Part of home electrical system shuts down
 

Hi,

I have a very weired problam at my house. This is not a new house,
it was built in 1960, but most part of the electrical system was
redone about 10 years ago.

Once in a while, part of the electrical system shuts-down. When I
mean part it is about half of the circuits. I could not find any logic
in the circuits that shuts down or the one that keep alive.

The shut down lasts between 5 and 15 minutes and everything comes
back to life...

I changed a few breakers in the hope it would do something and I
also re-tighted all live and neutral in the master box but this did
not change anything.

Tomorrow night I will have a UPS connected to my PC with a
monitoring software to see what the AC line is doing but I have no
clues.

Any ideas anyone?

Andre

P.S. You can e-mail directly to me.

Part of home electrical system shuts down
 

Andre Courchesne - Consultant wrote:

Hi,

I have a very weired problam at my house. This is not a new house,
it was built in 1960, but most part of the electrical system was
redone about 10 years ago.

Once in a while, part of the electrical system shuts-down. When I
mean part it is about half of the circuits. I could not find any logic
in the circuits that shuts down or the one that keep alive.

The shut down lasts between 5 and 15 minutes and everything comes
back to life...

I changed a few breakers in the hope it would do something and I
also re-tighted all live and neutral in the master box but this did
not change anything.

Tomorrow night I will have a UPS connected to my PC with a
monitoring software to see what the AC line is doing but I have no
clues.

Any ideas anyone?

Andre

P.S. You can e-mail directly to me.

You may want to enlist the aid of the serving utility;
it's just possible that one "phase" has an intermittent
connection. Even if it's on your equipment, they may
help you locate it.

Jim

Part of home electrical system shuts down
 

First..not to try to sound like another contractor, screaming GET AN
ELECTRICIAN in there.....but..

We had a situation similar to this not long ago on a unit...and it was so
unreal we missed it till it about knocked one of our guys on his ass..

It was due to a line that had burned in half...and was actually going to
ground. It tripped the breaker for a while, and the homeowner went to a
larger breaker...for whatever reason, that stopped the tripping, but the
unit would run for about 20 minutes and shut off, no matter what.
When we got there, we found the connector where the electrical entered the
unit was shorted to the wires, and the wires had burned in half..sometimes
making contact and sometimes not.

You MIGHT have a bad connection in a J box at somepoint and it MIGHT be in a
condition that COULD be detrimental to your home.
Get it checked...soon.



"Andre Courchesne - Consultant" wrote in message
om...
Hi,

I have a very weired problam at my house. This is not a new house,
it was built in 1960, but most part of the electrical system was
redone about 10 years ago.

Once in a while, part of the electrical system shuts-down. When I
mean part it is about half of the circuits. I could not find any logic
in the circuits that shuts down or the one that keep alive.

The shut down lasts between 5 and 15 minutes and everything comes
back to life...

I changed a few breakers in the hope it would do something and I
also re-tighted all live and neutral in the master box but this did
not change anything.

Tomorrow night I will have a UPS connected to my PC with a
monitoring software to see what the AC line is doing but I have no
clues.

Any ideas anyone?

Andre

P.S. You can e-mail directly to me.

Part of home electrical system shuts down
 

Sounds interesting. But would'nt the complete house be down if the the
main connection would be open?

One other thing I forgot to mention is that the circuits that shut-off
have 0v and the breaker does not open. Yesterday when it happened I
tried to close and then open the affected breakers and it did nothing.
I even closed and open the main switch and it changed nothing. But
after about 20 minutes the power returned...

I don't have an AC so I don't know what happen to it. When it happens
the dryer works but now the stove (both on 220v).

If it is a missing phase would be all outlets be affacted and wouldn't
I measure around 60-65v with my multimeter? Now I read 0v on affected
circuits and 110v on the others...

I can't wait to get my UPS with monitoring software plugged-in
tonight...

Thanks for your hints and keep them comming if you have any ideas.
I'll be sure to post my findings...

