my EASTER got dark. really dark.

[Darth-Baiter]

it wasnt pastel colored anything for us.  haha..

 

our lights have been flickering lately.  we intitially thought it was the utility company doing work.  one call to them they actually said, "normal.  we have a crew in your neighborhood".  we blew it off.

 

two months later, they flickered again..then blinked out and back on.  i texted my neighbors and it was only our home.  rut-roh!!  this was friday.  the utility company came out fast and checked our home.  they said the horrible words of, "our service is fine, the trouble is in your home".  so we schedule an electrician for the earliest TUESDAY.  we actually thought the utility pulling our smart-meter globe fixed something because nothing flickered anymore.  easter morning?  BZZZZZZ..half my house goes black.  no breakers were tripped.  odd stuff happened.  i swear my heater blower spun backwards.  i turn on my clothes dryer which is 240v so it pulls from both sides of breaker panel..and all the lights turned back on!!  then off again.  

 

my wife and i poured some wine, and talked about our feelings.  and laughed about stuff.  we were asleep at 9:00 pm.  our friidge stil has juice, so does our kitchen..most of it..and the master bath and bed.  we are fine.  annoyed and perplexed, but fine.

 

i wish i knew more about house electrical.  i just dont.   i could pull an extension cord across my home and power my internet, but whatever.  

[TnRiver46]

Sounds like you’ve got squirrels 

[Darth-Baiter]

3 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

Sounds like you’ve got squirrels 

that would be the worse case.  i am hoping my main breaker took a dump and one half of my breaker box is not energized..but again.  i dont know what i am looking at.  

[TnRiver46]

8 minutes ago, Darth-Baiter said:

that would be the worse case.  i am hoping my main breaker took a dump and one half of my breaker box is not energized..but again.  i dont know what i am looking at.  

You’d hear the squirrels haha

[casts_by_fly]

19 minutes ago, Darth-Baiter said:

that would be the worse case.  i am hoping my main breaker took a dump and one half of my breaker box is not energized..but again.  i dont know what i am looking at.  

 

visually you won't see anything.  But if your breakers are labeled see if the circuits that are off in the house correspond to one side of the box or not.  If they do then you might have a bad rail in your box.  

 

[Deleted account]

37 minutes ago, casts_by_fly said:

 

visually you won't see anything.  But if your breakers are labeled see if the circuits that are off in the house correspond to one side of the box or not.  If they do then you might have a bad rail in your box.  

 

 

Yeah, sounds like something isn't making good contact in the main box. Something is probably getting hot somewhere, I'd keep usage down and make sure the smoke alarms have good batteries until the electrician arrives....

[a1712]

Sounds like you lost a leg coming into the box. That will make half the breakers work and the others won't.  Brian. 

[Darth-Baiter]

Electrician at 8:00 am tomorrow. 

[12poundbass]

Is your electric to the house overhead or underground?

 

I know you said the electric company said it was in the house and not their end, but they said the same thing to me. Turned out it was a bad leg on their end underground. Has it rained lately where you are? I see underground lines go bad quite often after a good rain and the soil is saturated. 

[slonezp]

Lost a neutral? If the issue is with the neutral, it has the potential to be dangerous and could smoke everything electrical in your home 

[Darth-Baiter]

12 hours ago, 12poundbass said:

Is your electric to the house overhead or underground?

 

I know you said the electric company said it was in the house and not their end, but they said the same thing to me. Turned out it was a bad leg on their end underground. Has it rained lately where you are? I see underground lines go bad quite often after a good rain and the soil is saturated. 

underground.

 

i am working from home, waiting for the professinal electrician.  i have questions for sure.  

[Darth-Baiter]

well.  electrician started an emergency permit process.  yippee.

 

the lug coming off the meter is bad and cooked my main breaker.  only half the box is getting juice.  he has to trench a new run from the Christy box to keep some separation from the  nearby gas line run.  

 

this is gonna hurt.  there goes the boat money savings.  

[GaryH]

That sucks DB but at lease your safe.

[Darth-Baiter]

6 minutes ago, GaryH said:

That sucks DB but at lease your safe.

I Picked a good contractor. He already got the permit.  Fix is on Thursday.   Utility company meeting him for the disconnect and then waiting the the call to reconnect later. 

[Darth-Baiter]

Thanks for letting me chat about my troubles. 

[casts_by_fly]

4 hours ago, Darth-Baiter said:

Thanks for letting me chat about my troubles. 

if it makes you feel any better, I have a dog sitting at the emergency vet right now so I feel your pain. Like yours, the situation is fixable (and already fixed).  No one got hurt, no one died, you can make more money tomorrow. 

[Darth-Baiter]

i'm in a pretty good mood.  they are mixing the stucco patch stuff right now to seal in the hole.  they did a tidy job.  cut neat lines, and cleaned as they went.  it was a "hallelujah" moment when i heard the electricity come on.  PG&E was on it and came immediately to do the connection and sign off on the permit.  it is techically behind me.  

 

all that is left is cure the stucco, and find the best paint match i can.  (meh..house is getting full paint soon.

[TnRiver46]

4 hours ago, Darth-Baiter said:

i'm in a pretty good mood.  they are mixing the stucco patch stuff right now to seal in the hole.  they did a tidy job.  cut neat lines, and cleaned as they went.  it was a "hallelujah" moment when i heard the electricity come on.  PG&E was on it and came immediately to do the connection and sign off on the permit.  it is techically behind me.  

 

all that is left is cure the stucco, and find the best paint match i can.  (meh..house is getting full paint soon.

This guy I used to work with was the master of stucco, TN “stucco” houses are styrofoam with a coating of something called aphis or aphid, can’t recall. Woodpeckers make holes all in the siding and we have to fix them. My boss bought a 5 gallon bucket of stucco a thousand years ago and we just patch these tiny holes about the size of a golf ball. Most often it was white so ours marched but every now and then the woodpecker holes would be on an accent part of the house that was beige. Tim could mix some paint into the stucco and somehow get it right every time. Once I was watching him mix it up and some tobacco spit was also a key ingredient…….