During an electrical storm one half of my house lost electricity while
the other half did not. I contacted our electric company and they said
the problem was "their equipment" which burnt out and affected part of
our "service entry cable." They said it's likely that "part" of our
service entry cable services part of our house and other parts service
the rest.

I have never heard of a partial blackout that affects only some
circuits. Can anyone explain this in more detail?

thanks!

Don

wrote in message
s.com...
During an electrical storm one half of my house lost electricity while
the other half did not. I contacted our electric company and they said
the problem was "their equipment" which burnt out and affected part of
our "service entry cable." They said it's likely that "part" of our
service entry cable services part of our house and other parts service
the rest.

I have never heard of a partial blackout that affects only some
circuits. Can anyone explain this in more detail?

Your house is fed with two legs at 120 volts each. If you look inside your
breaker box, you see three big wires coming in, red, black, white. The red
and black are legs of 120V, the white is the neutral. Half your circuits
are on one leg, half on the other. A 22V is on both. The power company
lost one of the legs and so did you.

On 08/01/06 04:05 pm wrote:

During an electrical storm one half of my house lost electricity while
the other half did not. I contacted our electric company and they said
the problem was "their equipment" which burnt out and affected part of
our "service entry cable." They said it's likely that "part" of our
service entry cable services part of our house and other parts service
the rest.

I have never heard of a partial blackout that affects only some
circuits. Can anyone explain this in more detail?

thanks!

All the residential electrical installations I've seen are a "split
220/240 volt" arrangement: dryer, electric range, central A/C run off
220 or 240 volts; of the 120 volt devices (e.g., lights, regular power
outlets, dishwasher), some will run off one "half" (or "leg") of the
220/240-volt supply, others off the other "half" (or "leg"). Typically,
adjacent breakers in your electrical panel will be on different legs of
the supply.

Perce

The explanations given are completely correct. Here is a workaround
for the 120-volt devices only:

Using a lamp or hair dryer (something portable) find out which outlets
are still powered. For your critical appliances (refrigerator,
freezer) it is possible to use a 12-guage extension cord of the
shortest possible length to power the appliance from an outlet that
still works until the power company restores full service.

On Tue, 01 Aug 2006 16:57:19 -0400, "Percival P. Cassidy"
wrote:
During an electrical storm one half of my house lost electricity while
the other half did not.
All the residential electrical installations I've seen are a "split
220/240 volt" arrangement: dryer, electric range, central A/C run off
220 or 240 volts; of the 120 volt devices (e.g., lights, regular power
outlets, dishwasher), some will run off one "half" (or "leg") of the
220/240-volt supply, others off the other "half" (or "leg"). Typically,
adjacent breakers in your electrical panel will be on different legs of
the supply.

Perce

I've heard of this -- and seen it twice.

You have two "hot" wires from the electrical service. Each serves
different circuits. Both are needed to provide 220 volts for dryers or
ranges.

--

Christopher A. Young
You can't shout down a troll.
You have to starve them.
..

wrote in message
s.com...
During an electrical storm one half of my house lost electricity while
the other half did not. I contacted our electric company and they
said
the problem was "their equipment" which burnt out and affected part of
our "service entry cable." They said it's likely that "part" of our
service entry cable services part of our house and other parts service
the rest.

I have never heard of a partial blackout that affects only some
circuits. Can anyone explain this in more detail?

thanks!

Don

You have two "hot" wires from the electrical service. Each serves
different circuits. Both are needed to provide 220 volts for dryers or
ranges.

You experience is a simple one... and it was easily fixed by the power
company.

The BAD problem is when that THIRD wire fails: The "Neutral wire.

In that case, the 240 volts is distributed across both sets of 120V
loads, and often in a uneven manner, so some devices see less than 120V
and some see more. In many such cases permanent damage is done to some
120V equipment such as TV's etc.

If you EVER see some circuits get brighter and some dimmer, call the
power company at once. Consider running down and shutting the main
break OFF and being without power until it's fixed.

If damage occurs, and it's up on a pole or on the power companies side
of the meter, they can be liable for damages.

I've had this happen. I still have the melted 'souvenier' splice the
power company replaced. Hmm. I did about 10 years ago, wonder where it
is??

Good to keep your eyes open for this unlikely but not that unusual
problem...

Regards, Terry King ...On The Mediterranean in Carthage
(Back ...In The Woods In Vermont for the Summer)

Thanks to everyone for the clear and concise responses!