Richard J Kinch wrote in message ...
Andre Courchesne - Consultant writes:

Once in a while, part of the electrical system shuts-down. When I
mean part it is about half of the circuits. I could not find any logic
in the circuits that shuts down or the one that keep alive.

The shut down lasts between 5 and 15 minutes and everything comes
back to life...

Had the same problem. Turned out to be a bad splice on the drop cable from
the power pole to the mast on the house. When the wind blew a certain way,
it would wiggle the splice and open up the connection momentarily. Bugged
us for years until one day I looked up at the mast and saw that the plastic
insulator around the splice had melted and drooped halfway off. Called the
utility (it was their side of the meter) and a truck was there and fixed it
in an hour, their cost.

It is almost certain one side of your main line has an intermittent
connection. Could be outside, could be inside your house. Inspect what
you can, then call an electrician if it isn't obvious.

Part of home electrical system shuts down
 

On 5 Aug 2003 05:32:28 -0700, (Andre Courchesne
- Consultant) wrote (with possible editing):

Sounds interesting. But would'nt the complete house be down if the the
main connection would be open?

One other thing I forgot to mention is that the circuits that shut-off
have 0v and the breaker does not open. Yesterday when it happened I
tried to close and then open the affected breakers and it did nothing.
I even closed and open the main switch and it changed nothing. But
after about 20 minutes the power returned...

I don't have an AC so I don't know what happen to it. When it happens
the dryer works but now the stove (both on 220v).

If it is a missing phase would be all outlets be affacted and wouldn't
I measure around 60-65v with my multimeter? Now I read 0v on affected
circuits and 110v on the others...

No, Rich is most likely correct. Houses are normally fed from the
secondary side of a distribution transformer, otherwise known as a
"pole pig". They output 220 - 240 vac center-tapped, yielding 110 -
120 vac on each side or 220 - 240vac across the two phases. If a
phase leg is interrupted (as in a bad connection), that side will have
0 volts and the other side will be fine.

Call your electric company.

--
Larry



I can't wait to get my UPS with monitoring software plugged-in
tonight...

Thanks for your hints and keep them comming if you have any ideas.
I'll be sure to post my findings...

Richard J Kinch wrote in message ...
Andre Courchesne - Consultant writes:

Once in a while, part of the electrical system shuts-down. When I
mean part it is about half of the circuits. I could not find any logic
in the circuits that shuts down or the one that keep alive.

The shut down lasts between 5 and 15 minutes and everything comes
back to life...

Had the same problem. Turned out to be a bad splice on the drop cable from
the power pole to the mast on the house. When the wind blew a certain way,
it would wiggle the splice and open up the connection momentarily. Bugged
us for years until one day I looked up at the mast and saw that the plastic
insulator around the splice had melted and drooped halfway off. Called the
utility (it was their side of the meter) and a truck was there and fixed it
in an hour, their cost.

It is almost certain one side of your main line has an intermittent
connection. Could be outside, could be inside your house. Inspect what
you can, then call an electrician if it isn't obvious.

Part of home electrical system shuts down
 

On Tue, 05 Aug 2003 13:51:19 GMT, L. M. Rappaport
wrote:

On 5 Aug 2003 05:32:28 -0700, (Andre Courchesne
- Consultant) wrote (with possible editing):

Sounds interesting. But would'nt the complete house be down if the the
main connection would be open?

One other thing I forgot to mention is that the circuits that shut-off
have 0v and the breaker does not open. Yesterday when it happened I
tried to close and then open the affected breakers and it did nothing.
I even closed and open the main switch and it changed nothing. But
after about 20 minutes the power returned...

I don't have an AC so I don't know what happen to it. When it happens
the dryer works but now the stove (both on 220v).

If it is a missing phase would be all outlets be affacted and wouldn't
I measure around 60-65v with my multimeter? Now I read 0v on affected
circuits and 110v on the others...

