Anyone else has part of power in house down?

Go outside and look at the spot where the electrical connection enters the house.  If you see a dangling wire there, call PSE&G.  

Thanks Joan. If there were a dangling wire - which there isn't - I would assume the whole house would be w/o power not just half. In any event I called the emergency line and they are sending a technician out. The person on the line assumes it is from the rain.

wendy said:

We are on Sommer Ave. and half of house not getting electric.

could be one leg is down. That’s most likely from the utility pole. Call PSE&G, if you haven’t already done so. Ask one if your neighbors if they’re experiencing the same issue. 

wendy said:

Thanks Joan. If there were a dangling wire - which there isn't - I would assume the whole house would be w/o power not just half. In any event I called the emergency line and they are sending a technician out. The person on the line assumes it is from the rain.

could be one hot leg shorted out. Do you have a transformer on a utility pole near your house?

wendy said:

Thanks Joan. If there were a dangling wire - which there isn't - I would assume the whole house would be w/o power not just half. In any event I called the emergency line and they are sending a technician out. The person on the line assumes it is from the rain.

Hi Wendy.  First of all, Let’s Go Mets!

Residential electricity is connected from the pole to your house on three wires. Two of them are called “hot” legs because they carry the electricity from the pole to your house. Both connect to your fuse box or breaker panel. If one gets interrupted, it would only affect about half of the electricity in your home. 

In our house in Maplewood the electricity was very antiquated. There was one circuit breaker switch that connected to about half the rooms in the house. So if that breaker tripped, half the house would lose power. Is it possible that’s happening?

Thank you. PSEG confirmed we have full power coming into house and fully flowing to the main power. So the problem is in the breaker. I have left a message for one electrician Toff, any other suggestions?  Please please. No power to frig and other important items in house.

wendy said:

Thank you. PSEG confirmed we have full power coming into house and fully flowing to the main power. So the problem is in the breaker. I have left a message for one electrician Toff, any other suggestions?  Please please. No power to frig and other important items in house.

which breaker? The main breaker? Because if you have half of your house on one breaker that’s not good. Fridge should be on a separate circuit. 
try using an extension cord for your fridge, plug it into an outlet that works in another room.

It sounds like the main breaker.  It's not too hard for an electrician to swap out, and they do occasionally fail. 

Meanwhile, unplug your fridge and plug it into a working outlet.  You can use a heavy duty extension cord for a while.

My favorite plumber Joe Corragio provided me with an electrician name who will be coming over shortly. Thanks all.

In case anyone is curious the issue that caused half my house to not get electric was due to one faulty outlet in the basement. My electrician figured it out and now we have full power restored. He'll be back on Tuesday to replace that outlet and do a few other things. Who knew that a faulty outlet that that merely had a basement freezer and light plugged into it could cause such havoc. But indeed it did.

Coincidentally, I had a similar problem last night.  I'd been working outside and, on noticing it was beginning to get dark, turned on some outside lights.
A little later on, distractedly, I thought I should turn on some lights and found I'd already turned them on.  Checked the power box and found the circuit breaker for my lights had tripped. 

Long story short (ahem), I managed to isolate the circuit where the fault was and found it was an external under-eave light fitting which had filled with water following some recent heavy rain.  Took the cover off, tossed out the water and left the fitting cover-less, where it continued to operate all night.   I'll have to work on stopping water getting into the fitting.  I suspect that the gutter guard on a nearby rainwater gutter has become loose and is directing water back inside my eaves.   That's a job for another time.

(Just a quick note for any concerned electricians: Australian electrical circuits and wiring rules are different to those in the US.  We generally only have single-phase 230v AC coming into domestic properties. Also, the circuit breaker mentioned above is an ELCB type - earth leakage circuit breaker.)

So the freezer in the basement is on the same circuit with your fridge in the kitchen? Seems to me like the circuit was overloaded, kitchen lights? Maybe even the outlets? Dining room outlets?

Reason I’m asking because I have seen this before. 

