How do I know if a circuit breaker is bad in my house?

[DaGoodest]

I have one room in my entire house that has lost power. The overhead lights do not work and neither do any of the outlets. I have reset all of the circuit breakers in the box by cycling the off then back on. Of course, this did not work. Further, I removed the cover panel to ge to the exposed wires and I used a test light on all of the wired to ensure that I had power going to then. all of them gave me a light, so I know that I have power going to each circuit. All of the other power sources in the house are fine, except for this one particular room. I have rest all GFI outlets in the house.

One problem that I have is that I am unable to determine which breaker is for this room. The panel is NOT clearly listed for this particular bedroom.

Any suggestions from here?

[Stubby]

Some one disconnected the feed to the room in question. You'll have to trace it back from the room, perhaps using one of the buzzer devices that you pick up on a close by radio.

DaGoodest wrote:

[scott21230]

Sounds more like a bad connection someplace than a bad breaker.

[dpb]

If you have power at each pair of wires leaving each breaker, then obviously it's not the breaker at fault. As somebody else suggested, you've lost either feed or neutral at some branch point that feeds that particular room (although I'd say it's possible someone disconnected it, the description you provide indicates it "just happened"). Start by removing each cover plate and checking for loose neutral or hot wires. Alternatively, it's possible a feed through an outlet may have failed because the outlet itself has failed. Look for any signs of overheating, etc. Of particular place of suspicion are any places that used the rear entry "stab-lock" stripped wire connections instead of the side screw terminals. Of course, be careful of live circuits or turn breakers off. Eventually, you should find a

[Tom The Great]

imho:

1. Who ever did work on your house, NEVER let them touch another damn thing. Not clearly labeled, freaking boobs. :)

1. Don't do any work on electrical systems, especially energized ones, without being properly trained.

2. Evaluate what is worth more, the few bucks you save doing the work yourself, or getting an electrician in to find the problem(which sounds simple) and labeling your panel correctly.

Now if this was ME:

I would start labeling the panel. I would use either a circuit tracer, or a loud radio, and cycle breakers, and label. Soon I would find the last breaker to the 'dead' bedroom.

Then I would check for proper landing of all wires, "you might have a floating neutral".

If all panel wiring is ok, then I would try and 'guess' the place where the home run goes to and check wire connections, hopefully not box by box. This should be the end, and then I will fix wires as needed.

Now this isn't a how-to, just enlightening you to what you might get when you get an electrician to fix the problem.

hth,

tom

[Terry]

Make sure all the neutral connections are tight in the electrical panel first.

Next, I would take a flashlight and look at the room from overhead. If you can see a cable going all the way back to the panel from that area there is a good chance that you can guess what devise it is going to. The light fixture in the center of the room is a good guess.

You can turn off all the 15/20 amp single pole breakers or be very safe and turn off the panel long enough to take the device out of the wall/ceiling. Turn the breakers back on. If it is hot, you can go from there. If it is not, then maybe, you have rats.

If it is hot there then you can the you have a

[Tony Hwang]

Hi, Sounds odd but any GFCI breaker there?

[buffalobill]

using a neon tester in one bare hand and your other hand in your electrician's pocket, have him check each outlet for any signs of ac hot glow in tester. if you have hot, the neutral may be broken somewhere to the room. have your helper turn off the breakers to turn off the glow in the tester. number all the outlets with that circuit number. turn off the breaker. open and inspect the commonly used lightswitch and outlet which supplies power to any heater device and look for trouble. also: following the [stamped into the main box metal] numbers of the circuit breakers: number each cover plate of each switch and outlet throughout the home with a sharpie marker. draw a numbered layout notebook with one page for each room numbering these outlets and switches and devices.

DaGoodest wrote:

[peter]

plug in a circuit tester -- those with 3 lights selling for $5 to $10 if no lights are on, then perhaps your "hot" has a break somewhere or the breaker is off

if it says open neutral, then you can concentrate on checking the neutral wires along the way, and this is not a breaker issue

determine the breaker by process of elimination:

turn off one breaker at a time and determine what has been turned off in the house when you found one that does nothing, that is probably the one controlling your room without power