Electrical problems

Mikko Peltoniemi · 2008-05-07T23:15:27+00:00

So I was on the computer, then all of a sudden I hear BOOM, like ancircuit breaker tripping, and everything went quiet. The computerwas off.I took a peek in the electrical panel, but no circuit breakers hadtripped. Odd, I thought. But I still didn't have electricity tomy computer.I did some investigating, and it seems the bathroom light, and twooutlets are dark. That's it. Nothing else. Also, with a voltmeterI checked each circuit breaker. I thought maybe one of them had broken,but was left in the ON position. I took my voltmeter, and checkedthe voltage of each wire going to the circuit breakers against theneutral. All came up as 120 V. And when I would turn off any oneof the circuit breakers, the meter showed 0 V. So it wasn't that.But still, I have no electricity. What could be the issue? Anysuggestions?Other oddball ideas that came to my mind was that maybe those particularoutlets and lights were connected to my neighbor's circuit.Could this be, or is it totally out of the question?Actually the room where the dead outlets are has one outlet that works.Also the light is on in that room. Weird, I thought all the outlets in aroom would be in the same circuit. And the bathroom, which has no lightnow, has a working outlet also.I'm pretty much at my wits end, and probably will have to get anelectrician. But maybe someone would have any experience of a similarsituation, before I call one to turn a circuit breaker or twist a knob.

May 07, 2008 22 Replies

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David Nebenzahl 18 years ago

On 5/8/2008 3:28 PM Mikko Peltoniemi spake thus:

Hey, good detective work there. You're ready to become a real electrician. All you gotta do is remember the 3 rules:

Hot on the left, cold on the right.
Paydays are on Friday.
S*it flows downhill.

Oops, I guess that's for being a plumber ...

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Douglas Johnson 18 years ago

Electrician:

Black is hot.
Payday is Friday.
Quitting time is 5:00.

-- Doug

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Tekkie® 18 years ago

David Nebenzahl posted for all of us...

Don't bite your fingernails.

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