Technical > Home Improvement > Electrical issue question

Electrical issue question

call the power company NOW. that could be that the neutral has failed, when you get a big load on one leg(not phase) it can go to near zero volts while the other leg shoots up to 240 volts. this can cause a fire. The POCO will check their feed for free, and it is usually on their end.

Since you say you have a hosed up panel, you still need to get a sparky in to check that. but get POCO there this morning, unless you want to risk not having a "there" this afternoon.
--
Lack of Preparation on YOUR Part does NOT Constitute an Emergency on Mine!

The odd thing is it happens when nothing much is happening.

like 1am

We called the power company and they said it'd be $50 just for them to come out and more if they had to fix something on our side.

A sparky will be there Sunday.

Is the charge for coming out something that's odd?

reply to DarkLogix
odd? no
F'ed Up: yes

reply to Msradell
Well with the new breaker box we'll need them at some point to upgrade the service from 125a to 200a so any guess of what they'll charge to upgrade the wires from the pole to the house? (they're underground)

Call the power company now. There's a good chance the problem is on their end. I've seen it happen in my old neighborhood - Bad underground drop. Power company ran a new drop above ground until they could get a crew out to dig up the ground.

They want us to pay just for them to come out and look at it.

I'll try again to see if they'll come out but they claimed no one else was having an issue.

Pay the $50. It's peanuts compared to your house burning down.

reply to DarkLogix
$50 is a lot cheaper than having your house burn down.

reply to DarkLogix


Are they that stupid? Of course no one else is having an issue, since no one else shares your drop and neutral... Not legally at least! What did you tell them exactly? It sounds like they aren't getting the full picture of what the problem is. And, what sparky did you get that's coming out on a Sunday? An actual licensed variety or some "guy that does electric"?

Yes a licensed one, he goes to my church.
He said he'd come over after church.

reply to DarkLogix

Well half the house is dark for the most part. (half is an estimate, I didn't test every light just ones in a few different rooms that I know are on different breakers.)

the lights all go out and only the clock on the stove flickers.

I know its across multiple breakers because of the rooms effected.

AFAIK we only get the 2 hots from them and the neutral is tied to ground.

reply to DarkLogix
Subscribe, hope you find out about this soon!

That's crazy they want to charge.. So what happens when they find it's on the power company's end? Charge more for that too??

reply to Subaru

reply to DarkLogix
Did you call the actual electric utility company -- the one who's name is on your bill -- and tell them there's a problem? The situation you describe sounds like either one leg of your service or possibly the neutral has become open. There should be no charge for them to come out and investigate, and it should be a priority service call. It almost seems as though you're calling a repair service and not the utility company.

reply to DarkLogix
I had this problem about four months ago. I lost one phase permanently. Any appliance connected to the open phase did not work. When the electric company lineman dug at the location of the break he found a splice that had melted open. One thing, the problem seemed benign until I noticed that the digital readout on a UPS that was plugged into an outlet connected to the open phase showed 40 Volts. I finally figured out that when any 240 Volt appliance was attempting to draw current it connected the working phase to the open phase. For example if the Water Heater turned on the open phase would be connected to the working phase in series with the resistance of the water heater element. The lineman repaired the splice and things were back to normal. No charge.