Don

wrote:
During an electrical storm one half of my house lost electricity while
the other half did not. I contacted our electric company and they said
the problem was "their equipment" which burnt out and affected part of
our "service entry cable." They said it's likely that "part" of our
service entry cable services part of our house and other parts service
the rest.

I have never heard of a partial blackout that affects only some
circuits. Can anyone explain this in more detail?

thanks!

Don

I've had this happen. I still have the melted 'souvenier' splice the
power company replaced. Hmm. I did about 10 years ago, wonder where it
is??


I have the end of the copper 15,000 volt line that snapped after a
IDIOT tree company doing work for me got careless. The lineman was nice
and gave me the short piece.

I had just said I will go down to the street so no cars will get hit by
branches.

the line dropped where I would of been standing and left a carbon trail
in the asphalt that was there till the street was repaved 5 years later

I nearly died that day, the bit of copper a momento

Didnt know others saved stuff like this..........

On Tue, 01 Aug 2006 20:12:25 GMT, "Edwin Pawlowski"
wrote:


wrote in message
ps.com...
During an electrical storm one half of my house lost electricity while
the other half did not. I contacted our electric company and they said
the problem was "their equipment" which burnt out and affected part of
our "service entry cable." They said it's likely that "part" of our
service entry cable services part of our house and other parts service
the rest.

I have never heard of a partial blackout that affects only some
circuits. Can anyone explain this in more detail?

Your house is fed with two legs at 120 volts each. If you look inside your
breaker box, you see three big wires coming in, red, black, white. The red
and black are legs of 120V, the white is the neutral. Half your circuits
are on one leg, half on the other. A 22V is on both. The power company
lost one of the legs and so did you.


22 volts???????
You must be using metric !!!!

I wonder if it hurt when the power company lost one of it's legs?
OUCH

Mark

On 3 Aug 2006 19:30:45 -0700, "
wrote:

I've had this happen. I still have the melted 'souvenier' splice the
power company replaced. Hmm. I did about 10 years ago, wonder where it
is??


I have the end of the copper 15,000 volt line that snapped after a
IDIOT tree company doing work for me got careless. The lineman was nice
and gave me the short piece.

I had just said I will go down to the street so no cars will get hit by
branches.

the line dropped where I would of been standing and left a carbon trail
in the asphalt that was there till the street was repaved 5 years later

I nearly died that day, the bit of copper a momento

Didnt know others saved stuff like this..........

When I was probably around 12 years old (many years ago), a 15,000
volt (or possibly much higher) line fell during a storm and was
dancing around on a wet concrete road. I watched it from nearby. It
sounded like an arc welder, and the ball of fire was quite something
to see. The wire would hit the road and just sort of explode, tossing
it back into the air. After the power company repaired it, I walked
over to the spot on the road, and found that section of concrete had
actually turned to glass where the wire had hit it. Many of the
pieces were blown off the surface and just laying there loose. In
other spots this "glass" was now part of the pavement. It looked just
like glass and had a greenish color. I brought home a few of these
"glass rocks", and was pretty proud of them. I dont know what ever
happened to them over the years, but they were pretty interesting. I
suspect the green color was from the copper in the wire. There were
actually deep holes in the concrete, possibly as much as 4 inches
deep. I still remember this vividly, it was quite the thing to see.
Now a days, most people dont get to see things like that, because the
authorities block off the whole area.

Speaking of saving things, I recently visited an old friend from my
childhood. I was shocked when he took me in his basement and showed
me his first car, all in pieces, and in labelled boxes. There sat the
engine, transmission, all the doors, brake drums, radio, dashboard,
hubcaps, etc etc.... He disassembled the entire car before he junked
the basic frame /body. I used to ride in that car when I was a kid in
the 60's. He told me to sit on the seat again (also in his basement).
He probably has a mint in collectors parts in that basement, the car
was from the 1950's or early 60's. When I suggested he sell the parts
on Ebay or something, he said he wont sell anything becsuse it was his
first car. ...... OK, Whatever !!!!!

Mark

On 1 Aug 2006 13:05:06 -0700, wrote:

During an electrical storm one half of my house lost electricity while
the other half did not. I contacted our electric company and they said
the problem was "their equipment" which burnt out and affected part of
our "service entry cable." They said it's likely that "part" of our
service entry cable services part of our house and other parts service
the rest.

I have never heard of a partial blackout that affects only some
circuits. Can anyone explain this in more detail?

thanks!

Don


Did they say something about a transformer, or transformer coil, going
bad?

later,

tom @ www.NoCostAds.com