This morning, as happens on a moderately regular basis (maybe every couple of months), I woke up to a blank clock-face, having had a power surge in the house.
No biggie - just a matter of going and flipping the switch in the fuse-box, and then we’re good to go till the next time, whenever that is.
But it made me realise - there is a pattern to these power-outs, and I don’t quite understand it.
The way my clock works, there is a small residual power source of some kind - not sure why, TBH, but I’ve noticed that when I switch the power back on, the clock remembers what time it was when it went off. Which means that even if I was asleep when the powerout happened, I can always tell how long ago it was, by how far behind my clock is when I switch on again.
The pattern is - the powerouts generally happen in the mornings, between about 6 and 7. That’s earlier than anyone in the house gets up (specially now - still on school holidays). So it’s not like it’s caused by someone switching a device on. There are no appliances of any sort timed to come on in the morning in our house either.
So why is it that when the power goes out in our house, it’s always at the same sort of time? Is there a reason, or just pure blind chance?
It could be chance, but it probably isn’t. Are you sure you don’t have any big appliances that come on in the morning? A heating/cooling system? Water heater? Well pump? Really big coffee maker?
I’d be surprised if a major appliance is cutting the power to the entire house. Personally, I’d call the local utility and have them come out and investigate. I wouldn’t be surprised if your neighbors are having the same problem. My WAG is that your transformer or local substation is wired in with a local business and they’re spinning something up causing a brownout in your house. But that would be odd. Could just be something weather (temperature or humidity (or dew) related shorting something out). Come to think of it, that’s probably more likely the case. Call them today, tell them you’ve lost power (not a surge, unless you had a blown breaker) X times in the last Y months and ask for someone to come out and look at it. Then, from this day forward, each time you notice that it’s happened call them to report an outage.
Like I said, if everything in your house is going out, it’s most likely a problem with the local substation or transformer serving your house. There’s a very, very, very small chance of you having a faulty main breaker, bad circuit breaker panel or degraded wiring between the meter and the panel, but that’s highly unlikely. The later would have to be checked by them anyways.
Also, if you’re friendly terms with your neighbors, you could ask if it’s happened to them as well. Ask both of your neighbors as people to one side may not use the same transformer as people on the other side. Unless, of course, you have above ground wiring and can see who uses your transformer, then ask them.
Asking the neighbours is a good idea - think I’ll go do that this evening.
We had another one this morning: 7:24 am, I was the only one up, browsing the dope. Definitely no appliances coming on - the hot water is gas, and that and the breadmaker (definitely not on) are the only ‘timed’ appliances in the house
When you say “flipping the switch in the fuse box”, do you just have to turn something on, or off and then on again? Is it one of the smaller branch circuit breakers or the big one (normally labeled “Main”)?
Turn on currents, and electric motor turn off spikes.
If there is a small drop out in supply, Your devices in your house suck a bit more current the moment the voltage is back… so thats a bit like a turn on current there…
But what happens elsewhere ? A factory or building with big electric motor can make both drop outs, from inrush current (capacitance charging), and voltage spikes from turn off (inductors discharging… look that up if you are not familiar… )… even just an office block can make drop outs from charging the capacitance in its lighting.
So the coincidence of the large turn on currents and then the voltage spike can be because the drop out can trigger a device to turn off… so the supply to your house has
a drop out, followed up by a voltage spike, and that voltage spike is arriving at the same time as your devices are sucking turn on current … and the high current then trips your circuit breaker…
net cause… coincidence of turn ons and offs of various large electric motors or office block lighting in your mains distribution area.
I had something similar - the previous owner had installed supplemental electric heat in an old house. It started that once in a while (about once a month) that tripped the main breaker to the whole house. Then it got more frequent, until I couldn’t use the electric heat (3500W IIRC).
Eventually, it got so the dryer or the stove would trip the main breaker. I called an electrician about replacing the main breaker switch. he looked at it and said, the panel is so old you can’t buy those any more. However, on closer inspection, he determined the cause was a loose connection. The cable into the panel had come loose, most likely deformed over time. The screws holding it to the main breaker (both main wires) were loose enough that with the power off he could move the cable a bit by hand.
So I would suggest check for loose connections - poor connections can overheat, perhaps cause the breaker to trip.
So fortunately I did not need a new main breaker, which would have meant a new main panel.
It’s a smaller switch, labelled ‘residual current device’ - just controls the power outlets, the lighting is unaffected. After the power goes, I just have to go and flick it back on again.
I do remember on other occasions, when the circuit breaker triggered in our last house in a similar way, we had to go round all the appliances switching them off in turn until we found the faulty one - otherwise you simply couldn’t flick the switch, it would go straight back to ‘off’ until the offending appliance was out of the loop. That’s not the case here - there doesn’t seem to be any sort of fault in our electrics that we’ve been able to identify, and the problem is just a one-time thing… till the next time.
Anyway, we asked both the neighbors, and they said they get nothing like it.
We had a landlord inspection today, and like a doofus I forgot to mention it to them :smack:
But maybe it’s better to ask the power company what to do first, before asking the landlords to send an electrician?
In the US and Canada, that is known as a “Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter (GFCI)”. It probably has a “Test” button as well as the on-off lever.
Tripping that indicates that it has detected an imbalance in the power sent out via the “hot” conductor and returning via the “neutral” conductor. Generally, this involves part of the power returning via the ground conductor, hence the term “ground fault”.
These devices can be prone to “nuisance trips”, either due to a problem within the device or due to something plugged into the circuit. Particularly long cable runs, inductive loads, etc. are common causes. It is possible yours is overly sensitive, but before you (or your landlord) go through the expense of having an electrician replace it, try unplugging most of the devices from receptacles powered by it and see if you can go a few days without it tripping. If it doesn’t trip, plug in one or two devices, wait a day or two to see if it begins tripping again, and repeat until you find the problem device. You can then investigate why the problem device is causing the issue, or move it to a different circuit.
It may be as simple as replacing that switch, but it may also have a external factor that is tripping a oversensitive switch. At one time I lived in a residential area bordered buy a light industrial one. During the work day lights would periodically dim, not often, but it was noticeable. The house was old and didn’t have GFI outlets so I don’t know how they would be affected.