At first I thought it was an outage, but it’s a calm, sunny day. Then I heard the washing machine running. Must be a fuse. Only, then the power came back on. If a fuse burns out, it doesn’t grow another filament. I checked the fuses to the affected rooms, and they are all good and screwed in tight.
Any ideas what happened?
Alien spacecraft flying over.
nvm
If power only went out to part of your house, and not the other, it could be that one of the connections from the line to your meter is loose. This can sometimes show up during high winds, as the wire whips and sways and one of the 120V lines pulls loose from inside the meter. If this is the case, this is dangerous, should be fixed immediately, but the electric company will (almost always) fix it for free, IME.
It’s said the lights dim on Death Row when the switch is thrown on Ol’ Sparky.
Check your roomie.
Una: I called the power company. They took a report and asked me to do a ‘broiler test’ if the power goes out again. This involves turning on the broiler. If it doesn’t heat, then it’s their problem and probably what you suggested.
VernWinterbottom: No worries. The black helicopters keep them away.
If all of the power goes it, it could be the power company’s side of things, even on a clear day. Sometimes stuff just happens. A squirrel can short a line out, for example (which usually doesn’t end well for the squirrel). A transformer can wear out and blow up. There are all kinds of faults that can happen, and all sorts of automatic switching things that can turn the power back on in a couple of seconds. Your typical fault recloser tries a couple of times to restore power fairly quickly (within a couple of seconds) then tries one last time a couple of minutes later, then gives up. Most intermittent faults clear up on their own within that amount of time.
If only part of the power goes out in your home, that is a much worse thing. That means you’ve lost one of the two line voltages and usually indicates a very dangerous problem somewhere inside the house (though it could be anywhere from the transformer on in). Intermittent faults mean a bad connection and those are the worst, because a poor connection forces the current through a much smaller area of good metal contact, which makes that area heat up. This is what causes fires and burns your house down.
If you lost power to only part of the house, I would call an electrician ASAP. This is a serious house burning down type of issue.
If you lost power to the whole house, I would still keep an eye on it. If you continue to have problems have it checked out by the power company or an electrician.
You could also have a problem inside the meter box or in the wiring between the meter and the breaker box. In my area, the power company owns the meter and the lines outside of it, but you own the meter box and everything inside of it. When the connector wore out inside the meter box, I had to pay for it.
How long was it out? I think that most glitches are caused by the utility company switching feeds to the neighborhood, or whatever area the switching station supplies.
The first time it was out for maybe 20 seconds. The second time was only a few seconds.
The PSE guy just left. Nothing wrong at the meter. He checked two poles (upon one of which a squirrel was zapped last year, and power went out to a few houses), and replaced old connectors on one or both of them. He also trimmed some branches from the cedar by the pole that has the lines coming to the house. He said if it happens again, to call the power company and they’ll put a recorder on the meter.