DIYbanter - View Single Post - Bad neutral on 220VAC from pole to house. Every appliance ruined.

Nate Nagel

Gerry Atrick wrote:
On 10 Feb 2007 21:09:49 -0800, wrote:

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?

I had this exact same thing happen in my garage. Fortunately this was
ONLY the garage (on a separate overhead cable). I found the problem
when I flipped on the lights and noticed some of them were real dim
and other real bright. I plugged in an electric drill and it just
hummed. Then my 120v air compressor kicked in, and it too only
hummed, but that same moment several of the CF lightbulbs got real
bright and fried. In the end, I lost 6 CF lightbulbs, two regular
bulbs, the garage radio (which I have set ro come on when I turn on
the lights), and the charger for my cordless drill which was plugged
in at the time. Luckily the drill and air compressor were fine after
the neutral was fixed.

I cant tell you about the legal matters, and think that it might be an
insurance issue. However, I do question how all those things could be
burned out. They couldn't have had all those tv's radios, computer,
and everything turned on, unless they really waste a lof ot power.

I can see the alarm clocks, fish tank pump, furnace, water pump (if it
tried to kick in), and possible some large appliances such as
refrigerators, microwave, etc. But dont just assume that all tv sets
computers, etc are bad. If they were turned off, they should be fine.
You also mentioned a digital camera. That makes no sense, they run on
batteries. It is likely some if not most of the large appliances
survived as they are more forgiving. Like the air compressor in my
garage. What happens is the load is extremely unbalanced when the
neutral is removed. So, some things get up to 240V while others get
as little as 10V or so, (like my electric drill which only hummed).
Your well pump most likely hummed because it got too little voltage,
and likely will work fine once the neutral is fixed.

Once the power is normal, you or they will have to check each
electrical device. Those that were not turned on should be fine.
Some others may have survived too. I bet that pump will work. If it
hummed, it got too little voltage. Too much would have fried the
motor and there would be no hum at all.

Of course, there is some device that really took the brunt of the load
and that is what caused the smoke. Which is it? Possibly a furnace
motor? Lots of smoke usually means a large motor. Small electronics
normally just burn out and die instantly.

As for the computer, a new power supply may be all you need.

I'd suspect that the TV's just *might* be fried, unless they are very
old. There's no real "off" setting on a TV with a remote control, only
a "standby." Anything inside the case that's energized with the power
off may be toasty.

nate

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