I was in my bathroom yesterday with the lights and the fan on. All of a sudden the lights and fan go off. Only the bathroom I was in and part of another room were affected so I assumed a breaker had been tripped. But when I opened the fusebox none of the breakers had been tripped. I even flipped the corresponding breaker just to be sure.
Can I safely assume that the breaker is probably bad and will need to be replaced, or is it possible something else is wrong?
The more likely culprit is a loose wire in a receptacle, or a switch. While breakers can go bad, it's less likely.
Were you operating a switch or something when it happened? That's where I'd start looking.
RichK
"RichK" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@comcast.com:
No, I was actually in the shower. The light had been on for a while.
My money is a tripped GFI. They often control more than on area and your bath should have been on a GFI. Look around. It may be in the bath, or check out other baths, basement, kitchen, garage or even outside. A GFI is a Ground Fault Interrupt and often is built into an outlet with a test and rest button. When one goes it acts a lot like a circuit breaker except it may not be in the box.
"Joseph Meehan" wrote in news:towGf.65937$ snipped-for-privacy@tornado.ohiordc.rr.com:
We don't have those in our house.
Check all the circuit breakers in case they may be marked incorrectly, then tap on all the outlets and switches that have gone out and live outlets and switches that are near the dead ones. If the tapping causes the lights to flicker or come back on, check the connections in that box
You could use an electric VOM [volt - ohm - meter] to check the breaker. But if you feel uncomfortable around household voltages, call you neighborhood electrician to check it out. It might be money well spent if you're shaky with electricity.
Have you confirmed that all the lights and fan that went out are in fact on the same circuit? If they are on different circuits and none of the circuits tripped then a possible explanation could be a bad bus. That happened in our house and our neighbors as well. To be more specific, actually it was the wiring from the street to the bus in the box that had corroded (underground in our location).
"RBM" wrote in news:lEwGf.1326$ snipped-for-privacy@fe10.lga:
It must be a loose wire. I just flipped the switch and the light comes on now.
You only paid HALF of your electric bill this month !!!! :)
You will NEVER find breakers in a FUSEBOX. That's your problem. Change the fuses.......
It could be a bad breaker, or hundreds of other things. Put a tester on the breaker and see if there is power.
YES, sounds like the problem is in that box. Either check it yourself or call a pro. DO NOT leave it that way. It's dangerous. Heat can build up on a loose connection. Even if you are not comfortable with electricity, you can shut off the power to the whole house, them remove that switch and look for a connection that looks burned. Check the screws on the switch itself, then look at all the wirenuts in there. I'd just replace the switch and all the wirenuts anyhow. Be sure all wires are properly twisted together before applying wirenuts.
Mark
Yes, its safe to assume that. In other words there is no danger in that assumption. Replace the breaker and let us know what happens next. If its a loose wire, I would have expected flickering upto this point. Especially since it came back on.
How old is the house/electrical work?
Breaker, Breaker, good buddy. Where are my fuses? (I think I left them with my fusees.)
Remove NOPSAM to email me. Please let me know if you have posted also.
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