It is a gas heater, that is a good thought, I will try that when I get home.

Yes breakers can go bad, though I can only remember one that I had to replace and it was at the church on a ciruit handling our power amps, if you turned everything on at once the breaker would pop. It poped so much if finally quit reseting.

Do you know which breaker runs that circuit?

Dude this is a temporary fix at best and make sure it's a heavy duty cord. You may have to re-light the pilot too depending upon your heating unit.

You may have lost an entire phase coming in to the house. As if one of the knife switches at the utility pole is open! If you lose (sorry) - loose a ground wire things act really weird!

Thanks for all your help and suggestions, I am getting ready to leave the office and go home to try the Tim Allen approach one more time (minus the pliers and penny!!!) before giving up and calling an electrician.

Good idea, but most homes run off of single phase.

Dude, seriously. When in doubt, call a pro.

I had a wannabe electrician live in my old house previous to me. This guy was lucky he didn't kill me an my family. I had a situation like you. 2 story house. House added onto like 4 times. Covered up all entry points and junction boxes. If I knew the guy who did the previous work, I would probably kick him in the balls. 3/4 of my entire upstairs was fed by one outlet of romex (newer wire) that then fed miles and miles of know and tube. I actually had a junction box placed behind an upstairs bathroom mirror. It was the biggest mickey mouse POS I've ever seen in my life.
When in doubt pay the MAN!!!

Troubleshooting electrical problems can be a nightmare, even for the pro's. It's worth the money to get an electrician to do the looking beyond what you've done so far. They have neat little gadgets that they can put around wires and plug in outlets that help them identify the problem and fix it before you freeze off important body parts without getting electroshock therapy.

Look for a "sub panel". If there has been work on your electrical system you could very well have a sub panel. You are going out and looking at the main panel for an open breaker. There could be an open breaker at your sub panel somewhere else which is being fed by the main panel.

Also, did you flick your breaker off before flicking it back on? If a breaker trips you need to turn it all the way off and then on to reset it.

I am not an electrician, but I am a lineman for the power company and I have dealt a little with this type of stuff. High voltage is what I do, but I do know somethings about trouble shooting house wiring.

P.M. me with your number and I will give you a call if you like. No guarantee, but maybe I can save you from paying someone to come over and him finding an easy fix.

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Damn awful song, isn't it? :)

Ah, I miss the days of songs about Municipal jobs.

Call an electrician. It sounds like the house has been gerry-wired. Let him figure it out before you burn it down.

Keep in mind that when electricity is involved....I make Tim Taylor nervous.


I've had something similar before, to a laundry and bathroom. In my case, it was that one of the actual breakers, that you pull from the panel....was smoked.

It could be a bad breaker itself.

That should be a bannable offense.