Originally Posted By: kmcmahon This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.
So I’m sitting here tonite writing a report on my computer, and wham! My computer turns off and the lights in my office go off…well sorta…
I can see a dim power light on my hard drive and the light in my bedroom is running on 10%…I’m thinking uh-oh…not good. I go thru the rest of the home. TV in the living room is on, other bedroom light is on, kitchen is out, bath is out, basement is out and garage is out…I go check the breakers…no problem there. Grab the flashlight and start searching the home for smoke, or whatever I can find…thinking about heading to the fire department and grabbing a thermo imaging camera to check the walls. Don’t want to go to bed with a problem in the walls brewing…
Can’t find anything…Look outside and neighbors lights are all on…well some are some aren’t which is normal. So I’m thinking of calling an electrican or pull the cover on the panel and look for any problems…I’m thinking to myself, I’m a HI. I should be able to figure this out right?
Just then a Knock at my door…neighbor asks if I have power. Says he only has power to half his home as well. Then it hit me. Only power to one hot service line, so half the panel has power, the other does not.
Called the power company and an hour later they had someone at the transformer, doing their magic.
I had never heard of that happening before…we always had power or we didn’t…nothing inbetween.
Just thought I'd share an odd evening. Gotta go finish the report now.
Originally Posted By: Jay Moge This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.
hay Kevin. i too had that same thing happen when i was a teen at my parents house. on a lake so it was not unusual to loose power, but it seems a misguided squrell wondered into a transformer down the street and POOF . aparently he only got hit by one service leg. just another story for ya.
Originally Posted By: mboyett This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.
I’ve had this happen numerous times at commercial/industrial applications. It’s referred to as ‘single phasing’ and can be extremely detrimental to 3-phase electrical equipment. Not too much of that in residential applications thank goodness. Kevin…see: http://www.wisconsinpublicservice.com/business/phase.asp
Originally Posted By: wdecker This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.
We have a number of sub stations around my area. Some of the teens get a kick out of throwing a big metal chain over the fence and trying to short the transformer. These things short out about every two weeks dur to these ‘pranks’.
Originally Posted By: rlind This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.
Kevin,
I had the same thing happen to my home several years back. Our electric company, Commonwealth Edison, was not known for their superior customer service in those days. (Some will say not even today). A service call yielded no response for several hours. Luckily, I obtained an unlisted number to the office of the president for Com Ed through a friend.
I called that number, and wouldn't you know I had no fewer than 3 service trucks show up within 20 minutes? And they fixed the issue within another 10 minutes.
Sometimes, you just gotta go right to the top.....
. aparently he only got hit by one service leg. just another story for ya. 