Any Electricians Out There?

[DaMuleRules]

I've been dealing with a power issue in my house that has me confounded.

My wife called me this evening asking if I could come home early because the electricity in our kitchen was out - no problem right? Must just be a circuit breaker. I walk her through checking the circuit breakers. None are tripped and resetting the ones to the kitchen has no effect. During the phone conversation it turns out that as my wife is checking circuit breakers and power around the house, certain areas are without power while others are fine.

So I come home because this is clearly more involved. She calls me on the way to say that the power to the kitchen is now fine, except the lights are fading in and out. Great. I get home and discover that half the exterior Xmas lights are out. I think it's just the timer they are on being in the off position. Nope. The GFI outlet they are plugged into has no power, nor will the outlet reset when the reset button is pressed.

I walk in the house and literally as I do, the kitchen power is completely dead again, while most of the rest of the house is fine. I do my own check of the circuit breakers and all seems fine, but half the house is without power and half the GFI outlets are off and not resettable. I call our electrician. He says that he is backed up for off hours emergency visits and it is likely a DWP issue - it's not uncommon for there to be a partial power outage to the home off there is a power company issue. He says he could have a crew come out later in the night, but it's be four times the money of a regular visit and I should check with my neighbors and DWP to see if it's a neighborhood issue. My two neighbors are not having the issue. The DWP automated system would only take a serve request, but I couldn't talk to a person.

The power in the kitchen returned for a few minutes in the meantime, but has since been out (and it;s HALF the kitchen - some lights and appliances work, some do not).

I've done some Googling and this sounds like it is an "out of phase" situation - there is some kind of compromise in the two different 120 power feeds to the house. Some info says this is a power company issue. Some say this could be an issue at the house. Some say this could be a dangerous issue that leads to a short that could cause a fire . . .

So anyone out there versed in this kind of thing? Everything seems fine in 75% of the house. But the refrigerator and some lights don't work.

DWP can't check for four plus hours and I'm not sure they if they will check my immediate area or my house specifically. The Electrican's can come in the middle of the night, but it is going to be costly and they don't think it is a power box issue because it sounds like a DWP issue.

Should I be concerned, or should I just wait it out until I can get the electricians in and DWP to check it out?
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Man, do those lyrics resonate right now

[Huey Lewis & The News]

copied & pasted your post to /r/DIY and /r/homeimprovement and a few people have responded

good luck, dude!

https://www.reddit.com/r/HomeImprovement/comments/5mj5d0/please_help_partial_power_outages_in_my_home/

https://www.reddit.com/r/DIY/comments/5mj1s0/please_help_partial_power_outages_in_my_home/
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[lakerjoshua]

I like this answer the best

[DaMuleRules]

[LarryCoon]

Glad it's solved. I just had an issue that was reminiscent of yours -- outlets were out in two bathrooms. All other outlets in the house were fine, and lights & other electricity in those bathrooms were fine too. I was sure it was a GFCI issue, but none of the resets helped, and the circuit breakers were all fine. My neighbor is a contractor, he sent over his electrician (for free, so he didn't get too far into it), who took a look, couldn't' find the problem, and said there must be another GFCI in the house, hidden somewhere, that needs to be reset. There isn't. Called another electrician, this time at full price. He found the problem -- it was a wire to the GFCI in my daughter's bathroom that had come loose and was arcing-- fixed it, and "modernized" the GFCI so that every GFCI outlet in the house has its own reset.

[LakersRGolden]

gfci's are a pain in the arse. The one to my upstairs bathroom is in my garage. Nowhere near anything else. Took me 3 days to find it the first time it popped.

I wish there was a central place for them.

[LarryCoon]

The new standard is to have reset buttons on all of them. That's the way my house is now.

[cathy78]

[ExPatLkrFan]