home electricity problem

[al]

We've experienced a problem with our electric a couple of times recently. The electric goes out in most of the house, but remains on in part of the kitchen, and on one wall in one bedroom. Turning the main disconnect on and off doesn';t seem to affect the situation. Electric remains off for about 30 minutes then comes back on. We have upgraded 200 amp service with fuses in the house.

The electric company will come and check it out but only when it's off and they haven't been able to get here while it's been off. We seem to be the only ones reporting the problem.

The electric has been "surging(?)" for some time, meaning that lights will pulsate or waver or dim somewhat intermittently. Also, when the refrigerator comes on, it causes a quick flicker in other things that are on.

Oh and I just remembered, a couple of days before losing the electric the first time about a week ago, the power was reduced once to the point where lights were on but very dim and there wasn't enough electric to turn on the TV.

Anyone know what might be happening with all this? Could it be related to the electric company's equipment or am I more likely going to end up having to call an electrician?

Thanks.

[Joseph Meehan]

I am going to guess that you don't have aluminum wiring so my guess is your problem is with the supply to your home, not in your home, although there is a slight chance it may be in the breaker box.

Call your electric company and tell them what is happening. Especially the surging. Most likely it is a transformer of theirs that is about to go all the way out.

[RBM]

Unless you are in a pretty rural area, your house will most likely be sharing a utility company transformer with other houses, so it's not likely a problem there. Most likely a bad connection, which could be where your wires connect to the transformer, where they connect at your house, in your meter box, or at your main disconnect. As this is a potentially serious matter, I would get an electrician to at least determine that the problem is not on or in your house. That information will be useful to the utility company as well

[Robert Barr]

Do you have an electric water heater?

The electric goes out in most of the house, but remains on

We seem to be the only ones reporting the problem.

lights will pulsate or waver or dim somewhat intermittently.

a couple of days before losing the electric the first time about a week ago, the power was reduced once to the

turn on the TV.

I'd bet you have an intermittent connection at one leg of your drop. I had the same thing happen, and the odd behavior was due in part to feeding some circuits through the water heating element. You'll get some voltage at the other leg, but it will be very low because of the resistance of the heating element.

Try this: If you have an electric water heater, switch it off and see if you're missing half of your 220 at the breaker box (or at least see if switching off the water heater changes the behavior of your problem).

[Pete C.]

A loose connection on one leg of the power feed will cause this type of symptom as has been noted. This condition can also cause considerable heating at the bad connection that can lead to a fire. Likely places to check are the connections to the main circuit breaker in the panel and the connections in the meter socket. You might be able to tell if either location is warmer than the surrounding area, particularly if you have an IR thermometer. In any event this should be considered an urgent problem and addressed quickly.

Pete C.

[digitalmaster]

I had the same problem with one leg.The allen screw wwould feel like it was tightening up...but it was bad threads so the wire was still loose.

[al]

You guys nailed it. FPL came out this afternoon. Said there was a bad connection due to a frayed wire at the house (somewhere?). Replaced the wire between the pole and the house and all is well.... hopefully for good!

Thanks for all the input!

AB