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Help!! Electrician messed up bad!!!

LostHiWay

LostHiWay

Golden Member
We just had our breaker box replaced. Everything in the house is fine but we have an unattached garage which is on the same box. When the electrician wired everything up he accidently wired the entire unattached garage at 220v. I noticed something was wrong when I went back their and the lights were humming really loud and the garage door wouldn't open. Right away I flipped the breaker for the garage.

How much damage do you think is done? I have about $20k worth of power tools, compressors, etc plugged in.
 
does the unattached garage have a breaker box in it. Maybe he ran 220 out to it to prevent voltage drop. But if there is a box in the garage then you should have some 110 breakers.

KK
 
If your power tools, etc. weren't turned on, I doubt any damage was done. Why don't you get the electrician to fix his mistake before you start trying to figure out how much to sue him for?
 
Originally posted by: KK
does the unattached garage have a breaker box in it. Maybe he ran 220 out to it to prevent voltage drop. But if there is a box in the garage then you should have some 110 breakers.

KK
Click to expand...

The garage has it's own breaker box but nothing tripped. (this one wasn't replaced) I'm just nervous since the garage door just stopped working.

 
Originally posted by: hjo3
If your power tools, etc. weren't turned on, I doubt any damage was done. Why don't you get the electrician to fix his mistake before you start trying to figure out how much to sue him for?
Click to expand...

Already been done...He'll be out within the hour. I don't want to sue. I just want it done right.
 
Originally posted by: hjo3
If your power tools, etc. weren't turned on, I doubt any damage was done. Why don't you get the electrician to fix his mistake before you start trying to figure out how much to sue him for?
Click to expand...

 
Originally posted by: LostHiWay
Originally posted by: KK
does the unattached garage have a breaker box in it. Maybe he ran 220 out to it to prevent voltage drop. But if there is a box in the garage then you should have some 110 breakers.

KK
Click to expand...

The garage has it's own breaker box but nothing tripped. (this one wasn't replaced) I'm just nervous since the garage door just stopped working.
Click to expand...

So the box in the garage has 220 coming into it? have you checked the outlets with a volt meter, I'd bet they'd be 110. I couldn't see someone fvckin up that bad. are the breakers single breakers or double breakers?

KK
 
Originally posted by: KK
Originally posted by: LostHiWay
Originally posted by: KK
does the unattached garage have a breaker box in it. Maybe he ran 220 out to it to prevent voltage drop. But if there is a box in the garage then you should have some 110 breakers.

KK
Click to expand...

The garage has it's own breaker box but nothing tripped. (this one wasn't replaced) I'm just nervous since the garage door just stopped working.
Click to expand...

So the box in the garage has 220 coming into it? have you checked the outlets with a volt meter, I'd bet they'd be 110. I couldn't see someone fvckin up that bad. are the breakers single breakers or double breakers?

KK
Click to expand...

The box in the garage has 220 going to it most likely. I talked to the electrician and he said he probably did this by mistake. The breakers in the back are single

 
Originally posted by: LostHiWay
Originally posted by: KK
Originally posted by: LostHiWay
Originally posted by: KK
does the unattached garage have a breaker box in it. Maybe he ran 220 out to it to prevent voltage drop. But if there is a box in the garage then you should have some 110 breakers.

KK
Click to expand...

The garage has it's own breaker box but nothing tripped. (this one wasn't replaced) I'm just nervous since the garage door just stopped working.
Click to expand...

So the box in the garage has 220 coming into it? have you checked the outlets with a volt meter, I'd bet they'd be 110. I couldn't see someone fvckin up that bad. are the breakers single breakers or double breakers?

KK
Click to expand...

The box in the garage has 220 going to most likely. I talked to the electrician and he said he probably did this by mistake. The breakers in the back are single
Click to expand...

With 220 you have 2 hot (110V 180 out of phase from each other) and a neutral, 110 has a hot and a neutral. So I'm not sure how he could have messed that up. Did he run an extra wire out to the garage? ANd what did he run that wire too? I'd be curious to know how he did that.

KK
 
It isn't possible that he ran 220 to your 110 outlets without serious effort, much less an oversight or mistake. He would have had to install 2 pole, 220V breakers to do it, or have connected the hot to one breaker, and the neutral to a breaker on the other leg of the 220 coming in. Do you see any white wires connected to a breaker instead of a bus bar? . I'm not sure what the problem is, but I'm betting if you stick a voltmeter in a socket you'll only see 110V between the poles, and between the hot & ground.
 
Exactly, the only way you could have 220 at those outlets is if both the hot and neutral of the garage are wired to hots in the house. Just us a meter or test light and connect both sides of your garage outlets to the ground and see if you have 110 from both, if you do then he messed up but I doubt anything would be blown out.
 
Most panels have 240 going into them normally. He probably didn't realize that the panel in the garage wasn't setup that way.
 
Probably to late, but take some pics of your breaker boxes before the electrician arrives. If he really did screw up that bad, some people should know about it.
 
Originally posted by: Demon-Xanth
Most panels have 240 going into them normally. He probably didn't realize that the panel in the garage wasn't setup that way.
Click to expand...

But if the garage panel is only 110V, he shouldn't have enough wires to run 220V to it. Unless somebody ran a 4 wire cable out there in planning for future upgrades. But, in that case, the red wire should be unattached at the garage panel.
 
Half of the breakers run off of one side, and the other half run off the otherside in most cases. Like I said, you garage was different from most. And it usually IS only three wires. Three very large wires. The ground isn't supplied by the supply cables from your utility company. Just two phases and a neutral.
 
okay some more info on the back garage. The garage has regular 110v outlets in it..but it also has one 220v outlet. The electrician did somehow manage to put 220 to all the 110 outlets. (I have no clue how...electricity is not my thing). So far garage door, a battery charger, and two electric heaters are dead.

Electrician has assured me though it was his mistake and he'll either fix or repair everything that is messed up
 
well if hes is going to fix and repair/replace what is dead that is good, hes admiting it was his fusk up, thats all you can ask
 
Well it isn't hard to do id whoever wired it before got the wrong color wires in it or something like that, and it only takes putting the two hot wires on a hot and neutral bar in the breaker box. Scariest thing that I ever got into though was in my sisters apartment where someone wired the two hots one to the hot and one to the ground of her dryer outlet. It made the whole shell of the dryer hot and if you had wet hands and touched the washer and dryer at the same time it tingled. Just lucky the washer wasn't grounded any better than it was or it could have been deadly, we figured it out when we were moving them and smacked the two together and it arced :Q made a bright flash and burned the enamel off the washer.
 
who the hell is this electrician? some guy you met off the streets? must be his first day if he managed to give the outlets 220v

i dont even know how thats possible with single pole breakers unless he put the 'actual' hots on one side and the neutrals on the other set of breakers

you'd think he would figure it out since the neutrals are white
 
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