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Pop, Crackle with Super Bright Lights! (Blown Main Breaker)

Pop, Crackle with Super Bright Lights! (Blown Main Breaker)


  #1  
Old 12-19-10, 04:27 PM
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Pop, Crackle with Super Bright Lights! (Blown Main Breaker)

My appliance repairman unplugged the range/duel fuel from wall/220 and the whole kitchen,
dining room and living room lights sparked and all lights turned super, super, super bright!
I heard a huge pop and computer and equipment in another room started smoking!
They(110/bedroom) share same wall as 220/kitchen. Got everything turned off on the panel
within a minute in the garage. Got the appliance guy out the door and he will double
back on me for bad knobs and level range on warranty. Left range out in middle of
kitchen and I got everything unplugged thru-out house, (everything) and then I turned
the easiest light to see from panel(dining room fan light). It went super bright like
before without any other load on the wiring?? Then each of 4 bulbs started
blowing out about ever 2 minutes. With 2 bulbs left, I shut everything off. Also prior,
I tried to turn furnace back on at panel but it never came back on from the start. I
went to the motel and the electrician should be out tomorrow (Monday) morning.




I had 8 can lights put in my kitchen 2 years ago, same time as I bought range and new
appliances. The 220 was already in place from old coil electric. From these symthoms,
super bright lights, what do you think has happened? Typing this from my small netbook. Thanks for all your help here!
 
  #2  
Old 12-19-10, 04:53 PM
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Call your power company very first thing...I'd call them now...most should respond immediately. Should be safe if your main breaker is off..but you have serious issues. May be the POCO...may be your house...but get them out quickly.

Why unplugging the range would do that, I dunno....but you may have to call an electrician and your insurance agent depending on what the POCO finds.
 
  #3  
Old 12-19-10, 05:33 PM
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Vic is correct. Call the power company NOW. They are available 24/7. If they do not find anything it is then time to call an electrician.
 
  #4  
Old 12-19-10, 05:38 PM
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A lineman could have dropped a wire at the same time the range was unplugged.
 
  #5  
Old 12-19-10, 05:42 PM
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Originally Posted by Justin Smith
A lineman could have dropped a wire at the same time the range was unplugged.
That would be a very unlikely coincidence.
 
  #6  
Old 12-19-10, 09:05 PM
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You have a loose or burned neutral wire in the service entrance. The power company is the first call to make to see if it is outside your home, but if they don't find anything the electrician will need to find it in your meter can or main panel. Unfortunately from the sound of it your computer equipment and furnace control board are probably toast, quite possibly other appliances too. Hopefully your home owners insurance will cover the damage.

The appliance repair man probably accidentally caused a high current line-to-neutral short which in turn caused a weak connection in the service to burn off. As a note to other readers, this is why you should always turn off the breaker of a range or dryer before unplugging the appliance!
 
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Old 12-19-10, 10:25 PM
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I agree with other guys here sound like you have lost the netural connection somewhere and have POCO check their side first to make sure once the POCO verifed then call in electrician this part is not excataly a DIY item due with loose or burnted netural connection it can be anything from breaker box to the POCO drop or lateral run so best have a Electrician to come in and have them check over everything for ya.

And talk to that appalice repair company to see what they stand on this mess and your home insurance statement to see where this goes.

Let us know how it come out on this one.

Merci.
Marc
 
  #8  
Old 12-20-10, 02:05 PM
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Originally Posted by ray2047
That would be a very unlikely coincidence.
That would happen to me with my luck, and there may as well be a neutral out. I would run on standby power or take my refridgerator to a friend's house or something like that so my food doesn't spoil.
 
  #9  
Old 01-25-11, 04:57 PM
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Cut feeder cable in new roof eve.

Hello, I wrote earlier about having a power outage on December 18th, 2010. I've had all the repairman through to fix and understand why all my lights, outlets, appliances and electrical equipment plugged-in exploded on the 18th when my stove was unplugged for repair. We traced the trouble to a cut power feeder cable coming in from the main power meter base to my electric panel in the garage. I had the roof eve extended about 1 foot when I had a new roof put on in May, 2010. The roof worker had to cut down(lower) the T1-11 siding to fit his sistered wood for the eve extension. See picture. The neutral was cut on the feeder cable and according to my electrician, the ground went straight to my electric 240 stove looking for ground. My stove was the back-up for the entire house during this 8 month period. Through this time, some things did not work correctly but just thought I had bought a damaged item, here or there. To be honest, I blamed these items on being made in China or Malaysia, etc. and thought some things will only have a shorter life from the old days so more product would continue to be sold.??

