electrician help!!!!

[hairman]

I know this is not motorcycle related but maybe there is an electrician out there that can steer me in the right direction. Had a storm Saturday night and now when my central air tries to kick on it knocks power out on different things in the house. It doesn't kick any breakers and it doesn't do it every time. You can either wait a little while and it will cut back on (sometimes) or you can go to the thermostat and turn it off and then the power comes back on. Then you can turn your central air back on and it will work. The power that goes out is not on the same breaker. It affects about 3 or 4 different breakers. It affects the washer (breaker by itself), dishwasher (breaker by itself), bedroom and part of the living room ( on the same breaker), and the central air (breaker by itself). So does anyone have any ideas of what is going on? Do I need to call an electrician or a heat pump specialist? I have checked the wires on all the breakers to make sure they were tightened and they were. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks Tim

[murph35640]

Sounds like you have a problem with the power coming in to the house, sometimes everything will work normally until you put a heavy load on it then you lose or partially lose power on one leg. You probably should call an electrician, it could be something as simple as a loose connection at the main breaker or a problem with the utility companies supply coming to the house. No way to safely tell unless you have a good volt meter to actually see where the trouble is.

[mini-muffin]

We have a few electricians on the site. I'm sure they'll give you advice on what to do. Good luck.

 

 

Margaret

[hairman]

I talked to an electrician and he seems to think that it is on the electric pole on the main breaker. I live in a mobile home and the main breaker is on the pole with the meter. The conduit above the meter has come loss a couple of times and they fixed it but it keeps coming loss. The electrician seems to think moisture has gotten into it and corroided the breaker. So the electric company is suppose to come out tomorrow to check it. Hope this is it. If anyone can think of anything else that may be causing it just let me know and I'll check it out.

[eusa1]

the first thing i would look into is the ground connection to the box, the one that comes in from outside and connects to the grounding bar for all the breakers. it needs to be **VERY** tight, or could cause this concern.

 

mike

[fardnarger]

Check your main breaker, it could be getting weak and allowing power only thru one side of it and causing a back feed.

[tazmocycle]

sounds like a loose connection. does your lights brown out sometimes when the breakers are tripping? if you have a loose connection on 1 of your power legs it'll cause a low voltage condition and cause any breaker thats on that leg to trip if it's running and pulling a heavy amp load. also check the copper ground wire where it hook to your ground rod in the ground! caustion!! don't get between the ground wire and rod if it loose cause it may shock you. you can also put a hard start kit on your a/c unit to help boost the starting and also put a ditigal thermostat that has a 5 minute waiting period on it so the compressor don't start right back up if it flips off because of power failure. if you are some what ok with working on electrical stuff, you can put it on yourself as it's plug and play! we can talk about it over the phone if you want to try and do it'. just pm me and we'll set up a time to talk. i recommend that everybody put a booster kit on as it helps prolong the life of your a/c unit.

[Eck]

Check your main breaker, it could be getting weak and allowing power only thru one side of it and causing a back feed.

 

 

:thumbsup2::thumbsup2:

[GS51]

it sounds like an open nutral they are hard to find if you don't how to check for it.

electric is a funny thing to work it will always seek the plath or least resistance.

because wiring in the average home has both 120V 2 wire and ground and 230V 3 wire and ground. on older homes they may not have a ground wire but that will not give you this trouble. the current that would nromaly flow back to the power company through the nutural now must pass through other devices to the other hot line depending on what devices are turned on the time if that current is to large for that braker it trips. sometimes it will just cause a brown out on just one part of the house.

turn everything off and then see if other 230V devices will not work (electric rangs or Dryer) other 230V devices may give you the same troble when you try to run them

you may have to just open every electrical box in the house and check the nuteral connection. (White wire in most cases) the bare copper or green wire are the ground the normaly never carry any current if their is any current on any ground wire then you have a device that is bad and need to be fixed.

pm me with a phone number and i will try to help you if you still need it. i have over 40 yeard working with all types of electrical systems

 

Gary

[ArcsSparks]

Incoming power sounds like your problem. You need to check to make sure your ground has not come loose also the neutral wire coming in from the street (you can do this visually or best call the power company)if it's loose crazy things happen! if it's happening with different things it's MOST likely the neutral coming in from the street

Edited May 21, 2010 by Arcs&Sparks
more info

[calperin]

Try to find a differential breaker.

 

It is the only device that checks and protects you from current flowing to ground, instead of comming back to neutral. That means, you have some device or wire that goes to ground in a better way that goes back to neutral.

 

That is your problem IMO.

 

Regards,

 

[hairman]

The electric company came today and fixed the conduit on the pole. This is the second time that they have fixed it within the last 2 months. They said that they didn't find anything wrong on the pole. I'm not sure if water may have gotten in the meter and caused a power surge due to moisture and they didn't want to admit it. The problem hasn't happened at all since I have been home. The main breaker is under the meter. There is also a main breaker in the house. I guess we will have to wait and see if it happens again. I checked all the wires in the breaker box and they all seem to be tight and grounded. None of them showed any signs of melting. I appreciate all the advice. The Venture Members always seem to be there when needed. I will try to post some pictures showing the meter on the pole.