I won't go into all of the details, and the problem is fixed now. But this morning when my daughter's alarm clock went off, the electricity was off in some rooms of the house (including the master bedroom). some rooms had plenty of juice. One room had 2 computers running. They are on UPSs, but the UPSs weren't beeping.
Nothing on 240V that I tested was working, except that the clothes dryer would spin (I don't know if it was heating). Our water pump (on
120V, I think) was not working. I checked the circuit breakers, and they were OK. After I did that, the lights came back on in 3 rooms that had not had electricity. A TV started repeatedly trying to turn itself on, but it couldn't, and each time it caused the lights to blink elsewhere. I had to unplug it.Upstairs there was a UPS, but the computer was off. The UPS had almost no load on it, just two wall warts, I think. I noticed that if I turned on the overhead light in the adjoining room, the UPS would start beeping.
Some of the electrical outlets showed their usual 120V and some of them showed only 110V.
I called the electric company and reported a partial outage. They found the problem, saying something about "dropping a leg", and dug up the cable in the yard and fixed the problem.
What is "dropping a leg"?
As I understand it, you have 3 wires, two of them carry 240V and the third is a ground back to the power company. You get 120V between either of the hot wires and the ground. Is dropping a leg related to that?
Why would some rooms have electricity and others not, in a situation like this?