home electrical help....

[chiefs1okie]

Hopefully I can explain this correctly and someone may have an answer....

I live in a 2 story house... have seperate heat/air units for upstairs and down. Recently the overhead lights and wall recepts quit working in the kitchen (on one wall only), utlity room, and garage... upstairs heat and hot water tank works, downstairs hot water tank works, but heating unit (downstairs) is in same closet and it doesn't. The kitchen, utility room, and garage are all in line on the back side of the downstairs part of the house. I am not an electrician by any stretch of the imagination, but I have checked the fuse panel and found none of the breakers tripped. Could I have a blown fuse? If so, how do I pull them from the fuse box, or even better how do I test them before pulling to see if one is blown? Any serious help would be appreciated.... it is getting verrrrry cold downstairs!!!!

[Brock]

It sounds like your house has had the wiring updated, if it has a breaker box. A house as old as that one would have a fusebox if it hadn't been re-wired.

[Boon]

Originally Posted by ferrarispider95

Everything downstream from the outlet, unless you have gfci breaker on the entire circuit.

Code is for gfci in kitchens now.

Also to reiterate as posted above, lightly tap the breakers to make sure it is not tripped.

Be careful 120 probably won't kill you, but 240 will.

The voltage doesn't kill you, but the current will sure fuck you up.

[chiefs1okie]

Originally Posted by Brock

It looks pretty much just like a regular electrical outlet. They will be situated in places where they might get wet, such as bathrooms, kitchens, etc. They will have either a pop-out indicator on them, or in the newer ones, a red LED light that indicates they've kicked.

Ahhhh ok, I know what those are. Just didn't know what they are called, No I don't believe there are any of those in the house. I should mention that my fear is that it may be mouse related. My house sits on 2 1/2 acres and there is a field with two 10 acre ponds right behind me, and then nearly an entire section of woods and pastures behind that, I am wondering if by some chance a little critter may have been looking for a warm spot and got into the walls somehow and chewed into a wire? Like I mentioned earlier, all the problems are in one corner of downstairs, no other part of the house is affected.

[chiefs1okie]

Originally Posted by ClevelandBronco

Well, uh, yeah. In fact it is.

I don't mean any ill will at all, but that is just funny as hell..... I just have this mental picture of a smoking penny, melting pliers, and hair standing on end....

[nstygma]

a lot of time people push the wire into the back of the outlets instead of using the screw terminals. over time they arc and get crusty or pull away and disable the downstream connections.
are the downstairs water heater and heat unit wired into the same box?
what kind of heater is it?

[PastorMikH]

Originally Posted by Brock

It sounds like your house has had the wiring updated, if it has a breaker box. A house as old as that one would have a fusebox if it hadn't been re-wired.

Or possibly both - in different parts of the house.

['Hamas' Jenkins]

Originally Posted by chiefs1okie

Hopefully I can explain this correctly and someone may have an answer....

I live in a 2 story house... have seperate heat/air units for upstairs and down. Recently the overhead lights and wall recepts quit working in the kitchen (on one wall only), utlity room, and garage... upstairs heat and hot water tank works, downstairs hot water tank works, but heating unit (downstairs) is in same closet and it doesn't. The kitchen, utility room, and garage are all in line on the back side of the downstairs part of the house. I am not an electrician by any stretch of the imagination, but I have checked the fuse panel and found none of the breakers tripped. Could I have a blown fuse? If so, how do I pull them from the fuse box, or even better how do I test them before pulling to see if one is blown? Any serious help would be appreciated.... it is getting verrrrry cold downstairs!!!!

I would recommend killing yourself.

[ferrarispider95]

Originally Posted by chiefs1okie

Ahhhh ok, I know what those are. Just didn't know what they are called, No I don't believe there are any of those in the house. I should mention that my fear is that it may be mouse related. My house sits on 2 1/2 acres and there is a field with two 10 acre ponds right behind me, and then nearly an entire section of woods and pastures behind that, I am wondering if by some chance a little critter may have been looking for a warm spot and got into the walls somehow and chewed into a wire? Like I mentioned earlier, all the problems are in one corner of downstairs, no other part of the house is affected.

You don't have a knobs and tubes system do you.

[chiefs1okie]

Originally Posted by nstygma

a lot of time people push the wire into the back of the outlets instead of using the screw terminals. over time they arc and get crusty or pull away and disable the downstream connections.
are the downstairs water heater and heat unit wired into the same box?
what kind of heater is it?

I don't believe thy are, like I stated earlier the hot water tank works fine. It is a gas heater. The overhead lights in order moving away from the breaker box are kitchen, laundry room, garage. None of the overheads work. The recepts on one wall of the kitchen are inop, then on the same facing wall in the laundry room, (in the laundry room the recepts on the opposite wall work) and the recepts in the garage are all out.

[ferrarispider95]

Originally Posted by PastorMikH

Or possibly both - in different parts of the house.

Exactly part of the house could be old wiring, but just tied into with new fuse box

[PastorMikH]

Originally Posted by nstygma

a lot of time people push the wire into the back of the outlets instead of using the screw terminals. over time they arc and get crusty or pull away and disable the downstream connections.
are the downstairs water heater and heat unit wired into the same box?
what kind of heater is it?

Our first church lost power at the outlets down one whole side and lights in the bathroom and my office as a result of the lazy approach of pushing the wire in the backs of the outlets.

I have a friend that is an electrician. He always uses the screw terminals. Says he knows the connection won't work loose if he screws it down tight.

[chiefs1okie]

Originally Posted by ferrarispider95

You don't have a knobs and tubes system do you.

No, I don't believe so.

[ClevelandBronco]

Originally Posted by chiefs1okie

I don't mean any ill will at all, but that is just funny as hell..... I just have this mental picture of a smoking penny, melting pliers, and hair standing on end....

Home ownership. It's not just a job. It's an adventure.

[PastorMikH]

Save yourself a lot of headache and just call an electrician. It will be expensive, but not as expensive as a hospital bill or replacing the house 'cause you burned it down messing with the wiring
.

Your hot water heaters are working because they either are gas and do not require electricity or are electric but on a separate circuit of 220 volts.

Do you have gas heat or electric?

If your heater is gas, it should just be 110 volts for the fan and such. If your heater plugs into an outlet (mine does as well as the chuch's parsonage though some are wired directly), you could temporarily get the heater going by running a heavy duty extension cord from that closet to a working outlet.

[chiefs1okie]

Do breakers sometimes need to be replaced? Is this something it would be worth me troubleshooting or should I stop the Tim Allen impersonation and just call an electrician?