Jaytee said:

So the freezer in the basement is on the same circuit with your fridge in the kitchen? Seems to me like the circuit was overloaded, kitchen lights? Maybe even the outlets? Dining room outlets?

Reason I’m asking because I have seen this before. 

If the freezer in the basement is on the same circuit as the fridge in the kitchen, and they both turn on and start pulling power at the same time, it could be highly likely that the current draw may be too much for what that circuit is rated for.

I've seen similar in my neck of the woods - two electric heaters sharing the same circuit. It was an old rental property - to get around the blowing fuse, the tenants had put in heavier-duty fuse wire.  It was a moot point which would go first: the fuse blowing or the wiring melting in the walls.

marksierra said:

If the freezer in the basement is on the same circuit as the fridge in the kitchen, and they both turn on and start pulling power at the same time, it could be highly likely that the current draw may be too much for what that circuit is rated for.

I've seen similar in my neck of the woods - two electric heaters sharing the same circuit. It was an old rental property - to get around the blowing fuse, the tenants had put in heavier-duty fuse wire.  It was a moot point which would go first: the fuse blowing or the wiring melting in the walls.

Crikey!

Yeah the equivalent I have heard of is replacing a 15-amp breaker with a 20-amp breaker, when the wiring is only rated for 15. It’s the kind of setup that would work great right up until it stopped working. The wiring could catch fire and the circuit breaker would never trip. 

This freezer I have does not pull much power.  It doesn't have a defrost system. Very low pull and it just stays on w/o a fan. Very old large deep freezer. And the electrician confirmed this does not pull much power which I knew. Had the freezer for over 30 years purchased at a garage sale.

Was the freezer plugged into a GFI outlet (with the test and reset buttons)?  When a GFI outlet trips, it can stop power to any of the outlets downstream from it.

Electrician is coming back today to put in a new outlet. The older outlet did was a GFI type and when he pulled it out you can see it had melted. It was a very very old outlet. 

wendy said:

Electrician is coming back today to put in a new outlet. The older outlet did was a GFI type and when he pulled it out you can see it had melted. It was a very very old outlet. 

Scary stuff. The wiring and outlets in these old houses can be very sketchy.  
There was a light in our attic and the electrician freaked out when he saw the wiring. 

yahooyahoo said: 

Scary stuff. The wiring and outlets in these old houses can be very sketchy.  
There was a light in our attic and the electrician freaked out when he saw the wiring. 

I suspect that one place I lived in had largely been wired by an amateur.  Found a kitchen light fitting where the neutral line had been switched, not the active!  Good thing there was nothing earthed you could grab hold of while working on that light fitting.  And no, the fitting itself wasn't earthed.

marksierra said:

I suspect that one place I lived in had largely been wired by an amateur.  Found a kitchen light fitting where the neutral line had been switched, not the active!  Good thing there was nothing earthed you could grab hold of while working on that light fitting.  And no, the fitting itself wasn't earthed.

most likely it was a switch leg. That’s what they do when the power is up in the ceiling fixture and they want to put it on a switch. If it’s the old metal box then it’s already grounded. Not a problem. 

yahooyahoo said:

Scary stuff. The wiring and outlets in these old houses can be very sketchy.  
There was a light in our attic and the electrician freaked out when he saw the wiring. 

electricians and plumbers can be drama kings…

My brother redid the drywall in his kitchen years ago. When he opened up the walls he found that all the lighting fixtures were wired with lamp cord. Lamp cord!!! Inside the walls. I think that stuff is something like 18 gauge. 

mrincredible said:

My brother redid the drywall in his kitchen years ago. When he opened up the walls he found that all the lighting fixtures were wired with lamp cord. Lamp cord!!! Inside the walls. I think that stuff is something like 18 gauge. 

yep, crazy as it sounds, people use lamp cords to power up those low voltage under cabinet lights. That’s why kitchens today should be done professionally and inspected. Nowadays you can have about seven individual circuits.