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Posted by Red Green on May 8, 2008, 10:50 pm
@mid.individual.net:
> Bob wrote:
>
>> Follow the BOOM. I would suspect a backstabbed contact on an upstream
>> outlet burned its way open after intermittent contact arcing.
>
> Ok. I think that'll be the last thing I do before calling an
> electrician. It wasn't a loud boom really, was it was definitely
> audible. And yes, there is a GFI, in the bathroom, which is live.
>
> I didn't think of the outlets being daisy chained, but yeah, if only
> I knew which way the wire goes, I would know which is the last
> working outlet...
>
Probably more a Crack or Pop? Just as a glimmer of hope. Running a shop
vac once. On, off, on, off. Worked fine. Then off, then on, then
crack/pop. some outlets off. Turned out an outlet between the one I was
using and the breaker had a crud terminal and it finally arc'd out.
The thing that drove me nuts is I wasn't habitually familiar with the
house yet.I traced, disco'ed outlets, tested and everything. Can not find
it. OK, leave it for now. Lots of other fish to fry in HUD Wreck. One day
I move a piece of drywall I had standing against a narrow wall for a
later task. Oh lookie here. An outlet. Do ya think it was the culpret?
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Posted by Red Green on May 8, 2008, 10:59 pm
> @mid.individual.net:
>
>> Bob wrote:
>>
>>> Follow the BOOM. I would suspect a backstabbed contact on an
>>> upstream outlet burned its way open after intermittent contact
>>> arcing.
>>
>> Ok. I think that'll be the last thing I do before calling an
>> electrician. It wasn't a loud boom really, was it was definitely
>> audible. And yes, there is a GFI, in the bathroom, which is live.
>>
>> I didn't think of the outlets being daisy chained, but yeah, if only
>> I knew which way the wire goes, I would know which is the last
>> working outlet...
>>
>
> Probably more a Crack or Pop? Just as a glimmer of hope. Running a
> shop vac once. On, off, on, off. Worked fine. Then off, then on, then
> crack/pop. some outlets off. Turned out an outlet between the one I
> was using and the breaker had a crud terminal and it finally arc'd
> out.
>
> The thing that drove me nuts is I wasn't habitually familiar with the
> house yet.I traced, disco'ed outlets, tested and everything. Can not
> find it. OK, leave it for now. Lots of other fish to fry in HUD Wreck.
> One day I move a piece of drywall I had standing against a narrow wall
> for a later task. Oh lookie here. An outlet. Do ya think it was the
> culpret?
>
>
Ooops. I see in another part of the thread is the details. By bad.
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Posted by metspitzer on May 7, 2008, 8:59 pm
On Wed, 07 May 2008 19:15:27 -0400, Mikko Peltoniemi
>So I was on the computer, then all of a sudden I hear BOOM, like an
>circuit breaker tripping, and everything went quiet. The computer
>was off.
>
>I took a peek in the electrical panel, but no circuit breakers had
>tripped. Odd, I thought. But I still didn't have electricity to
>my computer.
>
Breakers don't really go boom, it could be a mouse or squirrel eating
into the wire.
You should check closely in the bathroom. Bathrooms have GFCI
receptacles. They have a reset button on them.
>
>Other oddball ideas that came to my mind was that maybe those particular
>outlets and lights were connected to my neighbor's circuit.
>Could this be, or is it totally out of the question?
>
Could happen, but not likely. You could ask your neighbor if they
lost power.
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Posted by Jeff on May 7, 2008, 9:28 pm
Since you have a voltmeter check the hot to ground voltage on the outlets in
case it is a bad neutral. Most likely a bad connection where the wires are
backstabbed into the outlets. These are always less reliable than using the
screws on the side.
If you comfortable doing it, turn off the power to the appropriate outlets
and pull them out and look for problems. Remember if the connection feeding
and outlet is bad, the outlet may seem to be off but the breaker feeding it
still could be on.
Always wear sneakers, leather gloves and safety glasses (in case a wire
arcs, which can spit hot copper) just to be sure.
If there are wire nutted connections these may need to be tightened. Be
careful and methodical and you should be able to fix the problem
> On Wed, 07 May 2008 19:15:27 -0400, Mikko Peltoniemi
>
>>So I was on the computer, then all of a sudden I hear BOOM, like an
>>circuit breaker tripping, and everything went quiet. The computer
>>was off.
>>
>>I took a peek in the electrical panel, but no circuit breakers had
>>tripped. Odd, I thought. But I still didn't have electricity to
>>my computer.
>>
> Breakers don't really go boom, it could be a mouse or squirrel eating
> into the wire.
>
> You should check closely in the bathroom. Bathrooms have GFCI
> receptacles. They have a reset button on them.
>
>>
>>Other oddball ideas that came to my mind was that maybe those particular
>>outlets and lights were connected to my neighbor's circuit.
>>Could this be, or is it totally out of the question?
>>
> Could happen, but not likely. You could ask your neighbor if they
> lost power.
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Posted by Mikko Peltoniemi on May 7, 2008, 10:03 pm
Jeff wrote:
> If there are wire nutted connections these may need to be tightened. Be
> careful and methodical and you should be able to fix the problem
Yes, this helped a lot. Since I didn't know for sure, I guessed to
possible ways of the wire coming in. Meaning, I had two possible last
good outlets. So I went to one of them, and it turned out to be a bad
connection in that.
Actually, it turned out to be a bad connection next to the GFI outlet,
which was still working. Who would've known that all the power to
my computers was actually going through the bathroom...
But in any case, it was a nutted connection, which was loose, so I
tightened it, and lo and behold, everything's working again.
I guess I didn't need an electrician to turn the screw.
Oh yeah, and thanks for the safety tips. I've been shocked enough
when I was young and curious and taking everything apart, that I
know I don't want that again. ;)
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