Our electricity keeps going out in our bedroom...should I be concerned about the wiring?

Question

We had our house built three years ago. Our electricity in our master bedroom has gone out several times (not from storms) in those three years. It seems to always happen when we're either away from home or in bed sleeping. Also, when the power goes out from storms, our master bedroom won't come back on automatically like the other rooms. My husband has to flip the switch in the box like all the other times it goes out. I called the electric company that did the wiring, and they said that we probably have too many items hooked up in that room. We have the normal stuff...tv, alarm clock, phone, radio, satellite, etc...but most of these things aren't even on when the power goes out. should i be concerned about the wiring and make them come out and investigate? or are they correct, and this means we definitely can't get the ceiling fan hooked up in there? i just don't have a good feeling about it. i'm scared there will be a fire one of these days.

Answer 1

It sounds to me like you are having a problem with your arc fault circuit breaker. They started being required on bedroom circuits about the time your house was wired. An arc fault circuit breaker is supposed to trip when it detects an arc in your wiring. Or an arc in something plugged in. The first ones to come out seemed to trip for no reason. Don't accept the electrical contractor's excuse that you have an over loaded circuit. Demand they come out and fix the problem or you will file a complaint against them. Advise them that if there is a loose connection causing the tripping, and it burns your house down, you have proof you called them and will sue them. Those two things should convince them to come out and fix the problem. If they refuse, have a better electrician come out and take a look. I would not ignore the problem just in case there is an arc causing the tripping. If it was me you hired, I would replace the arc fault breaker first to see if it still trips. Good luck.

Answer 2

I agree with John to some extent. Ark fault breakers can be sensitive to low voltage lighting, which a lot of people have in the bedrooms. I had a job years ago where the clients low voltage lights would continuously trip the ark fault breaker. Even after we replaced it the same problem would continue. Your electrician may just not have a practical answer for you, as by law the ark fault has to be used. And there is also the chance you don't use any low voltage lights but this still doesn't rule out other electronic device interferences. Which, by the way leads me to wonder if an electrical filter on the line may be helpful. I'm sure a good low voltage engineer would know. Best of luck

Answer 3

She has the right to choose that lifestyle She does not have the right to impose it on the rest of the family. She should build a shelter. An ax saw or knife made by a blacksmith with a coal forge that can create the tool without electricity would be her only option Water is moved by electricity so if she wants to do this full bore she will have to hand carry her water from a source other than the city. All food in grocery stores use some sort of electricity either to store or package it. She would need to grow her own food with her hand carried water. We can take this much farther, hand made clothes and soaps. Only walking or a horse. etc It is much harder than it looks on the surface. Conservation can be taken too far. Reason should prevail. Your Mother does not have to go to the extreme to help the environment. She can volunteer at local clean ups and help others recycle and have a far greater impact than she would by simply turning her electricity off. I do not think that humans from another era would choose to forgo our modern conveniences such as cars and electricity if they had a choice.

Answer 4

You could try replacing the circuit breaker with one from another circuit in your box....

Use a replacement breaker with the same rating as the old ( 20 amps for instance)
then you need to shut the main power off and, disconnect and remove the old breaker and insert and reconnect the new breaker the same as the old was.a handy friend could help you so you don't make a dangerous mistake. to trip the breaker use a few hi amp items.

If that doesn't fix it, an electrician would be your best bet, they could likely quickly pin point the problem and then if you wanted to fix it yourself you could save a few bucks.... an amature could do alot of damage before finidng the problem if it is in your walls.

a short and a bad breaker can have similar symptoms, because a short can cause some electricity to be turned into heat, which could trip the breaker frequently

Answer 5

Yeah, what John said. I'm glad he did all the typing so I didn't have too. The electric company tried to tell us it was our fault also. We kept complaining, they had to come out about 6 times, before they found that some one partially put a staple through the wire. Funny thing, they didn't even apologize for treating us like idiots.

Answer 6

Have someone check your wiring and all of the outlets in the Master bed and bath! Then if everything is wired correctly, have someone, or yourself, install a higher amperage circuit. If the one in the box says something like 10,15,or 20, have them install one that is of a higher amperage. Be sure not to overload the circuit box by putting in too high of an amperage! Good Luck!

Answer 7

Your bedroom wiring should definitely be inspected, first by someone from the electric company or an independent inspector. They should make recommendations as to how to fix the problem, then you present that to the company that did the wiring. Don't delay - the fault could be a source of bigger problems down the road.

Answer 8

Look in your telephone book's yellow pages and get a new electrician to come and check out this problem. Do not delay, it just might start a fire inside the walls. After you get it fixed properly, you can then decide what you want to do about the builders such as seeing an attorney.

Answer 9

From your description it sounds like something is causing a short. May be a bad outlet or a mis-wired cirucit. I would get the electrician back and have them check the wiring.

Answer 10

bad breaker