posted
My power was out for five hours tonight. Now, half of my apartment has power, and the other half doesn't. This includes the air conditioner and the kitchen. Which means all of my food is going to go bad. I don't know if this means that circuits have been blown becuase my apartment, unlike some normal circuit breaker place with switches, has old-timey fuses from the 50's or some crap. So I have no idea what to do. And when I walk outside, there's a buzzing noise like a power line is down. And it's not even storming.
And no one that I know in town will answer the phone.
So how do I tell if an old-timey screw-in kinda fuse from the age of the dinosaurs needs a replacement? And if it does...what do I buy?
-pH
Edit: Before you tell me to call the power company, they hung up on me seven times. My dad had me call 911 because of the downed power line possibility, and they just gave me the 800 number for the power company, which hung up on me again.
Posts: 9057 | Registered: Nov 2000
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posted
If half your power is out, it means you have only one phase up of your normally 2 phase system. Report this to your power company. It's something they will have to fix. You should turn off any motors that are 220V, such as the air conditioning and refrigerator (sounds like they turned themselves off), since running single phase can burn up motors.
You're safe to use the 120V lights and plugs that are working.
Hope your power comes back soon!
Posts: 6246 | Registered: Aug 2004
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posted
The power company may have hung up on you because they're swamped at the moment. I recommend you wait a while and call again. My power company has an automated system that takes your info and will even call you back when they believe the power should be back on to your address.
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posted
You said you're in an apartment, how about calling your landlord? My next step would be an electrician, do you know one?
Posts: 697 | Registered: Nov 2005
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If you know where your breaker box is, you can check the breakers to be sure none of them are tripped. But if it's half your apartment, it's fairly certain that you've lost one phase, and it's not something that you can fix.
Are you in contact with other people in your same building? Have they lost half their power as well? If so then it's pretty certain that you're getting just one phase.
Posts: 6246 | Registered: Aug 2004
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posted
Technically, I'm in a condo, not an apartment. So I don't have a landlord. I'm going to call the condo lady, but I can't really call her in the middle of the night.
It looks like the power down the street is on. And maybe the power across the street. But I can't tell if their lamps are like...fire or electricity.
But my refrigerator and stuff have turned themselves off, and my living room light definitely doesn't work.
The power company puts me on hold for about 15 minutes. Then it rings a couple of times like someone's going to answer. Then it hangs up.
As for the breakers...I don't have breakers. I have fuses. Like. Old fuses. The kind that screw in. Not the kind that you can just flip. The lights out in the walkway of the building are on, so I assume that general building power is on. But it's 3 in the morning, so I don't want to go knocking on doors to find out.
posted
The buzzing noise might be the other phase shorting out. It might come from your transformer, or it could be a downed line. Do you see any sparks? Obviously stay away from the area of downed lines.
The bad thing is that there's a good chance (from the buzzing) that whatever is wrong is local to your area. This means it might be a while before they get around to you to fix it. They try to fix the things that will bring the most customers back online first. Was there not even a storm or high winds or anything that might have caused it?
If it's only you with the problem then do keep calling the power company until you get through. They should come out right away and fix it.
Posts: 6246 | Registered: Aug 2004
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posted
There was a light drizzle, but there wasn't any rain or lightning or anything. Two people got back to me and both said that they had power. One of them lives fairly close by (I live near Magazine, and he lives in the same area, but near St. Charles, for those who know New Orleans). I haven't heard any thunder all night. And I haven't heard any wind, either. It came as a total surprise. I kind of thought there might have been a power surge, but I don't really know what that would look like.
Two weeks ago, power went down for two hours along Tchoupitoulas, which is a few blocks away from here. But I never heard what caused it.
posted
Okay, fuses, hmmm. I don't suppose you have a digital multimeter? Some fuses can blow and look obviously blown, but others there's only one way to tell, and that's by removing them and measuring the resistance across them. Blown fuses have essentially infinite resistance and good ones have basically none.
It's very unlikely that half your fuses blew at once. Can you tell where the hum is coming from? The thing I would worry about at this point is the risk of fire. I'm guessing you live in rather an old building, since your wiring seems antique. If you smell anything weird at all, just get out of there with any pets and spend the night at a friend's. See if you can track down where the humming sound is coming from and figure out what is going on.
Posts: 6246 | Registered: Aug 2004
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posted
The hum sounds like it's coming from outside, for sure. I heard a humming earlier today, but it sounded more like a vibration in the building. The fuses...I don't know how to tell if they're blown. They have kind of a line across them, like a wire or something is maybe running there. I have a brand new smoke detector, though.
I have no idea what a digital mutimeter is. Haha. I am quite incompetent. I've been trying to get ahold of my boyfriend (who is an engineer) since the power went out, but to no avail. So I am extra frustrated. I remember the real estate inspector saying something about the fuses...like 15 something and 20 something and 30 something, but I don't remember really what it meant. I think 30 was for the air conditioner. And 15 was for the lights. Should I just go to...Wal-mart...or something tomorrow and try to find new ones?
posted
It seems to me that you are like me (as in, if there's not a switch to flip then I don't have any idea what I'm doing) in that case, I'd leave it to the professionals, especially with old wiring like that. Good luck.
