On Dec 22, 12:29*pm, Billy wrote:
how will the electrician identify where a loose or corroded wire is
without taking the whole house apart? This could be any plug, light,
appliance, etc..... Sounds like he may be there for hours/days with a
high bill.

With basic electrical knowledge, did you do the first inspections?
For example, every receptacle in that circuit is wired to side screws;
not connected in the backstab holes. Easy. Take off the cover. Look
for wires attached to side screws. If not, that should be fixed.

Meanwhile, your symptoms are typical of another well understood
electrical concept called open neutral. Loading on one circuit can
cause voltage on other circuits to increase or decrease.

Also well understood by anyone with basic electrical knowledge is
that a tripped circuit breaker typically trips half way. Therefore
you know which breakers were manually turned off and which breakers
opened due to excessive load. Since you did not know that, then I am
very leery that you also did some electrical wiring.

Hairdryer trips a circuit. Good diagnostic procedure dictates that
you immediately collected important numbers such as the amperes for
that hairdryer, amperes for the circuit breaker, and list everything
else attached to that circuit breaker. As also done in computer
repair, one first collects facts (and especially numbers) long before
even trying to fix anything. That procedure also applies to your
household wiring problem.

I will not explain what is and dangers created by an open neutral.
It has been described routinely elsewhere. But I will add that one
house literally exploded when an open neutral and no earth ground
caused the gas meter to explode. Got your attention?

Of course, since doing electrical and electronics work, then you
have a multimeter. How much (the numbers) does that AC voltage vary?
And which circuits see increases or decreases?

Furnace should be on its own breaker. But that shared circuit does
not cause your symptoms.

Some techniques to use that multimeter. Connect a long three wire
extension cord from a receptacle on the breaker box. Measure at
receptacles on the suspect circuit. Measure voltages between each
breaker box receptacle wire and suspect circuit wires as major
appliances (or furnace) are powered on and off. Voltages should not
vary by more than 2 volts. Variation even near zero on the safety
grounds. Same can be accomplished by measuring voltages between
receptacle safety ground to hot (black) and neutral (white) wires.
Again, voltages should never vary by more than 2 volts as major loads
are connected and then unpowered.

Or you can spend maybe $70 per hour to have an electrician do it.
But again, long before fixing or changing anything, first identify a
problem with numbers.