Weird occurances dealing with electricity within my house

SinfulWeeper

Diamond Member
Sep 2, 2000
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Okay within the last 3 weeks, my city has been getting black-outs almost nightly (nothing like seeing so many stars in Alaska night time). Not to unusual considering our city recently switched over to a new power plant. But about 3 days ago, the black-outs stopped. We have been getting reliable power.

However after the black-outs stopped, I have been getting something else happening, and there is no pattern that I can fathom. Albeit my knowledge of electrical matters is not that great.
Here is what happens.
Our circuit breakers in my house if controlled by a total of 15 different breakers, some of which are 2-in-1.
Every night (sometimes during the day too) we will lose power to different sections of the house, while there is still electricity in other parts... with two exceptions, on which I can not find the cause (and I think they are unrelated). I lost juice to my bedroom light. I tried replacing the light switch, and the light bulb socket... neither allowed the light to work and I am w/o light in part of my bedroom. The other occurrence is in our living room (on a different breaker to boot). There is one wall outlet that does not work even after replacing. I checked with a ohm meter to see if there might be a break in the power lines somewhere. But they all checked out.

When we lose power to whatever section of the house, there is no circuit breakers popped. I even turned them off and on to see if power might be restored. But that does not work either.
I can be standing in the rooms where the power goes out and in less then 10 minutes, it comes back on, even if I do nothing with the circuit breakers.

What can be causing these problems?
 

cmbehan

Senior member
Apr 18, 2001
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Most residential housing recieves power in three phases that are coordinated to give the effect of continuous power.

The effect your having is likely due to one of the phases either blacking out or browning out.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-phase_electric_power

I've been told that if you're not 100% properly grounded, having one of your electrical phases out of commission can be a serious fire hazard...but that might be a wives tale.
 

SinfulWeeper

Diamond Member
Sep 2, 2000
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Hrmm...

Well having one of the phases going out can explain why the power goes out in the house... but shouldn't the house go completely out and not just sections of it? I mean literally I can be in one room with no power, say the living room. Then go into the dining room and there is power there, or visa versa. I have never seen anything like this in my life and it is driving me to distraction. When working on my computer, I have to save anything I am typing out on any document every 2 minutes in fear of losing what I am writing.

As for the grounding, I am fairly certain the grounding in my house is done right.
 

Crusty

Lifer
Sep 30, 2001
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Buy a UPS for your computer, and get some monitoring software so you can check out the power levels if/when you lose power to that room. Most UPS' come with software that lets you check Volt/Current/Frequency, might give you a starting point.
 

dkozloski

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
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You're describing loose connections and defective wiring. You better get an electrician in to check it out before your house burns down. Residental houses are almost universally single phase wiring. Three wires enter the house at the service entrance; a neutral and two hot wires that are 180 degrees out of phase. The voltage measures 110V to ground from each hot and 220V between the two hot wires. Safety ground in the house is connected to a grounding rod driven into the earth. Loose connections can sometime be spotted in a circuit braker panel with an infra-red thermometer but I think you need somebody that knows what they're doing check out your situation before there is a disaster.
 

BrownTown

Diamond Member
Dec 1, 2005
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Yeah, its unlikely to be 3phase unless you live in a huge mansion or they do stuff way differently in Alaska. Have you asked your neighbors if they have had similar problems to yours? You said the blackouts were city wide, what about this occurance, is it only your house? Really is not anything I can think of that would cause such a thing. Maybe the blackouts resulting in some type of damage to you circuit breakers or wiring that is causing this. On another note, it sounds kinda funny to hear someone say "we switched to a new power plant", does that imply that your city is not connected to a larger grid or what? I don't know much about Alaska and electrical power, I just know here in the lower 48 it wouldn't matter what any individual power plant was doing because you could just pull more energy off the grid to replace it if it went down.
 

dkozloski

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
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The power grid in Alaska only covers Fairbanks, Anchorage, and the Kenai Peninsula. Other towns could be almost anything from a local generator operated by an entropeneur to a rural utility company.
 