The roofer has reluctantly accepted all responsibility or says he will. Although he has challenged me on every broken, damaged item in my home. I am dealing with his insurance company and adjuster presently. I have all bills and charges together ready to submit to the adjuster but wanted to ask if I may need to consider anything else now and later before the claim is paid and signed off.

Many electrical items in my house were on surge protector and survived the hit. All my computers and TV's survived because they were on surge protectors. But it did burn them up(actual smoke coming from all protectors, printer, cable boxes) all these particular surge protectors plugged directly into the wall. They took the hit and not my computers or TVs. I am so thankful for this!!! Thank you! Lord! I did lose my freezer in the garage, my Central Vacumn canister equipment in the garage, my transformer to my heating system, a sump-pump in my crawl space, my treadmill key was plugged in and burned up the motor. It burned up my new 2-month old HP printer/scanner. This HP printer will not work properly through a surge protector and must be plugged directly into the wall. HP rep says it has it's own built-in surge protector but it still did not survive the hit. It got my 2 Direct TV cable boxes(2).
They are normally always on to download the TV guide and daily info, etc. My modine garage heater, my doorbell transformer got smoked!! It fried many light bulbs which were on at the time. My electricians had to abandon the original feeder cable in the attic and placed a whole new run through the crawl space to the electrical panel. Dry-wall was cut open to get it placed. I bought plywood for them to stand on in the attic but still got nail pops all over my garage and master bedroom. The power meter wall is my MB closet. All my phones have a high buzz on them after this. 2 nights of motel bills, etc. Way over on my cell minutes, etc, etc, etc.

My question, all my newer 2 year-old appliances have continued to work through this time. Refrig, stove, dishwasher, microwave. They all took the power hit, especially my stove. After the stove repairman unplugged it, the whole house exploded!! Boom! Boom! Boom!! It fried all the GFCI switches in my kitchen, garage and bathrooms. As early post, the lights became super bright and then the elements exploded within the light bulbs. Of course, the stove was not plugged back in until days later after everything passed with my electrician. Should I be worried that my appliances may quit working in the near future because of this power hit?? Or because they have survived through this, consider them survivors of this incident?? Also, I am very concerned that my house will not sell properly in the spring, especially because of this(abandoned main wiring, added cable riser at meter base on outside of my house?? Overworked romex circuits through out the house? Should I get a full electrical inspection of all wiring, outlets and junctions in my house? Should I have a real estate agent through to make sure everything is passable and there is no questions of taint? Do I need to reveal this happening to future buyers??

I will have some more questions of how to make the claim but will post this in another thread. I can not tell you how scary this was when it happened. I always knew in my heart that it was nothing I did but I am glad to know this and will not be responsible to replace these damaged items. This helps my frazzled nerves so much!







I will post a couple more pics to show new roof eve added.
 

Last edited by Raemarti; 01-25-11 at 07:34 PM.
  #10  
Old 01-25-11, 05:29 PM
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New Roof Eve / burned up surge protectors

Here's a couple more pics for this thread.









I bought a good supply of new 'old-time' light bulbs as they were all blown up. I do not care much for the new mercury kind of bulbs. Not enough light shines.
Should I get a good supply of new 'new mercury' kind of bulbs just in case the old candesants are outlawed??

Gosh, I have about a million questions on this and will keep posting!!

PS. In addition to last post, my wash machine did not start about a week after this happened. I spun the dial all the way around and it has started each time since. Who knows if it is because of this??
 
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Old 01-25-11, 06:36 PM
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Glad you finally found the problem and that you only lost some items and not the entire house.
 
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Old 01-25-11, 06:46 PM
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WOW! Thanks for the update!

It is very possible that you will fine other things similar to your washer which could be from the hit. All your equipment was subjected to 240 volts. This can do come crazy stuff. Good example of why surge protectors are a good idea on your expensive equipment.

I have had good luck with the CFL's from the big orange store. Maybe give them a try. They still take a little bit (30 secs.) to come to full brightness but after that they are pretty good.
 
  #13  
Old 01-25-11, 09:23 PM
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WOW! Good thing the electrician found it and have it fixed properly.

