Bad neutral on 220VAC from pole to house. Every appliance ruined.
How does the electric comany deal with this situation?
My parents just lost a neutral wire from the pole to the breaker box
in the house. Everyone had left the house by 7:00 AM that morning. My
brother stopped by at about 5 PM to find the house filled with smoke
and smelling like an electrical fire. He immediately turned off the
main breaker and waited for my father to get home. My father turned
off every individual breaker them turned the main back on. Then he
started turning on one at a time. The water pump (110VAC) would just
sit there and hum. However, the air compressor in the garage (220VAC)
worked just fine. At this point it made sense that we lost the neutral
connection to the pole.
EVERYTHING in the house was fried... Phones, the stove, all TV's, the
dishwasher, the computer, fish tank pump, DVD player, surroud sound,
flouresent light fixtures, cell chargers, routers, alarm clocks,
digital camera, etc....
The dead of winter in PA brought the house to 47 degrees F since the
furnace quit. Dad kept everything turned off and called the electric
company right away. They were there within an hour (not bad for RURAL
PA.) They confirmed that the neutral was bad and ran a line above
ground from the pole to the house.
We are just thankfull that the house didn't burn to the ground.
Now is going to be the fun part... Getting the Electric company to
reimburse for the damage. Any advice on how to deal with this? Does
the electric comany prorate how much items are worth based on the age?
Or should we expect them to settle with us?
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