electrical problems....

[NOFX]

So I replace all the old receptacles in my kitchen with new ones. Not a big deal, turn off the breaker and just cut the old ones out. I did it before in the living room. I turn the circuits back on and it works fine. About 3 hours later I get my lasagna out of the oven and the over door slams shut. I go back to the living room to find I have no power in the rest of the house.

 

I go look at the breaker box and they are all on. After some testing, I see that about half of my breakers work. The other half say on, but don't have any power. I don't have a main breaker, it looked like a handle you could just pull up or down and even if I did, why would some circuits work and some not? After some deep thinking and a little worrying, I decide to pull out the main. What I find is that this piece holds (2) 150 amp fuses. So I bring out the voltmeter for continuity test and one of them is blown.

 

Upon closer inspection of a receptacle beside my stove, I see that bare ground might have been close enough to touch the white wire. And from my research I see these two are basically the same wire and that should not have affected anything. I also check all the others I replaced and all looks good.

 

Does anyone who knows about this stuff have an idea of whats going on? How did the power surge not trip my circuit and make it all the way to the main fuse?

 

Bad circuit breaker? The fuse was going bad? The main fuses are about 25-26 years old. Im now afraid to turn on the kitchen circuit because I don't want to blow another fuse, just so I can go buy another one. They are 30 bucks each.

[shep48]

glass fuses ?

black=gold=death

white= neutral

green or bare= ground

[NOFX]

Dont think it is a glass fuse, its like this one

 

http://www.hodgesmarine.com/ProductDetails...14&click=19

[ilovetomatoes]

You sure you weren't having more then the usual amount on that half of the box? If you didn't trip any individual breakers, it would seem that you didn't short out that one leg. The ground hitting the neutral (if it is in fact the neutral, I have seen some pretty shady wiring), should not be an issue. They connect back in the breaker panel anyhow.

 

edit:: Just to clarify, intentionally connecting ground to neutral is a really bad idea for a whole slew of reasons, but a bumping of the two would not have caused this issue...

Edited June 10, 2008 by ilovetomatoes

[NOFX]

I found the problem! tomatoes gave me the right hint...

 

So I talked my electrical engineer buddy from work into coming and checking out the place on my lunch.. We just checked the wiring and flipped the kitchen breaker and everything was fine.

 

Now.. something I didn't notice, but he showed me was that that bedroom 1 wasn't staying on. I dunno why I didn't notice this, but as soon as it flipped on it would trip. So then I remember I have a light in my room that for the past few days, I will turn on, it does nothing and I have to shake it to get it to work... ding ding..

 

I unplug the lamp, turn the breaker on and it stays on.

 

Let's go back to last night. I said I looked at the box after half the power went out and none were tripped. If I didn't notice Bedroom 1 tripping when I turned it on today, I wouldn't have noticed it last night, so Im starting to think bedroom 1 breaker was tripped last night and I didn't see it.

 

Now I'm thinking the receptacles in the kitchen had nothing at all to do with this fuse being blown and it was the faulty lamp in my room. Just a big coincidence.

Edited June 10, 2008 by NOFX

[dwEEziL]

ID 10 T? Just kidding man. What was the problem?

[NOFX]

My range has (2) 120 volt lines coming in. One of them was lose and hitting the back panel when I moved the stove. I blew another 150 amp fuse last night and found the problem today.

 

*sigh* So it looks like Im going to have to buy another 40 dollar fuse, but at least I fixed it this time

[boiler]

My range has (2) 120 volt lines coming in. One of them was lose and hitting the back panel when I moved the stove. I blew another 150 amp fuse last night and found the problem today.

 

*sigh* So it looks like Im going to have to buy another 40 dollar fuse, but at least I fixed it this time

Ain't home ownership GREAT?

 

Always a good feeling when you figure out and fix the cause of the problem though.

[NOFX]

yep at least now I feel safe about this fuse lasting, however I am still at little nervous about flipping my range breaker on... Home ownerships sucks... I pay $1000 to a bank every month and not a penny goes toward principal. I've put in heat pumps, floors, counter-tops, roofs.. spent countless amount of hours working on this place for nothing. It's been sitting on the market for over 4 months. Given all the work I have done to the place over the past two years, it has to be the best looking townhouse in the neighborhood.