Service Entry Cable caused partial blackout in my house?

Your house is fed with two legs at 120 volts each. If you look inside your breaker box, you see three big wires coming in, red, black, white. The red and black are legs of 120V, the white is the neutral. Half your circuits are on one leg, half on the other. A 22V is on both. The power company lost one of the legs and so did you.

All the residential electrical installations I've seen are a "split

Perce

The explanations given are completely correct. Here is a workaround for the 120-volt devices only:

Us>> During an electrical storm one half of my house lost electricity while

I've heard of this -- and seen it twice.

You have two "hot" wires from the electrical service. Each serves different circuits. Both are needed to provide 220 volts for dryers or ranges.

You experience is a simple one... and it was easily fixed by the power company.

The BAD problem is when that THIRD wire fails: The "Neutral wire.

In that case, the 240 volts is distributed across both sets of 120V loads, and often in a uneven manner, so some devices see less than 120V and some see more. In many such cases permanent damage is done to some

If you EVER see some circuits get brighter and some dimmer, call the power company at once. Consider running down and shutting the main break OFF and being without power until it's fixed.

If damage occurs, and it's up on a pole or on the power companies side of the meter, they can be liable for damages.

I've had this happen. I still have the melted 'souvenier' splice the power company replaced. Hmm. I did about 10 years ago, wonder where it is??

Good to keep your eyes open for this unlikely but not that unusual problem...

Regards, Terry King ...On The Mediterranean in Carthage (Back ...In The Woods In Vermont for the Summer)

Thanks to everyone for the clear and concise responses!

D> During an electrical storm one half of my house lost electricity while

I've had this happen. I still have the melted 'souvenier' splice the

I have the end of the copper 15,000 volt line that snapped after a IDIOT tree company doing work for me got careless. The lineman was nice and gave me the short piece.

I had just said I will go down to the street so no cars will get hit by branches.

the line dropped where I would of been standing and left a carbon trail in the asphalt that was there till the street was repaved 5 years later

I nearly died that day, the bit of copper a momento:(

Didnt know others saved stuff like this..........

I wonder if it hurt when the power company lost one of it's legs? OUCH :)

Mark

When I was probably around 12 years old (many years ago), a 15,000 volt (or possibly much higher) line fell during a storm and was dancing around on a wet concrete road. I watched it from nearby. It sounded like an arc welder, and the ball of fire was quite something to see. The wire would hit the road and just sort of explode, tossing it back into the air. After the power company repaired it, I walked over to the spot on the road, and found that section of concrete had actually turned to glass where the wire had hit it. Many of the pieces were blown off the surface and just laying there loose. In other spots this "glass" was now part of the pavement. It looked just like glass and had a greenish color. I brought home a few of these "glass rocks", and was pretty proud of them. I dont know what ever happened to them over the years, but they were pretty interesting. I suspect the green color was from the copper in the wire. There were actually deep holes in the concrete, possibly as much as 4 inches deep. I still remember this vividly, it was quite the thing to see. Now a days, most people dont get to see things like that, because the authorities block off the whole area.

Speaking of saving things, I recently visited an old friend from my childhood. I was shocked when he took me in his basement and showed me his first car, all in pieces, and in labelled boxes. There sat the engine, transmission, all the doors, brake drums, radio, dashboard, hubcaps, etc etc.... He disassembled the entire car before he junked the basic frame /body. I used to ride in that car when I was a kid in the 60's. He told me to sit on the seat again (also in his basement). He probably has a mint in collectors parts in that basement, the car was from the 1950's or early 60's. When I suggested he sell the parts on Ebay or something, he said he wont sell anything becsuse it was his first car. ...... OK, Whatever !!!!!

Mark

Did they say something about a transformer, or transformer coil, going bad?

later,

tom @