have a question for an electrician

snowmobiler · Mar 19, 2009

was running a power tool in a 95 double wide manufactured house.now have no power in one whole half of the double wide.it has a double switch breaker for general lighting.i tried switching the 2 wires to see if breaker was bad.but the 1 half still has no power.any ideas what to do next?thanks

snowmobiler · Mar 19, 2009

is there a wireing junction box where the 2 halves go together?

Ex-Member · Mar 19, 2009

What kind of tool.... overload the circuit?

Check your GFCIs. (Sometimes the GFCI is upstream of several outlets/lights; that GFCI trips and it'll take out everything downstream of it.)

Smell anything afterwards? (Fried wiring? Arcing?)

Check the circuit breakers.... usually have to turn them off from the tripped position then back on to reset it. I hope you've already done this.

What's the service look like? More than one meter?

Nate · Mar 19, 2009

Coulda blown a line fuse

Mafesto · Mar 19, 2009

You have two 110V coming into your service giving you 220V.
It is possible one of those lines is bad.
It happened to me once with pocket gophers.

Mag · Mar 19, 2009

If the breaker's are good check the main on the pole, it may have single breaker's for each line in.

snowmobiler · Mar 19, 2009

small drill.dont think it overloaded anything.didnt smell anything.buy switching the 2 switch wires on the 2 switch breaker and still having power in one half of the house,i dont think i lost a 110.

Diesel99 · Mar 19, 2009

It's more than likely a problem at your crossover point where the 2 halfs of the mobile home join, check with the manufactuer where it is located.

snowmobiler · Mar 19, 2009

Diesel99 said:
It's more than likely a problem at your crossover point where the 2 halfs of the mobile home join, check with the manufactuer where it is located.

thats what i was thinking.i didnt know if there was a cheezy plug in thing when they put the 2 together.the side with breaker box has power

Ex-Member · Mar 19, 2009

Nate said:
Coulda blown a line fuse

Yeap, was thinkin that.

Got a wiring diagram of the place? Stick a probe in the farthest upstream socket, and see where you stop getting hte signal.

snowmobiler · Mar 19, 2009

no diagram.one half of the house,right down the middle where the 2 halves go together has no power.

snowmobiler · Mar 19, 2009

it looks like the wires at the breaker box go up into the vaulted cieling with a foot of blown in insulation.hoping that crossover thing aint up in there.

Snowizard · Mar 20, 2009

I like Mule's idea of checking for a tripped Ground Fault Interrupter outlet. Look in various places like kitchen, bath, laundry, mechanical room for a GFI that maybe affecting outlets in places you wouldn't expect.

Its not uncommon to have several outlets daisy-chained to one GFI.
Newer codes require an arc detecting type of circuit interruptor. If an appliance has a minute electric arc due to some malfunction, the circuit shuts down.

Long shot, a 120V electric drill with arcing motor brushes (most of them do) might have tripped the breaker.

Let us know what you find.

Nate · Mar 20, 2009

Snowizard said:
Long shot, a 120V electric drill with arcing motor brushes (most of them do) might have tripped the breaker.

Let us know what you find.

x2, Wound rotor motor's do create a bit of resistance and COULD pop a GFI but its more than un-likely. If it were something like a pony motor then id say that's your prob but the drill is a long shot.

And who's to say its even your house?!?! Could have lost a leg on the transformer dropping 1 side giving you abnormal voltage or it could be a line problem. But id check all the service points

Thats about all the free advice I can give you

After this i'm gonna have to start charging you $173/hr

JohnnyQuestUtah · Mar 20, 2009

Call your power company, tell them you have "half power",

its free and the troubleshooter should help ya out-

peace out-

johnny

.

snowmobiler · Mar 20, 2009

tried switching wires to different breakers.and its still one side of the house dead and one side live

snowmobiler · Mar 20, 2009

got power on.thanks everybody.saved some big bucks today not having to hire nate at $173 an hour.

went down and bought a greenlee voltage detector $14,looks like a sharpie.and started testing outlets.figured out the powered side of the house only the right side of the outlets were hot and on the no power side,both sides of the outlets were hot.so i pulled the first outlet out of the wall that had 2 hot sides and it was baked,burnt,wires were loose.

niner49 · Mar 20, 2009

What's a "double Wide"

Mafesto · Mar 20, 2009

niner49 said:
What's a "double Wide"

A good ol' corn fed Iowa girl.

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