirm all neutral connections in your panel
- confirm the neutral and ground are bonded in your panel
- confirm the neutral and ground show zero resistance at loads in your house
- confirm the neutral incoming to your panel is good.
We have 2 light fixtures and a bathroom exhaust fan that are turning off and on. I have checked the breaker and it has not tripped. The lights turn off on their own, but will turn back on, on their own. The same applies to the bathroom exhaust fan. It should be noted that one of the light fixtures is on a two way switch. This has been going on over the last few days.
I have checked all the bulbs and they are OK. What would cause the fixtures to work one time and not the next. I have also checked all the GFI outlets in the house and they all appear to be OK. The house was built in 1994. Any recommendations?
I have an iPhone and an Apple watch and they will not charge on the same circuit in my flat. They worked fine at the Apple store. Apple say's it is a circuit problem.
My dad lives in a old trailer and I been staying with him due to heath issues. The other night I turned the bathroom light on and the lights started flickering and making a crackling noise and then the lights went out.
Some outlets in the living room also don't work and the lights and outlets in the small bedroom don't work. We thought it may be the switch in the bathroom so we changed it and still nothing. Can anyone help?Mobile homes / trailers have a different building code / standard. If youve paid attention over the years, you already know fires are very common in this type of residence, partly because the electrical wires used during construction are thinner and not as durable as the material used in houses. My recommendation: move him somewhere else, somewhere safe. If you cannot, disconnect the power entirely. Use candles and lanterns, anything but electricity.
The trailer sounds unsafe. If you need to stay at this place, have an electrician look at it.
Call an electrician at once.
Mice may be in the walls and nibbling on the wires. Yes, get an electrician.
I seem to be the only one in the world with this issue. My house was built in 1921. It has all original wiring. Due to the expense, I can't afford to completely rewire the house. I just fix an issue as it arises. Here's my latest: I hired contractors to completely remodel a bathroom. When all was said and done, everything was good. However a few months later, the overhead light and ceiling fan in the living room and the front porch light will only work when it's cold outside. During the winter, the work just fine. During the fall and spring, they work some days (if it was cold the night before) and when it warms up, they shut off.
I bought one of those pens with a light, that when you tap an outlet it lights up and beeps if the wire or outlet is hot. They are hot all the time, even when not working. We had a cold spell a few days ago, they worked fine. Just now, I'm sitting in my living room and the ceiling fan starts slowing to a halt. Now I've got to wait till the next cold spell for them to kick back on. I've had 3 electricians say, "Dude.....that makes no sense. But I'm looking right at it. So I know you're not lying." Anyone have any idea what the hell is going on?Bruce is the only one who can answer this, as he is an actual electrician. Hopefully, he will see it and help you out. If he doesn't, I would try to find a more experienced electrician than you have had, as they do not seem to be very helpful. The bathroom reno and the intermittent light issue may not have anything to do with each other. I would put a priority on fixing it, though, as it could be a safety issue with such old wiring.
Copper, like any metal, will expand when heated and contract when cooled. If your house has aluminum wire this is even more pronounced.
The pen you described is a good troubleshooting tool that indicates you have voltage at the hot but it does not show that the neutral is grounded.
A circuit requires a complete loop. When it is warm and the fan is turned on and not running, the hot wire is going to the fan but it may be that you have a bad connection in your neutral. If this is the case, the 120 volt hot will pass through the fan and make the neutral side hot. (if the neutral path were good, the voltage would drop across the load of your fan)
The receptacle has two vertical slots, a tall one on the left and a short one on the right. With the fan on and not running, check to see if both slots have power with your pen. Only the short one should.
If this turns out to be the problem, have an electrician check your neutral connections.
Good luck.
A couple of things:
I do no know if your wire is copper or aluminum. Both metals grow when heated and shrink when cooled. If metals are mixed (wires, wire nuts, landing screws), it can result in a bad connection.
Your voltage pen is a great tool for detecting voltage. When it is cold and your ceiling fan is working, check the voltage at the receptacle. Only one vertical slot should have voltage (the short one on the right).
When it is warm and the fan is not working, check the receptacle again, with the fan on. I suspect there will be voltage at both vertical slots.
What I suspect is happening is that when the weather heats up, the neutral connection opens at a wire nut somewhere. This allows the 120 volt to pass through the fan motor to the neutral.
Tell this to an electrician to have it fixed for you.
I went to bed at night turning out all the power in my master bedroom, lights, etc. I woke the following morning to have no power in my master bedroom, in the master bathroom, and in the front bathroom which connects to my bathroom in the master.
I was told that something had to have happened, however the only thing that happened between my having power in my not having power is a utility company was running a cable up next to my house and had a machine that was thumping and vibrating sending the cable up under the ground.
I have searched for the problem, and had an electrician out searching for it until I ran out of money for him to search, so I just had him drop a line across from one bedroom over to get power to my master bedroom.
What I want to know is, is it possible that this vibration shook something loose in my house such as a wire? I feel fully that the cause of my outage is due to their construction of next to my home.
By Carol L.
I am sorry that the electrician could not find the issue. I would consider another electrician when funds become available.
What I am curious to know is how many circuits (breakers in your panel) are effected. If it is only one circuit, it is something in your house.
It could be that you lost a leg feeding your house. The cable feeding your house may have been damaged with the utility work. If this is the case, every other breaker in your panel would have no power. Also, you would have no 240 volt power, causing your electric range, electric clothes dryer and electric water heater to not work.
