JoeSpareBedroom wrote:
"Arthur Shapiro" wrote in message
...


While waiting outside for the electrician, a neighbor came out with
exactly
the same complaint. I knew then that it was a utility company
problem....

I'm just watching this discussion, but maybe someone can explain how a
problem with the utility's equipment could cause just half a house to
go dead.

In the words of Mad Max: "There's a big difference between all dead and
mostly dead."

There are two phases dropped to the house, 120 each. If you lose one, you
still have the other. Circuit breaker boxes are designed to alternate the
phases to successive breakers. When you lose one phase, roughly half the
120v circuits go dead.

As to how the power company can lose a phase, think a half-fried
transformer. But sometimes they just lose things. About twenty years ago,
the light company lost one of my payments for about a year.