OT - household electrician in the house?

It's Thanksgiving II here today. Family is too large for our small place so
we do it in shifts.

Anywho, more lights are on and a section of the house circuit went out. No
fuses were blown. Yes, I triple-checked, changed, reseated. No good. Then I
pulled the big 'bar' fuse box (two big ass fuses) and reseated it and
everything came back. I saw no corrosion.

WTF? My mate is worried. When she's worried, I get worried.

Any clues? (FWIW, when I bought this house four years ago it passed the VA
inspection, so ... dunno ... they are usually strident about code.)

jjs wrote:
> It's Thanksgiving II here today. Family is too large for our small place so
> we do it in shifts.
>
> Anywho, more lights are on and a section of the house circuit went out. No
> fuses were blown. Yes, I triple-checked, changed, reseated. No good. Then I
> pulled the big 'bar' fuse box (two big ass fuses) and reseated it and
> everything came back. I saw no corrosion.
>
> WTF? My mate is worried. When she's worried, I get worried.
>
> Any clues? (FWIW, when I bought this house four years ago it passed the VA
> inspection, so ... dunno ... they are usually strident about code.)
>
Those Main fuse holders stab into copper blades. Originally they
had a lot of spring tension to them, but over time heat causes them
to lose their temper. That results in a higher resistance connection
and *more* heat and on and on...

Get it looked at real soon. The house inspection wouldn't necessarily
spot it and there is no reason to suggest it wasn't built to code
at the time.

I would begin with a call to the utility; often they will check
complaints like this and open live compartments that you don't want
to get into. Some localities they will even fix stuff; at the very
least they will advise you what to do.

Speedy Jim
http://www.nls.net/mp/volks/

As an electrician myself I will give you my .02, but another there is another
sparky around that posts on sometimes and his name is Bob. I recommend having
it looked at it by a professional electrician. What Jim told you about heat is
common in those style of fuses. I'm with Jim though, I have seen those fuse
holders become so loose that it wouldn't hold a fuse any longer. Hope this
helps. I recommend having the panel upgraded to the breaker style panel which
is a better and safer design.


Jeremie
1972 SB
http://members.aol.com/vdubbeetle1972/main.html

"Speedy Jim" > wrote in message
...

> Those Main fuse holders stab into copper blades. Originally they
> had a lot of spring tension to them, but over time heat causes them
> to lose their temper. That results in a higher resistance connection
> and *more* heat and on and on...

Interesting. One set was a little warm to the touch.

> Get it looked at real soon.

That's all I need to hear, Jim. Deeply appreciated. I owe you. I will call
the utility company first.

"VdubBeetle1972" > wrote in message
...
> As an electrician myself I will give you my .02, but another there is
> another
> sparky around that posts on sometimes and his name is Bob. I recommend
> having
> it looked at it by a professional electrician. What Jim told you about
> heat is
> common in those style of fuses. I'm with Jim though, I have seen those
> fuse
> holders become so loose that it wouldn't hold a fuse any longer. Hope
> this
> helps. I recommend having the panel upgraded to the breaker style panel
> which
> is a better and safer design.

It's funny, but this system is breakers _and_ fuses. Maybe the PO did a
half-job. Thanks for the second on Jim's tip. I'm calling the
professionals tomorrow.

On Sun, 28 Nov 2004 10:57:50 -0600, "jjs" > wrote:

>It's Thanksgiving II here today. Family is too large for our small place so
>we do it in shifts.
>
>Anywho, more lights are on and a section of the house circuit went out. No
>fuses were blown. Yes, I triple-checked, changed, reseated. No good. Then I
>pulled the big 'bar' fuse box (two big ass fuses) and reseated it and
>everything came back. I saw no corrosion.
>
>WTF? My mate is worried. When she's worried, I get worried.
>
>Any clues? (FWIW, when I bought this house four years ago it passed the VA
>inspection, so ... dunno ... they are usually strident about code.)
>

I'd pull the fuses and then lick the contacts to get them wet so that
they help to conduct better. Just make sure your tongue touches both
of the contact points at the same time.
That should work for sure. :-)
Disclaimer: This "advice" was a joke. Note smiley face.

---

I cannot conceive of a personal God who would directly influence
the actions of individuals, or would directly sit in judgment on
creatures of his own creation. - Albert Einstein

I had this same/similar senario about a year ago. The original 120 amp
fuse panel in my house had another circuit breaker panel added to it
by the previous owner. Everything worked fine when we bought
the house. However, twelve years later and with more appliances
running, we nearly had a disaster. One evening some of our lights
started flickering strangely. I went to the basement and I
could smell something hot. It was coming from the fuse panel.
I slipped my fingers into the T-handled main fuse puller and
it was hot. I could see that the blades were discolored
from the heat. I cleaned them up and found something
insulated to try and push on the contacts in the box
to tighten them up. It didn't help much. I pulled the cover
on the box and found that the screw terminals on the main cable
coming in to the fuse panel were also loose and the wires had
crystalized. I turned off everything I could and it would
not cool down. By next morning it was smoking with just a
refrigerator and freezer running occasionally. I called
every electric shop in town first thing in the morning
and couldn't find anyone to come look at it until
afternoon. They twisted and tightened to no avail. The next
morning two guys came out and ripped out my electrical service
all the way to the main cables, meter and all. Best $900 I ever
spent.(invested) I hope yours isn't as bad but you can see
where it could be going.

>>>Mike

Befo
http://home.earthlink.net/~mfkoch/Before.jpg

During:
http://home.earthlink.net/~mfkoch/During.jpg

Fried:
http://home.earthlink.net/~mfkoch/Fried.jpg

Thomas Malmevik > wrote in message news:<Pine.A41.4.61b.0411291143360.176694@aagaard0 3.u.washington.edu>...
> On Sun, 28 Nov 2004, jjs wrote:
>
> > It's Thanksgiving II here today. Family is too large for our small place so
> > we do it in shifts.
> >
> > Anywho, more lights are

<<snip>>

If you have overhead power coming in have sparky check the leads at
the weather head while he's there.

John