It is possible that vibration knocked something loose, but I suspect you would have had issues with your electric prior to this if that were the case.
I had no issues prior to this incident, I just went to bed and had no power the next morning and that was the only thing that was going on. My guess is that they shook something loose which may have been loose in the first place but they knocked it completely out but the company is telling me that there's no way that they caused it and I believe that that's exactly what happened. I have had other electricians tell me that they have had to do repairs where someone was playing electric guitar and the vibrations knock the wire loose within the outlet.
It does appear to be one line my electric company checked my box as my first thing was to do was to change the breaker but the electric company came out and they checked it and says all the power to my house is fine and there's nothing wrong with any of my breakers.
Electricians have a device that connects to a wire and puts a signal on that wire. They then use a device that senses the signal to track the wire through ceilings and walls. If an electrician does that in your panel to the hot wire on the breaker (or the neutral wire on the bus) and follows it, it will take them to the first device on the circuit (light, receptacle, switch...).
They would then check to see if that device is working and continue to follow the circuit through to each device until the break is found. Without such a device it is harder.
Does turning off the breaker still kill power to anything or is everything already dead? If anything is still alive and the cable goes to a device that is dead, then your problem is at one of those two positions.
If everything is dead then the problem is either at the breaker, the neutral bus connection or at the first device on the circuit. Unless you are able to visually track the wires, it will be hard to tell what the first device on the circuit.
The bad connection could be either the hot or the neutral.
I wish I could be of more help.
Thank you Bruce for trying to help. When the electrician jump the wire from the back bedroom over to the master bedroom right across the hall he came in behind the problem. So the master bedroom, the bathroom and the hall bathroom and the outlet in the back room work these are all on the east end of my home coming across to the west.
So I've narrowed it down to somewhere between that back room and the garage, laundry room and computer room which are on the west end of the house. (This is where my breaker box is located outside the garage) The cable pushing was going on right there.
Unfortunately I still believe that the company that ran the cable shook something loose, on the west end of my home that's the end that they were working on right outside that garage. They refused to help me because they feel "they didn't do it". In the meantime I guess I'll just search for every outlet or switch open them up and see if there's a wire loose in them. I'm not sure what will happen if I find the loose wire and connect it with the wires coming from the east end of the house and running back to it (if that makes sense)?
The lights in my laundry room and kitchen won't work unless the drier is on. What could be the problem? I have flipped all the breakers and nothing.
Five or 6 months ago my florescent lights (3 pairs of 2 tubes) would try to come on, then work. Weeks later only one pair would work. The other 2 sets would try, I think. I've let this problem go on far too long and can't remember. Then for a few months they worked. Now they are back to doing worse. One set flickers then they all turn pink at the edges. Now, the plug-ins in the 2 bathrooms upstairs which are back to back and the one below, downstairs, don't work. Just yesterday, the downstairs bath light would go off for a couple minutes and then come back on. The GFCI has the wires attached and button does trip. I flipped the breakers off and on. No luck. I replaced the circuit breaker that I thought was bad. No luck. I bought a voltage meter and all read about 123 amps. I found out a neighbor in the cul-de-sac behind me has been feeding a family of raccoons. Could they have eaten through part of the wires, maybe some outside? If so, do you think the power company could find out?
My Whirlpool Cabrio dryer says "pf". My microwave quit and now I have no hot water. This all occurred in 24 hrs. Could this be an electrical issue? Did I have a power surge?
I changed an outlet and light switch in my kitchen and they work fine, but now in the next two rooms (laundry and sun room) the light switches will not work. All other outlets work, but not the two light switches.
No breakers tripped. I checked all plugin outlets that needed reset, and all were good. No power seems to be going to the light switches when I checked with my device.I just recently replaced four bedroom receptacles and all are working. However, when I tried to turn on the ceiling fan which is done from the pull string not from a wall switch it would not come on. What are some troubleshooting options?
Thank you.
I replaced the breaker box inside and out. I also installed new breakers. It did not fix my problems. The receptacles in most rooms do not work. Some lights do not work.
This weekend I was working on installing a new flush mount overhead light on the main floor. When I removed the old light's canopy, the shallow electric box was held together mostly by electric tape. I decided that I had better invest the time in fixing it. I purchased a new metal ceiling box that was deeper so the armored wires could fit in comfortably. Then I took apart the connected wires and used the twist on wire caps instead. Well, now the entire upstairs is without power.
I've turned off the electricity in the house for safety until I can figure this out. What gives?
After a recent rain storm part of my home has electricity and other parts do not. I attributed no power to 5 circuit breakers based on what plugs and lights were out. The breakers seem to be fine (nothing was tripped) and no water appeared inside the panel. It seems to have happened around 5 am, but when I woke up and checked the panel box around 9 a.m.
I could not smell that anything electrical had "burned" in the electric panel. This is an older home built in the 1960s. I'm fearing the e-panel is toast, as we had several surges of power throughout the night. Any suggestions?There's a light switch just outside to turn on the light that's inside my bedroom closet. When the light switch is flipped on, the light in the closet turns on, but all of the other power in the room is cut. If the TV is on, it loses power and turns off. The main room lighting that is on it's own switch all the way across the room loses power and the light shuts off. Nothing works electrically speaking until the closet light switch is turned off, in which case power is restored to the TV and the main room ceiling mounted light.
What's the issue?