Paperdoc

Platinum Member
Aug 17, 2006
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dkosloski is dead right! You appear to have at least one intermitent connection. In fact, your tale says you have several that misbehave at different times, but maybe the story is not quite clear. For example, you could have one poor connection on half of the incoming supply, and that would affect every circuit in the house on that half simultaneously. But unless you noticed that half a dozen circuits go out at the same time and then come back, you might miss the pattern.

The big point, as dk said, is that this is dangerous and needs a pro to find the problem. Get help very soon!
 

DrPizza

Administrator Elite Member Goat Whisperer
Mar 5, 2001
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Thoughts:
1. Loose connection in your breaker box.
2. Bad ground.

I've poo-pooed a lot of people who suggest "you're nuts if you don't hire an electrician" when it came to things like replacing switches or outlets, or other simple repairs. Your case is different. It sounds like the serious type that really does need an electrician to figure out.
 

NeoPTLD

Platinum Member
Nov 23, 2001
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Most houses in N. America DO NOT get three phase power. You get split phase. 240V center tapped. Center is grounded, and center to either legs is 120v. Across two legs is 240v.

If the problem is upstream of your service entry, your neighbors be having the same issues. Check with them. If they aren't, it's something on your side of the line. This could be loose connections. They're a serious fire hazard, so you should get an electrician to come out before your house burns down.

 

KMurphy

Golden Member
May 16, 2000
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When was your house built? If it is an older house, do you have aluminum wiring?

I concur with a few of the other posters that it seems like an intermittent open circuit which is a very bad thing. If you put a high load on one of these circuits (hair dryer, etc.) and it cuts out like that, there will be serious sparking and heating going on at the bad connection; enough to light timber.

For the 2nd poster - 3 phase power is extremely rare for residential use.
 

oynaz

Platinum Member
May 14, 2003
2,449
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Having worked as a fireman, I can only concur with most people here. Your electrical wiring is a fire waiting to happen.
I would suggest you call the power company and describe your symptoms. They will probably tell you to get an electrician, but the error might be in their equipment.
 

heyheybooboo

Diamond Member
Jun 29, 2007
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I think you have lost one **leg** of the power coming into your house - or one side of the electrical panel.

Ther are two 120v lines that come to the meter and into your house. Your electrical panel is spilt with one leg serving each side of the panel.

I used to work for a company that because of a freeze/thaw one winter an anchor for a guy wire grounded out one leg of the service. Half the panel was down.

OR I've never known a main breaker to go *half-bad* but I guess anything is possible . . .
 

Greenman

Lifer
Oct 15, 1999
21,752
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Originally posted by: cmbehan
Most residential housing recieves power in three phases that are coordinated to give the effect of continuous power.

The effect your having is likely due to one of the phases either blacking out or browning out.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-phase_electric_power

I've been told that if you're not 100% properly grounded, having one of your electrical phases out of commission can be a serious fire hazard...but that might be a wives tale.

Single and multi family homes use single phase power. Three phase is almost exclusively used in industrial or large commercial applications.
 

Sho'Nuff

Diamond Member
Jul 12, 2007
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I had a similar issue a while back in my old townhouse. It happened after I almost electrocuted myself while installing a new dishwasher. The symptoms were pretty similar; odd brown/blackouts in random parts of the house, the lightswitch in the bathroom wouldn;t turn on the lights, but turning the dryer on (which was located in the same room) would turn the lights on etc...

We called an electrician and he fixed the issue in a jiffy. He said that when I almost electrocuted myself (connected the housewires with a screwdriver by accident, not knowing they were still hot), the surge half blew one of the big fuses governing one of the two main circuits coming in the house. As a result, high draw appliances like the dryer could still pull current (overcome the increased resistance of the half blown fuse), but low draw stuff like lamps and lights would not.

I am no electrician so I don't know his explanation is correct or not. I do know, however, that replacing that one fuse cured the whole issue.

Now, if only I could figure out why my CRT monitor would interfere with my directv reception in that old house....

 

SinfulWeeper

Diamond Member
Sep 2, 2000
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Found out the problem. The utility company was working on power poles nearby my house. Whatever they were doing was causing the weird power happenings. Soon as they finished, the problems stopped.