What the heck? Power lines are possessed

[Jeff7]

This is really bizarre. The lights in my room just cut out 5 times, for a second each time, all within a 30 second period. My computer, on a separate circuit also experienced a power failure (UPS kept it running though http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/biggrin.gif). Now for the weird part - nothing else in the house was affected. No circuit breakers tripped. All power is on. A computer right outside the room kept running. I was nowhere near any switches.
I checked around - clocks that usually reset instantly on power outages are still going fine. Nothing's burning anywhere; no smoke anywhere. Any clues what makes power fail simultaneously on two different circuits, but not on other devices on the same circuit?

[brandon184]

You're lucky. I live in what they like to call a town, or community if you will. As far as I'm concerned, the town is occupied and run by mostly crazy glue sniffers. We have some type of obviously disturbed power system for our community. I've seen things from 2 hour power outages for NO REASON WHATSOEVER, to 5 minute power outages where 50% of the power is still coming through. This causes the computer to restart at a mind boggling rate of what seems like 1000 times a minute. The lights flicker and dim half way. Its IN-SANE!

- Brandon

[Jeff7]

You need a backup power supply - they are sweet. (first time I ever used that term like that I believe)
But at least your entire house experiences the problem. This was just my one room, and nothing else. That's why this is so baffling.

[Gomer]

I would be extremely worried about what you have described. Although I have no idea what could cause that, I would have an electrician check the house asap. It sounds like there is a serious issue. Serious issues with electricity often stand a good chance of causing a fire. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

[Jeff7]

I checked the house fairly thoroughly. This is really strange. I mean, if something had shorted the circuit, the breaker would have gone. And if the whole house had lost power, the microwave clock would have cut out. Plus, my server computer - gateway to the Internet - isn't on a UPS, but it stayed on.
I'm pretty good with almost anything electrical, and that's why this has me so baffled. I'll do some more checking; thing is, a lot of these electical boxes in this room were just put in not long ago by a trained electrician. I was there for a lot of it too; it all was done well, and safely. And the power hasn't gone weird since that little failure.

[MAGIC 8-BALL and THE ELF]

It sounds like Poltergeists. - Elf

Yes, that's their kind of mischief. - Ball

[brandon184]

I think our electrician was a crazy glue sniffer. In one of the rooms in our house, you have to turn on the light, to turn on the tv...

- Brandon

[Fingers]

One night during a storm, the lights and TV in the living room started blinking, but there were no power irregularities in some other rooms? The oil furnace was starting an stopping randomly, but the lights in the basement remained on.

Cause: One leg of our 220 electric service had become loosened on the electric pole during the storm, half of the breaker box was connected to the good leg of the 220 and power was not interupted, the half of the house that was connected to the leg with the bad connection on the pole flickered until I turned off all the breakers on that side of the breaker box.

If you've got a 220 service, there could be a bad connection on just one if the 110 legs.

[Jeff7]

All the outlets use screw-contacts, and this guy does know what he's doing quite well.

But again, the question remains - why would some stuff on a circuit fail, but not other things? This wasn't during a storm or anything; I don't even think it was cloudy that night. Temperatures weren't downright frigid either - maybe around 30F.

[Jeff7]

Ok, I get it. Still strange that it happened simultaneously on 2 totally separate circuits, and that no breakers were tripped.

[bob2323]

Some devices have a longer hold up time than others. Lights go off instantly, but other things can continue to function for a few milliseconds, or even 2 or 3 seconds, depending on the size caps in the power supply, and the current load. Computers have a pretty good hold up time, if the power supply is big enough.
To me it sounds like you had a power outage. Where I work power flickers are dreaded. Some of our equipment is very sensitive, but others can continue to function for a few minutes. My coworker has a simple relay circuit that he made to monitor for power dips. The relay has a 120 volt coil and energizes its self. If the power fails for even a few milliseconds the relay opens and the lamp on the output goes off.
When he comes in in the morning he checks to see if we had any glitches, if so he presses the reset button and we get prepared for work.
I would recomend checking the 220 line in. I know that some very strange and terrible things can happen if one side is loose.

[Jeff7]

Where do I check things like the 110/220 line in? Where on the house are they located?

[bob2323]

The fuse or circuit breaker box, at the top is the big heavy wires. These are the wires coming into the house. The fasten to the busses. There are three wires (if your feed is 220). One wire is ground. If you measure from the ground both wires will be carring 120, but if you put your meter across both hot wires you should measure 220.
Caution: Very dangerous!
Note: you have to remove the switch box cover to see these wires..

[Fingers]

Call your electric company and tell them that your having intermittent power losses, but only in certain areas of the house. I wouldn't go messing around with fuse box, especially since you don't know where to start. Putting a volt meter to the fuse box also won't tell you anything that turning on a light switch won't, either the light comes on and the service is working, or it doesn't and it's not. To find a loose connection, you're going to have to "jiggle" some wires or check the connectors for tightness, and you don't want to be doing that with 220v.

CALL THE ELECTIC COMPANY. The problem is more likely to be outside the house...their problem, not yours. Make them aware of your situation and let them suggest a remedy.

[Graham]

Jeff7,
Got to agree with Fingers, if you don't know where the fuse box is, you probably don't know enough to find the problem, and you might just kill yourself.

Call an expert.

Find out where the fuse box is though, you may have to change one one day, or even turn the whole house off in an emergency.

G

[Jeff7]

Just to confirm, if I have a circuit breaker box, then I would not have a fuse box, correct? I know right where the breaker box is, and I know how to use it. I don't think I'll remove and panels though; that's a bit more electricity than I'd like to tangle with.

[Rat]

Are you sure it's two different circuits with a circuit breaker for each? Most houses are built with one circuit breaker for all the outlets in each room, so on room wlll have it's own breaker, the next room will have it's own...etc.... You may have a bad/failing circuit breaker leading to that room or a bad connection/wire leading to that room. it could also be something on that circuit drawing a huge extremely quick draw or short (too fast to trip a breaker).

Rat...

[Jeff7]

Most definitely - the computers have their own circuit - it was installed while I was here. The lights were installed on an existing circuit, but the computer circuit was added specifically for that purpose - a dedicated line for the computers.

[capybara]

jeff: call the electrician who did the recent
install of the computer ckt, and see if you can
get him to come out and re-check his work.
it could be anything - loose wirenuts,back-
stabbed connections in a switch or plug, loose wires in the panel, trouble between
the panel and the its connections to the
power companies supply lines on the pole,
etc. but if this re-occurs again, do get expert help, this is how houses burn down.
if it doesnt happen again, i wouldnt worry about it. weird stuff happens with electric.

[Jeff7]

Ok, I will be sure to bring it up. Still doesn't fully explain why a totally separate circuit failed like it did.

[alpha]

Wiring in my granda's house:
Power - 10amp light switch - everything.

In that order.

[Rat]

Jeff,

It is wise of you to call the electrician back since he was the one who did the work, also since your'e not comfortable or completely knowledgable of the subject. If he pulled extra wires from the box to the computer room, it's possible he skinned a wire or mad a bad connectin somewhere. I would guess it's the nuetral (white) wire that has a problem because that wire is prolly feeding nuetral to all the outlets in that room and only the hot (black) wires are on seperate circuits.

Rat...

[Jeff7]

I suppose that's possible; I was here for the whole installation though; it's a dedicated wire - neutral and hot. I'll ask him sometime though.