Posts: 697 | Registered: Nov 2005
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posted
You posted about it in MySpace too, I hate blackouts too because food in my fridge can go bad. Wait a minute...my fridge is empty. That means that there is no food to worry about so YAY for blackouts. Wait...Lappy needs her energy to function...and internet needs it too...Nevermind...
BLACKOUTS ARE THE DEVIL!!!
Light a candle pH! That's about the only help I can offer...Sorry but I cannot magically send electric jolts to your system.
Note: If this doesn't make any sense, look at the time this was posted. Brains don't work at that hour, now do they?
Posts: 3389 | Registered: Apr 2004
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posted
No, Alt. No, they do not. I am so upset about having had no power and being in pitch black for so long (I'm deathly afraid of the dark) that I've decided to get drunk before I go to bed.
So if I make nonsensical posts in about an hour, you'll know why. I'll have a little Captain in me.
posted
pH, it almost certainly is not your fuses. The 10, 15, 30 that he was talking about was Amps. It's not a bad idea to have a few spare fuses on hand, in normal circumstances, but it's pretty clearly a power company problem you have tonight. I would continue to call them until you get through. Do you know what transformers look like? They are usually big gray cylinders mounted on power poles. If the humming is coming from one of those, then likely enough it's just gone bad and shorted out.
Get your engineer bf to help you buy fuses at Wal-Mart for the future, just so you have a few spares, but fuses are not your problem tonight.
Posts: 6246 | Registered: Aug 2004
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posted
Where would a transformer be for me to see if that was the problem? If I live in a two-story building full of condos, I mean. Condos that all have individual fuses or circuit breakers or whatever they have. Would it be on one side of the building somewhere?
I heard the buzzing when I walked out in front of my unit. The way the building is set up, the walkways are all outdoors. So the buzzing could have either been from the building or from something nearby. Maybe down the street, or something. Like I said, maybe the houses across the street were affected. They were dark, but they had lamps out front. But they could have been kerosene lamps or something. However, the building down the street, away from Magazine, definitely still has full power. However, these houses across the street definitely had no lights beyond the porch lights, which leads me to believe they were affected.
posted
Fuses would be like if you dropped your flatiron into a sink full of water and now none of your bathroom lights work. Or maybe if you turned on the oven, all 4 stove eyes, toaster oven, and microwave all at once for the first time and then they all suddenly cut off. (I had this happen to me when I was cooking Thanksgiving dinner for 12 people once. )
Posts: 6246 | Registered: Aug 2004
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quote:Originally posted by Tatiana: Fuses would be like if you dropped your flatiron into a sink full of water and now none of your bathroom lights work. Or maybe if you turned on the oven, all 4 stove eyes, toaster oven, and microwave all at once for the first time and then they all suddenly cut off. (I had this happen to me when I was cooking Thanksgiving dinner for 12 people once. )
Do you mean like if one fuse went bad, none of them would work? Because the inspector said something about if one went bad, it would look kind of burnt in the front. And there is definitely one that looks kind of burnt, but I don't know if it looks burnt in the clear part. And I don't know if the clear part is what matters.
Gah, I wish I had circuit breakers. At least I know how to use those.
posted
Okay, transformers can be up on power poles, where they usually look like a grey orange juice can, about four feet high and two feet in diameter, usually with three odd appendages on top. Oh heck, lemme google for one. Like This.
Alternatively they can be a boxy thing on a concrete pad on the ground. Like this.Posts: 6246 | Registered: Aug 2004
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posted
Yes, fuses can look burnt when they go bad sometimes. Or they can look perfectly normal. The only way to tell for sure is to test them with a multimeter, also known as a voltmeter. If one fuse blows, though, it should have no effect on the other fuses.
It's possible if you have power outages for a fuse to blow because of the outage. That is, it might not be the primary cause, but still happen. If half the lights in your apartment are gone, though, then I just seriously doubt so many blew at once, you know?
Please don't go feeling around in your fusebox in the dark under the influence of alcohol. Some of the old fuse boxes are very unsafe. I had one in a house that was 70 years old that had the whole hot bus just hanging out in the air where anyone could touch it.
Posts: 6246 | Registered: Aug 2004
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posted
Hmmm. I wandered about, and I didn't see either of those. But it's possible that I missed them; I'll check again in the morning. But this is a very residential area; it's surrounded by single family houses on all sides, as far as I know. Hmmmmmm.
And like I said, the hallways have lighting now. So I'm guessing the building in general has light. I can go around tomorrow morning and ask for sure. But for right now, I'd guess that I'm the only one without a refirgerator or an air conditioner.
-pH
Edit: I'm not going to go fooling around in my fusebox under the influence of alcohol. I'm mostly just trying to figure out what I should look for tomorrow, when I try to find an open Lowes or Wal-mart or something.
Posts: 9057 | Registered: Nov 2000
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posted
Does it matter if the clear part...*goes to examine fuse box*
One of them for sure looks burnt around the middle, but the other ones just have kind of a wire or line across the middle. Is tht a problem? How do I know if they're 15 or 20 or 30 amp (?) fuses?
posted
The little wire or line across the middle is good. That means it's not burnt, at least not that you can tell without a meter.
