I have a 1,000 sq. ft. rental property. Turned on an air conditioner window unit, it immediately turned off within a few seconds. I go to check the breaker that typically flips and found it was still in the ON position. I flipped the breaker and nothing happened. The power is still out on that one half of the house. I replaced both of the 15 Amp breakers that I thought were faulty but to no avail the power is still out. I am not a licensed electrician but am educated enough in regards to electricity and installing new outlets and other miscellaneous stuff throughout my property. I am at a lost here. Looking for an easy explanation of what I should do next? Maybe pay to have an electrician come and check it out? I am on a very tight budget. Thank you community I appreciate your feedback.

 

Welcome to the forums..............

Stand by for one of the pros to assist... It would seem you lost one leg to the home... Possibly the main breaker at fault? IDK..

Please be very careful working in the panel... You can be killed.... If you are unsure then yes a pro should be called in..

I assume a test with a multimeter can confirm a few things. Do you have one and know how to use it?

 

I do have a multi-meter and have a general idea of how to use it. Maybe I am missing something here. Would the MAIN breaker be located outside of my home? Versus the MAIN at the top of my breaker panel?

 

Since the breakers are adjacent, it is not likely you lost a leg into the house, but I would start at the main lugs anyway. What is the voltage across the 2 main lugs? It should be near 240 volts. Next, check the lug on each of the two 15 amp breakers to neutral, they should read around 120 volts. If these two tests check out you have a problem within the two circuits. It doesn't appear these are multiwre branch circuits because each hot conductor is black, but it wouldn't hurt to check to see if each circuit has it's own dedicated white neutral conductor.

 

It looks like this is your service panel.

Check between both incoming legs to ground and see if you get 120 volts and 240 volts between hot to hot. Report back.

 

You said rental property...I'm assuming you are the owner?

 

Yes I am the owner of this property...

 

Ends up DTE energy replaced the old analog meters outside with new digital meters the day before I had this issue. I didn't even notice! Everything in the panel tested good. Now I will have to deal with having a house with only 1/2 power. With 33,000 people with no power in the area, I'm grateful to even have half power. DTE has to come out and replace the fuses in the meters.

 

Never heard of fuses in meters. Just the Kearneys on the pole.

 

If everything in the panel tested good, you have no utility company or meter issues and can proceed to troubleshoot and repair your problem. It's time to take a hard look at those two circuits.

Why? You have full power to your panel.