I was taking off drier plug and it sparked real bad. Light's went out in bathroom right beside it and dinner room and kitchen. Rest of house is good. It has fuse panel. Check the fuses and they are good have a 250v and a 30v in .check all round fuses and they are good. Still no power to the bathroom or kitchen. What will make bathroom and kitchen lights go out if I ark the drier plug.
I was taking off drier plug and it sparked real bad. Light's went out in bathroom right beside it and dinner room and kitchen. Rest of house is good. It has fuse panel. Check the fuses and they are good have a 250v and a 30v in .check all round fuses and they are good. Still no power to the bathroom or kitchen. What will make bathroom and kitchen lights go out if I ark the drier plug.
Sounds like you took out a leg, Could be in the meter box.
I wonder if you're getting some sort of back feed. Each line to neutral should read 120v or so. Line to line should be 240v or so. Did you take the fuses out to check them? Check the voltage as far up the line as you feel comfortable while the fuses are out. Check the fuses individually before you put them back.
That seems most likely. If he took out all or most of a leg, part of the house could work. Or if he took out the neutral somehow.
If that is true, then I would think his range, oven, hot water heater, anything that ran on 240 should also not work.
It makes me wonder why it arced. Just pulling the plug should not do that unless it was running. Maybe if the plug was stuck and he pulled hard, and shorted the wires inside the outlet?
That should have blown fuses. If he really didn't blow fuses (which I highly doubt) then he burned through a wire somewhere on that circuit or in the fuse box, or meter box even.
Is this a split bus panel? (round Edison fuses and pull outs) If so you probably blew the 60a(?) fuse for one leg going to the round fuse panelboard. It is usually the one right above the round Edison fuses.
Makes sense.
When I was 9 we blew that kind of fuse plugging in Christmas lights. Neither me (obviously) or my Dad knew there were more fuses in the panel than the round screw in ones.
But what happens when he replaces that fuse? We get an arc at the panel instead of behind the dryer? I'd kind of want to know what made that fuse blow before I put the new fuse in with my fingers.
It's a fuse panel
In a split bus panel each of those pullouts IS a "main switch" (AKA Service disconnect). You can have up to 6 and all are sourced from the service. There is no "main disconnect". They have been trying to chip away at that 6 disconnect rule for a number of cycles but it is still there.
All depends on the code when and where a house was built.
The first house I lived in had a fuse box and there were two 60 amp fuses in a holder. You pulled the holder out, and while I would not do it, you can put it back in upside down to keep the hole plugged up but the power off. I don't recall the mumber of fuses, but maybe 4 or 5 down each side and they were the kind that the sockets were keyed so you could only screw in the same amp rating of the fuse that was already in it.
Why not? I thought that was okay.
(Obviously I would be the only one working on it, and at home. There's no way that would meet OSHA Zero Energy State or LockoutTagout in a work situation.)
Then on the other hand - maybe better to lock the holder in your glove compartment just to be sure.
On Sun, 6 Jun 2021 06:15:02 +0000, Michael Howard posted for all of us to digest...
bathroom and kitchen lights go out if I ark the drier plug.
Why were you pulling the plug? Where you having problems? Could the receptacle touched the box? Clear the fault before following the other posters suggestions. (Which are excellent) Please repost with your results.
There is a slight chance that it could be put back in the way it came out and the circuits would be live. I would much rather just leave it out, or if in a house other than my own, take it with me so no one could plug it back in.
I know a half ass electrician that pulled the meter at a church he was working on. Some one came by and saw the meter laying on the ground and plugged it back in. Shocked the crap out of the electrician with the electricity.
Probably to meet OSHA you could put a tag on it. I have been out of the business for a few years and rules could change. At work we would put a lock on devices if we could and a tag. In some cases there was no good way to put a lock on devices , so fuses were pulled and a tag was put on it for each one that worked on it. Only the origional tag owner could take his tag off by the rules. If the origional owner could not be found then it took 2 supervisors and another person to sign off on some paper work so the tag could be removed.
Thanks, that makes sense. I do pull that out when I do any work in the shed, some circuits aren't on the obvious disconnect.
Our power provider just swapped out the meter for a smart meter. They sent a letter saying there would be a brief power outage and I was prepared to reset the microwave, coffee pot, etc.
But that didn't happen. The very young and seemingly inexperienced worker looked at the meter (which I showed her, she couldn't find it) and said there would be no outage, there's a bypass on your meter. And she was right, power didn't even flicker.
Say what? How is that possible? Isn't that more hazardous than leaving the plug in backwards?
Arc fault fuse? ;-)
The external box for my AC condenser has a disconnect that can be flipped over and reinserted. It reads "ON" (right side up) and "OFF" (upside down) when in operating mode and "OFF" (right side up) and "ON" (upside down) when flipped over.
I always shut off the breakers and then flip the disconnect over (OFF) at the end of the cooling season. The "flip" is just an extra step in case someone turns the breakers on during the winter. My thermostat should prevent the AC from operating, but since I cover the condenser and it shouldn't be run in cold weather anyway, I choose a belt and suspenders each year.
Side story: A few years ago, on the first hot day of the season, I heard an awful racket coming from the house a few doors down. It was owned by an elderly lady whose husband had died during the previous winter. Apparently he had put the cover on the AC condenser in the fall and his wife didn't know anything about it. She turned on the AC and I can tell you that the condenser sure didn't like being covered.
I went over and pulled the cover off and the unit began to quiet down but still didn't sound happy. She wasn't home, so the AC stayed on until the house cooled down. I told her about it when she got home so she was aware in case the unit died.
Flipping my disconnect over should prevent that from ever happening at my house. You have to reach over the covered condenser in order to make it operational. Hopefully who ever does that would be smart enough to remove the cover.
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