If they do look burnt in the middle, or if the wire or line is broken and doesn't go all the way across, then it's definitely blown. It should say in writing on it "10A" or "15A" or "20A" or "30A" or something like that. That's the current rating. Best thing is to unscrew the blown one (don't touch anything exposed when you unscrew it) and take it with you to the hardware store or Home Depot. Make sure the screw threads look the same on the new one, and the diameter and all.
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posted
You can buy a multimeter, and learn how to use it, or you can just buy a couple of spare fuses in every size you have, and test by changing them out, same as with a lightbulb. If you replace the fuse and nothing happens, then it wasn't the fuse. Most fuse boxes have some jotted notes like "upstairs lights" or "kitchen plugs" to help you figure out what is controlled by what.
Posts: 6246 | Registered: Aug 2004
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Upon closer inspection, I really need to get a flashlight. Because a couple of the fuses I unscrewed looked very cloudy and blown-like.
Gah.
-pH
Edit: As far as I know, my fuses are only in 15, 20, and 30. And I can only play bass left-handed. And only kinDA.
Posts: 9057 | Registered: Nov 2000
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posted
Be sure and remember which fuse goes in which hole. If you go mixing them up when you put them back, it wouldn't be good.
Posts: 6246 | Registered: Aug 2004
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posted
Be careful not to touch anything that's recessed at all, and don't use anything metal, like a knife or screwdriver, or pliers, to mess around with the fuse box.
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posted
What about grabby pliers without a fusebox that grabs....anything?
At any rate, I still need to figure out what's going on. Should I replace my air conditioning and refirgerating fuses, which are 30amps? Or should I move along to other projects?
quote:What about metal that has like rubber around the handle?
Well, that will prevent you from getting electrocuted, assuming you're not touching or near enough to anything else metal. But that will do nothing towards making sure you don't short something else out.
So, no. Not unless you know exactly what you're doing. And you don't. Posts: 8355 | Registered: Apr 2003
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posted
pH, I would only replace the one that looks burnt. And I would not recommend the use of grabby pliers.
If your fuses look like those green ones I linked to, then you can safely touch the green rim and unscrew them with your fingers. Do remember which size (Amp rating) fuse goes in which hole.
(There are methods to be sure you get this right, but there's no guarantee that your particular fusebox installer used those methods. They're not that common, that I've seen, because they keep you from putting a higher rated fuse in, and sometimes it's handy to do that, though it can be dangerous as well.)
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posted
If you want to, you can try replacing the ones that don't look burnt, just to check and see if that's it, but I doubt that it is it. Won't hurt to try, though.
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posted
I feel pretty confident that the humming sound outside is diagnostic of some real problem in one phase of your house power. But it may have blown a fuse or two when it went. Dead shorts cause line disturbances which can trip stuff.
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posted
Teshi, is it on in the whole rest of your house? If so, then it's likely to be a breaker that tripped. Do you know where the electrical panel is for your house? Do you know how to check if a breaker is tripped?
pH, let us know what the resolution was to your problem. I hope your power is back on now!
Posts: 6246 | Registered: Aug 2004
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quote:Originally posted by pH: There was a light drizzle, but there wasn't any rain or lightning or anything.
This is probably all after the fact and everything, but I was wondering...how long has it been since it rained there? Because if it has been awhile, long enough for dust to collect on the transformers out on the poles, a little bit of rain can cause them to blow. Whenever we get the first rain of the season here, there are several transformers that blow and put the power out in different parts of town because of this.
Posts: 2454 | Registered: Jan 2003
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posted
Wow, I missed the wrong thread. Partial power is usually a customer's problem, although it can be a problem with the entrance or the transformer. But, in my experience at the utility, it's often on the customer's side. Most utilities will come check it out tho, just for liability reasons.
And alcohol and electricity don't mix, in general.
Posts: 880 | Registered: Nov 2005
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I do. Thankfully, although my room is next to the bathroom(s), all my power is working. It must be a blown fuse. I should file a maintenance request...
Posts: 8473 | Registered: Apr 2003
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quote:I'm curious what you think it is, and what do you think is the humming that she's hearing outside?
Ten to one that the building lost a phase. That may or may not be what's causing the buzzing. The fuse could've also blown when the phase went down, from the 240 motors drawing on only one phase.
Posts: 5462 | Registered: Apr 2005
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posted
If there is food that must be saved, you could try picking up a cooler and some ice. I've done that before for things that were expensive enough to justify the outlay.
Posts: 14017 | Registered: May 2000
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quote:Originally posted by pH: More of the power is on now. The AC is running, but nothing in the kitchen works yet. Gah, frustrating.
-pH
Did you replace the fuse that looked burned out? I think El JT was exactly right in his diagnosis.
"Ten to one that the building lost a phase. That may or may not be what's causing the buzzing. The fuse could've also blown when the phase went down, from the 240 motors drawing on only one phase."
If some of it is back but not all, then the remaining problem is likely blown fuses.
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