Why did the power go out in half of my house but not the other ?

[Sandralynn]

Hello.... This seemed very strange and I have never had this happen before. I was on the computer last night and the power went out in all 4 rooms in this half of the house. Nothing worked at all. The kitchen and the laundry room are at the back of the house, and some of the power stayed on there. The lights were on in those two rooms and on the porch outside, but none of the appliances or the cordless phone worked. The nightlight in the kitchen worked, but not the nightlight in the laundry room. The front part of the house where the power went out is older ( at least 60 or 70 years old? ) than the back ( which isn't very new ). I know the wiring is old. There is a breaker in the basement, and also a fuse box. We re-set the breaker and checked all the fuses, but that didn't seem to help . We unplugged the power bar where the TV, DVD player, VCR, digital cable box, stereo , and speakers are plugged in, and as soon as we did that, the power came back on. Could that have something to do with it? Also, a few minutes before the power came on , the light bulbs in the section that was off were VERY faintly lit, where you could just see the wires inside lit up a tiny bit. What would that mean? Also, the cordless phones were beeping on and off. One other thing I noticed right before the power went off was that the halogen floor lamp in my computer room made a funny noise , like a crackling sound , and it got dim for a second. I've noticed it doing that for the past couple of weeks. Could it have caused the power to go out? I had nothing major running ( dryer, etc ).... just the TV , computer , and a few lights. I live in Canada if you need to know that . Any help would be appreciated ...thanks!

 

[BrownOut]

You probably have two phase power and lost one of the pahses. Everything else might just be coincidental.

 

[Sandralynn]

Hi....thanks for the quick reply. Can you tell me what two phase power is? Thanks...

 

[BrownOut]

Most homes have two seperate power connections. Each can be used seperately to power lower voltage appliances, like light bulbs, or can both be connected to higher voltage devices, like ovens and electric dryers.

 

[jbeng]

I had a similar problem several years ago after a storm... half of the house had power, the other half did not. (It wouldn't come back on though) Turns out one of the phase windings had failed in the transformer feeding my house. The power company replaced the transformer the next day, problem solved.

Jeff

 

[Willbe]

Also, a few minutes before the power came on , the light bulbs in the section that was off were VERY faintly lit, where you could just see the wires inside lit up a tiny bit.

If your house is wired like in the US, with 240v center-tapped to provide 120v on each side of the neutral, you may have, at least, a bad neutral connection.

This, and the integrity of all your wiring and connections, can be checked with a voltmeter, and a hair dryer or toaster as a load.

 

[ronsimpson]

Check the main breaker. Half of the breaker may be open or bad. You might try turning off the main breaker and back on.

 

[Bob Scott]

Phone the power company. Ask if they had a power outage near your address on that date and at that time.

If not, I would have the breaker box checked for intermittent connections on the main breaker input and output terminals, and on the wires from the main breaker to the two sub-breaker power buses, and also the connections at the power meter.

I hope that you do not have aluminum wiring.

 

[RCinFLA]

The dual 240v incoming main breaker is supposed to be ganged together so if there is overload on one side, it opens both sides.

What you had happen can only occur if something failed that should not.

I would guess there is a connection problem on one of the L1,L2 wire terminal connections, maybe due to aluminum wire.