I am suprised that you did not even blow the cable apart like that normally they will flashover pretty good like minifireball and if that was between meter and main breaker that is UNFUSED part I am suprised it did not do more damage there { good thing I know that was alum that may help a bit but copper it will be worst }

Merci.
Marc
 
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Old 01-25-11, 11:04 PM
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Appliances are covered on warranty

Yes, I am surprised the roofer helper wasn't electrocuted when he cut into it! My electrician said there was a high danger of fire for the all those months. It was just the luckiest of all outcomes that nothing more happened. I am so thankful! I was so content and cozy to think I had new paint, new roof.....

I do want to post on the insurance forum with some questions. All my appliances were bought in the summer of 2008 after a kitchen remodel. I knew enough to buy an extended warranty on my appliances and I did. Lowe's offered $159.00 extended warranty for my 3 items; refrig, stove, dishwasher and it has paid off for me. They have been out on my GE dishwasher 2 times and I have another appt. soon. Once on my Samsung refrigerator and this will be the 3 time visit on my Electrolux stove. The repairman was just here on my stove and was not able to give me a valid receipt with charges on it. The repair will go right to the warranty people. So pretty sure if any appliance does go out in the future, it will be handled by the warranty. The appliance repairman did tell me that he has never really seen an appliance replaced in his 12 years OJT. They will put $2,000 into an existing appliance before they replace it. Gosh, that's comforting!.....ugh......

I will have a few questions for the insurance forum but mainly glad to know about my appliances even though I will probably, never be made whole if they stop working?? They were able to repair or fix most big item in my house except the central vac. They did not have the motor(burnt up motor) for my model 26 Vacu-flo. So all they had to offer was a new vacumn canister for about, final bill, $800.00. It's full equipment staged/hanging in the garage for central vacumning through out the house. I had to go for it because there are holes all over my house for central vacumning that would not work when the plate is lifted. There would just be a frigg'in hole in the wall....ugh. Great for resale!! Hopefully, I get the full amount back but the adjuster said probably not. Just the value of age at the time. That is so wrong!!! I did nothing wrong except try to have a nice home with a new roof!

My electricians were fantastic! They did an absolutely beautiful job on restoring everything back. I told them to make the cable riser look like I just installed an outside jacuzzi.....haha! No jacuzzi here though. I do hate that I have abandoned cable in my attic. And particularly a cable that important. It is cut off almost flush at each panel too. So obvious that there was trouble in this house and right to the eye for anyone knowing electrical. If a home inspector opens those panels covers, he will know immediately. Shouldn't there be extra damages paid for something like this?? I WANT TO BE MADE WHOLE LIKE NO ONE WAS EVER IN MY HOME TO TEAR THINGS UP! Sorry, no more screaming....


Do you all think I should have a full electrical inspection of my wiring just to make sure it's safe?

Do you think I should have a realtor come out access the home value? In this economy, I will never know if this hinders me, will I??

Do I need to tell future buyers about this?
 
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Old 01-26-11, 09:20 AM
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Originally Posted by Raemarti
Yes, I am surprised the roofer helper wasn't electrocuted when he cut into it!
Yes me too, that is a very lucky/unlucky cut. It very well could have killed him or burned the house down that day.

I do hate that I have abandoned cable in my attic. And particularly a cable that important.
Don't worry about it. There are abandoned cables in most any house that has had remodeling.

Do you all think I should have a full electrical inspection of my wiring just to make sure it's safe?
No it sounds like your electrician did a good job of fixing the electrical system. The wiring inside the walls is rated to either 300V or 600V depending on the age of your house, so even if your circuits got the worst of 240V it would not have exceeded the rating on the wires themselves. Obviously as you have seen the appliances that are plugged in can be damaged, but the wires themselves should be okay.

The only exception to this would be any GFCI receptacles should be replaced -- those cannot take the high voltage.

Do you think I should have a realtor come out access the home value?
Now that the panel has been fixed I do not think it should affect the future value of the house at all. Even if a future inspector/buyer notices the old cable, you should have the receipt from the electrician to prove it was fixed by a professional.
 
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Old 01-26-11, 10:47 AM
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Thanks Ben for the good information. I have good house owners insurance myself but they should not have to put one penny out on this. I will lose my 'claim free' discount from them if I claim anything. That is worth a yearly 15% and want to keep my house insurance pristine! Will let you know how everything shakes out at the far end. Thanks for all your posts on here. You guys ((((ROCK))))!!!

We have not taken the home price downturn like the lower 48 home prices have so that's a good thing. Still rock'in and roll'in up here. Still very healthy with work.
 

Last edited by Raemarti; 01-26-11 at 11:01 AM. Reason: added info
 

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