I live in an older house that was split into 4 units in Calgary, Alberta Canada and I rent. I have had a problem with this one outlet before in my place in which I phoned the landlord to get somebody to fix it; she did. But, another outlet has blown in a different location, in which case it blew and melted the outlet and casing. I ended up not phoning when this one happened due to the fact of the riga-moroll it took to get her to fix the initial one. Now, just last night the outlet that she supposedly got the guy to fix was melting and smoldering but nothing was plugged into it. I had a friend over and both me and him could smell it but no sign of the meltdown until after. How is this possible? Should I be quite worried of fire? I have 2 pics but dont know how to attach them here. Any suggestions will help, thank you.
Calling the fire department for something that is not really burning is a crime. All he has to do is contact the landlord and let him decide how it will be fixed.
It sucks because I really love this space..it's old, the architecture is funky and as an artist it doubles as my studio space...so it would be sweet if they could rewire all...
That's dangerous, obviously. It's especially troublesome that it does this while nothing is plugged into it (although I think I know why). Landlord can choose: electrician RIGHT NOW (24-hour on-call service) or fire department and hotel for you at the landlord's expense.
Something is very, very wrong for this to have happened.
Are you sure there was not some form of a space heater plugged in when this happened.
If there was nothing pluged in then this is really bad.
There is a space heater plugged in but in a totally different outlet. The place only has one heat control and it's in the unit upstairs so I am forced to use a space heater.
Yeah. The other outlet is fed through the burning one, so the space heater is causing the problem. Ironically it might be better to plug the heater into the burning outlet!
Space heaters are the bane of any electrical circuit. They HIGHLY stress EVERY connection and splice from the point of power all the way back to the panel.
Think of it like having 90mph rated tires on your car. Every time you run the space heater it's like you are either stopped, or going a full 90 miles an hour.
But this is something the landlord needs to fix right? And should I be looking at different space heaters or it just comes down to old wiring or heavy draws from heater..thanks to everyone's suggestions and help..appreciate it as kinda worried, have no fire insurance and am an artist with equipment, tools and material etc.
And should I be looking at different space heaters or it just comes down to old wiring or heavy draws from heater..thanks to everyone's suggestions and help..appreciate it as kinda worried, have no fire insurance and am an artist with equipment, tools and material etc.
It's likely a combination of things, old wiring and heavy draws are a part of it. There may be some bad connections elsewhere too, such as at the other outlets.
If your having that much difficulty getting issues repaired promptly, In this particular case, I would immediately call 3-1-1 and have them direct you to the Calgary Office of Fire Marshal. They are responsible for enforcing the code, and a call from them to your landlord will probably scare her enough to act immediately. In addition, they will follow up to ensure compliance! Don't feel bad, you pay money to reside in a safe dwelling, and its the landlords responsibility to ensure your safety while living there. So don't wait, make things happen now, before something tragic happens.
My experience was that the wiring was too light to support a heavy draw (for you, the heater, my case an air conditioner).
As wire heats very high, plastic coating around copper gets brittle, starts to melt. Copper then corrodes and builds up a black insulation on itself and resistance rises to the point where you are passing a lot of current through the equivalent of a very small wire which causes great amount of heat. And melting. And maybe worse.
Wiring from the breaker panel is daisy chained from one receptacle to the next.
There was a loose or corroded connection at the receptacle that had the meltdown.
Loose connections offer resistance to electrical current. When electricity encounters resistance, heat is generated. The more amperes drawn the hotter it gets. You can get the meltdown that is pictured up above before enough amperes are drawn to trip the breaker.
I didn't see the pictures earlier as you hadn't posted them.
There is VERY likely damage to the wiring at that receptacle which MAY require the walls to be opened up to repair. This is no insignificant event, the landlord MUST ACT NOW to repair this properly.
If I knew the address i would personally call 311 and get you out of there until it is fixed at your landlords expense...that looks really scary and is a fire waiting to happen...good luck....this coming from an electrician, who lives in calgary and also is a landlord
No telling what may be going on with the electrical system, except it's clearly
inadequate and the place should never have been put out to let. This is
typical slumlord stuff. For all we know, other tenants are plugging in their
electric heaters to this same circuit.
AllenJ has it, nail on the head, if you want to deal with this on your own then get to panel shut down circuit, remove bad outlet if wires are long enough then cut and strip clean section and wire back to new but not cheap 29 cent outlet. then only use space heater that is not like a toaster. Slow heat oil filled first setting only 500watts.
The lengths of wires are probably okay between the outlet boxes. But you would want to inspect the wires inside the box to find out how far towards the back of the box the insulation of each wire got melted.
The lengths of wires are probably okay between the outlet boxes. But you would want to inspect the wires inside the box to find out how far towards the back of the box the insulation of each wire got melted.
So, if I get it, if a receptacle has both screw connections and the quicker hole inserts, instead of pigtailing with capscrews, using both methods to continue run to next receptacle. And, if the pushed in wire becomes lose, there's the high resistance?
The landlord is having a guy come tonight at 8:30 so probably one of those 24 hr guys..hopefully he finds whats up and fixes all...thanks again for everyone's comments, suggestions and insights...much appreciated.
Please let us know what the cause was when they find it. I would say backstabbed too because we have been replacing our receptacles in our home with new Pass & Seymour with screw only because all the old ones were the cheap back stabbed only receptacles.http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=...=5EDD__CnPoYChFCgkw1wgw&bvm=bv.41248874,d.dmQ
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