No, Rich is most likely correct. Houses are normally fed from the
secondary side of a distribution transformer, otherwise known as a
"pole pig". They output 220 - 240 vac center-tapped, yielding 110 -
120 vac on each side or 220 - 240vac across the two phases. If a
phase leg is interrupted (as in a bad connection), that side will have
0 volts and the other side will be fine.

Call your electric company.

In that case, if you have any 240V appliances on, they will "bridge"
from the live leg, to the dead one, providing some voltage.

Part of home electrical system shuts down
 

I did a visual check of the outside cabling tonight and did not see
anything out of the ordinary...

I am now proceeding to verify all outlets and switches on the circuits
that get affacted.

What I really don't understand is how lets say breaker 10 and 14 are
affected but 12, 13 and 15 keep going like there was nothing wrong
(those 5 breakers are all 110v)...

Andre

(mark Ransley) wrote in message ...
I had a similar problem, it was the outside cable, call the utility co
they will check your house for free, be there when they come incase the
problem is inside.

Part of home electrical system shuts down
 

Andre Courchesne - Consultant wrote:

s how lets say breaker 10 and 14 are
affected but 12, 13 and 15 keep going like there was nothing wrong
(those 5 breakers are all 110v)...

Andre


What I really don't understand is -why- you would have a conversation
with retardo boy - mark Ransley?

Part of home electrical system shuts down
 

A FREE check ,, and FREE, advise , and possibly a FREE fix, and the
Security you have from the Elec Co is worth it , and its FREE I could
not SEE my problem ,, Nor could my Elec co ,,, Till they were up
on the wires, and it was Free ,,,,,,,, call your elec co. tonight

Part of home electrical system shuts down
 

In alt.home.repair on 5 Aug 2003 16:59:23 -0700
(Andre Courchesne - Consultant) posted:

I did a visual check of the outside cabling tonight and did not see
anything out of the ordinary...

I am now proceeding to verify all outlets and switches on the circuits
that get affacted.

What I really don't understand is how lets say breaker 10 and 14 are
affected but 12, 13 and 15 keep going like there was nothing wrong
(those 5 breakers are all 110v)...

Assuming Canada is like the US, the only oddity is number 12. The
even breakers are on one phase, and the odd breakers are on the other
phase, so check your other odd and even to see if they keep up the
pattern.

Wait. YOu say "lets say" so we don't know if 12 is good or not.

Andre

(mark Ransley) wrote in message ...
I had a similar problem, it was the outside cable, call the utility co
they will check your house for free, be there when they come incase the
problem is inside.


Meirman

If emailing, please let me know whether
or not you are posting the same letter.

Change domain to erols.com, if necessary.

Part of home electrical system shuts down
 

Andre Courchesne - Consultant writes:

Sounds interesting. But would'nt the complete house be down if the the
main connection would be open?

No. You're wading out past the shoreline of your intuition. Time to call
the utility and/or an electrician.

Part of home electrical system shuts down
 

On Tue, 05 Aug 2003 23:04:57 -0400, meirman
wrote:

In alt.home.repair on 5 Aug 2003 16:59:23 -0700
(Andre Courchesne - Consultant) posted:

I did a visual check of the outside cabling tonight and did not see
anything out of the ordinary...

I am now proceeding to verify all outlets and switches on the circuits
that get affacted.

What I really don't understand is how lets say breaker 10 and 14 are
affected but 12, 13 and 15 keep going like there was nothing wrong
(those 5 breakers are all 110v)...

Assuming Canada is like the US, the only oddity is number 12. The
even breakers are on one phase, and the odd breakers are on the other
phase, so check your other odd and even to see if they keep up the
pattern.

Wait. YOu say "lets say" so we don't know if 12 is good or not.


Canada is different, where they use Federal Stab-Lok panels, where
adjacent breakers can be on the same leg.

Andre

(mark Ransley) wrote in message ...
I had a similar problem, it was the outside cable, call the utility co
they will check your house for free, be there when they come incase the
problem is inside.


Meirman

If emailing, please let me know whether
or not you are posting the same letter.

Change domain to erols.com, if necessary.