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Posted by John Grabowski on August 23, 2006, 6:27 am
> First time posting here, and this is gonna be longer than I want, so
> thanks in advance for your time.
>
> The lights in one room of my house used to flicker occassionally, which
> got to be really annoying, so we called in an electrician. He replaced
> the 15A breaker, and it seemed to work OK for a while. About two weeks
> later, the problem happened again, and he came back out to replace the
> breaker. This particular breaker controls 4 can lights in a room, a
> fan, an outside Security light, and the Garage Door Opener.
>
> About 6 months later, the lights in the same room, would just go out.
> The Garage door wouldn't open, and the fan wouldn't work. Basically,
> there was no power on the circuit, but the Breaker never tripped. If
> we Flipped the Breaker off and then back on, everything would work
> again, sometimes for days a a time, sometimes for just minutes.
>
> Last week, we called the electrician to come back out, and once again
> he replaced the breaker on Thursday. Sunday evening, the lights went
> out again, and we couldn't get them to come back on. So, the
> electrician came back out today. What we discovered is that the panel
> bus where this particular breaker is located has a little burn spot on
> it, and the breaker that he replaced on Thursday, also seemed to have a
> little debris on the area that connects to the bus.
>
> He made sure that the panel bus was cleaned, and that the new breaker
> had no debris, but by the end of the day, the lights in the room went
> out again.
>
> This particular room is an addition between the house and what used to
> be a detached garage. We are still unsure of exactly how this
> particular rooom was wired, but there are 3 separate switches that
> control the lights in the room, One switch that controls both the
> lights and fan, and another recepticle that has a switch for the fan,
> and a dimmer for the lights. The electrician and I were extemely
> confused by how this particular room was wired, but he is not sure that
> the room is wired with 4 way switches.
>
> The electrical panel for my house is actually in a pantry, and is
> extremely inconvenient to get to. My Electrician says that we will now
> need to replace the entire panel because the bus appears to be bad. He
> gave me a cost estimate of $1400, and said that he can get his guys to
> fix the wiring in the addition for $200 more. There is virtually no
> attic space above the pantry, as the entrance to the attic is on the
> other end of the house. The electrician wants to move the panel to a
> location that is more accessbile, so has suggested either outside the
> house(not a good option), or pu the panel into the living room which is
> not the most appealing, but we can work around it.
>
> None of the other outlets in the room are on this breaker, they
> actually come from a second panel in the Garage.
>
> We searched and searched for possible loose wiring, but he is convinced
> that the problem lies in the panel bus.
>
> What suggestions do you have, and are the prices that he quoted
> reasonable for the work that will need to occur. Also, is this
> something that can be done be a novice electrician, or is it imperative
> to have a certified electrian put th new box in.
>
> Thanks again for your help.
>
From the information that you have provided it sounds as though the
electrical panel bus at that particular circuit breaker location is shot. I
would install a new circuit breaker at a different location in the panel and
see what happens. It doesn't sound as though you have any other electrical
problems with this circuit. It is not that difficult to determine if 4-way
switches are being used, I suggest getting the opinion of another
electrician.
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