help, power went off but when I looked at switchboard all the switches are still on????

Question

I was sitting here at home just now and all of a sudden half the lights in the house went off. I thought maybe it was because I was running the space heater at the time, and maybe a circuit got overloaded.

So I went to the switchboard panel, and none of the switches were tripped. Everything is still turned on.

So why did half the lights in the house go off, just like that?

Rigth now it's almost 8 p.m. Eastern time so obviously I can't call an electrician. Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

Thank you for your responses!

I did go back and flipped the breaker switches, even though they looked like they were on.

Something must have worked because now everything is running again.

THANKYOU!!

If not for your advice I would have spent a night in a mostly dark house.

I particularly appreciate the suggestion that I plug the space heater into a heavier circuit. For tonight I have had enough drama so I will probably just bundle up and deal with the cold. I'll try the space heater on a heavier circuit in a day or two when I have more time to troubleshoot.

Thank you again!!!

Answer 1

Call your power company.

Answer 2

First, unplug that space heater. Then, one at a time, turn each one of the breakers in the panel off and then on until you have gone through all the breakers or the lights come back on.

Also, check around the house in the affected rooms for a GFCI outlet (it has two buttons on the front: one is Test and the other is Reset). A GFCI detects ground faults and trips before the breaker in the meter panel does. And, you could have a lot of outlets and overhead lights all looped together through the one GFCI outlet. If you find one, press the Reset button (the black one, I think) and see if your lights come back on.

I once had a problem where one of the electrical wires coming into the back of the meter panel wasn't secured properly (the set screw was loose). This caused arcing and sparking coming from behind the meter. Finally it built up a layer of carbon that was thick enough to prevent current flow to the meter panel. So, half of the lights and outlets in the house went dead.

I had an electrician out and he said, because it was behind the meter, that it was the power company's responsibility. When I called the power company, they said it was my responsibility. So, I disconnected the electrical wires at a splice point, pulled the meter out, and fixed the problem myself (cleaned off the burnt contacts with a wire brush, replaced the wires from the splice point to the back of the meter housing, and tightened the set screws correctly). I never had a problem since.

Of course, I don't recommend that anyone do repairs on their home electrical wiring, particularly on an active circuit. But, I was an electronics technician in the navy and had experience with working in live electrical panels. I just related that story, because if you have the same problem, you might have trouble getting someone (electrician or power company) to actually work on that kind of problem.

Answer 3

some times when the breakers trip they don't always flip to the off position, but their still tripped, find the appropriate breakers flip them off then on again sounds like you overloaded the breaker space heaters will do this, best bet is to plug the space heater into a heavier circuit. say kitchen or laundry room.

Answer 4

Sometimes, if someone has a car accident, it might knock out the power, especially if they have just sheared off a utility pole.

It takes a few seconds or minutes for the power comapnies computer to reroute the power around the fault that has occured.

In the future, if the power stays out for a long period of time, unplug all your major appliances. When the power comes back on, a power surge is usually related with it, resulting in the surge blowing out all your appliances, and making them useless.

The Rat

Answer 5

check the breakers again push them in to the middle is any spongy feeling? like it moves a little ? if so push it [dont flip it] to off push it again to off then turn it on , this resets it,
Read the thing people she still has some power,

Answer 6

the weather may be a factor or maybe someone crashed into a utility pole knocking out power. check with your neighbor(s) and see if they have power. then again there might be a stalker outside who cut the main power to your home and he's waiting for you to step outside so he can lunge from the dark of night and decimate you!!!

Answer 7

How did you type this then???