power out but no breaker trips

[gartulan]

Folks I have a bit of a problem here--

just got back into my shore house after renting itfor the summer am having electrical problems of various degrees.

Essentially I turned on my tv one day and power went out to multiple circuits in the house, interestingly enough the power came back on a few hours later. what might cause that?

I was told it oculd be loose ground on the circuity I have tightened everything down in the box and doesn't seem to have helped.

Some of the wring in the house is pretty old so not sure how to troubleshoot from here. the thing that throws me off ocmpletley is that on circuit that goes off ifor the upstairs bathroom which was rewired and 100 % dedicated line...what do I do?

Problem 2---multiple circuits in the house are now all of a sudden exhibiting a "dimmness" --ie. turn on a 60 watt bulb and it burns yellow as it not getting enough current....this problem occurs on multiple circuits but not all and most definitley happend on the bathroom circuit which, once again appears new and dedicated. n the upstairs bedroom when you turn on the overhead light it causes a flickering with that of the lamp as well. problem at the breaker.

whats killing me is that none of these problems exisited before and now just all of a sudden show up.

I really need some help to localize the problem prior to calling out an electrician..besides the fact that the electician will most certainly bill me till I squeal...i need to know what I am dealing with and diagnos as much as possible so I don't blow an extra g on T and M.

any help would be great..thx!

[Ralph Mowery]

A loose or missing ground will not have any effect on the circuit. They may have ment a loose neutral wire. It sounds as if the neutral wire could be loose or a bad connection . That would be the main neutral wire comming in from the power company. Could be loose in the box at the house or at the transformer for the house.

[Phil Hamilton]

Do any of the 240 volt appliances in the house work (electric water heater or electric range?). It is possible that one of the hot wires is open between the pole and the house and the dim lights and strange effects are the result of the current from the working hot leg feeding through the 240 volt appliances to the other leg, resulting in low voltage on that leg. This can also happen if you have a very old service with the cartridge fuses for the main, but I think you mentioned circuit breakers. Any motors that see the low voltage can easily burn out so check that they are turned off until this is fixed.

[Toller]

If I were you, I would hire an electrician as quickly as possible before you hurt yourself or burn the house down. It is probably a loose connection that can be fixed in less than an hour.

[HeyBub]

Check for loose connection: in every outlet and switch.

[hallerb]

might be a power company trouble, they will visit and check it out. FREE

[DAC]

I had a similar problem not long ago, everything was running at half speed or not at all.

With a handheld volt meter, it wasn't long til I discovered the feed from the transformer was some how running at half voltage i.e. where I should have 110, I had 55. Immediately I knew it was outta my hands and called the utility co. Never heard what was the cause...but they fixed it up line.

If you have a meter, what did it read?

DAC

gartulan wrote:

[gartulan]

hmmm--- so each of the red and black heavy guage wire coming into the main but contatins 110 volts...

It appears that the problems are exhibited on all the breakers ont he left side of the panel...if something is wrong with one leg it would explain why multiple circuits are affected despite their independence of each other

am I understanding this correctly..

I am comfortable checking for loose connections, re-wiring swtiches and receptacles, but a little unsure of teesting for voltage at the box and breakers..

I have a small tester 110, 220 but no multi-meter--I can pick one up

would anyone like to safeley advise me on how to check for voltage on on the mail feeds coming into the box?

then I could call the power company and tell them one leg isn't giving me all its got..

Secondly anyone have a decent electrician reco for monmouth cty NJ?

DAC wrote:

[gartulan]

Would it be worthwhile to switch to move a breaker to a free slot on the other side of the panel...say on the bathroom circuit which is brand new and we know 100% goes from the upstairs to the panel with nothing in between----to see if we have the same poor current conditions?

DAC wrote:

[gartulan]

Would it be worthwhile to switch to move a breaker to a free slot on the other side of the panel...say on the bathroom circuit which is brand new and we know 100% goes from the upstairs to the panel with nothing in between----to see if we have the same poor current conditions?

DAC wrote:

[bamboo]

[Chris Lewis]

According to gartulan :

When people say "side" of the panel, they're usually _not_ referring to whether it's the left or right side. They're referring to whether it's one hot or the other. Hint: they mix (usually alternating) which breaker is on which side of the main. So simply flipping the breaker from one physical side of the panel to the other may or may not prove anything.

If you have more than one circuit behaving badly, it's in the panel or upstream of it (the service entrance). Moving breakers back and forth won't give you any additional information that you can use in a useful fashion.

Given the skill level that you seem to have, you have probably already gone as far as you can go safely.

At this point you should either call the electrical utility or an electrician.

If it's in the panel, it'll just take a few minutes to fix.

Sit down and think about your situation:

1) if some circuits are dead and/or weak, it's the panel or the main feed (electrician or utility). 2) if some lighting circuits are _also_ brightening, it's a loose neutral, and you should try the utility _first_.

[Paul A]

One simple thing to try is just cycling your main breakers (usually one or two at the top of the panel) off and on a couple of times.

Worked for me just last week. Happens again and I will get it replaced.