Need Help! Lost power to half of house

meganlaney

This morning I woke up to discover that all of the power on the lower level of our house (it's a bi-level house) was not working. We checked the breaker, but the breaker was still on. One of the lights in the basement worked, but the rest didn't. After about 10 minutes, the power came back on but only at about half power - the microwave was beeping non-stop, as if it was turning on and off. I turned the lights on, and they were extremely dim. This power came on and off a few more times. Everything that was affected includes the lights, oven, stove, microwave, tv, and furnace. Upstairs power worked fine. We turned the breakers for everything downstairs off before we left for work. Can anyone give me an idea of what caused this and/or how to fix it?

gregzoll

Loose neutral outside.

HouseHelper

Loose or corroded hot leg connection or bad main breaker. Could be at main panel, meter, or transformer. Call the utility company first to rule out anything on their side.

Not a loose neutral, that would cause dimming and brightening of lights.

__________________
"Life is hard. Life is harder when you're stupid." John Wayne

PIGEONS

had the very same thing happen, yes, more than likely a loose
wire connection, our problem was at the three wires that drop down
from the power ( utility Co . ) pole, one of the Hot wires had a loose
connection, we only figured it out when we saw it sparking.
And, yes, sometimes it would make connection and all was O K until
it got moved again by the wind. In our case we called out the Utility Co.
and a Guy climbed up and fixed,
Of course you may have the loose wire in your Electrical Box, loose in
a terminal Lug, if so, then not quite so easy, have to determine which
terminal is the culprit, hot wire or Neutral wire ?
PIGEONS