[kingtosh82]

Hey everyone,

I'm a newbie, so please be gentle. I was hoping to get some advice with a couple of electrical problems I've been having.

I bought a house (bungalow) last summer. The house was originally built in 1951, and the electrical panel was upgraded to 100A sometime in the 80s (I think). The majority of the outlets in the house are all 3-prong grounded, but there were still a couple of non-grounded outlets in one of the rooms on the main floor.

Issue #1

When I bought the house, it came with the fridge the previous owners had. I purchased a new fridge for my kitchen upstairs, and put the one that came with the house in a room in the basement. It ran fine for several months. One day, my wife went to get something from the basement fridge and noticed that the light didn't come on, and it appeared to not be working. I tested 3 out of the 5 outlets in the room with an extension cord I have (when plugged in, an LED light comes on indicating that it's connected to an electrical source). When I tested a few of the outlets with my extension cord, the light didn't come on, so I know that the outlets are not working. I checked online and some sites suggested that dead outlets indicate that the breaker could be tripped, or a fuse could be blown. All the breakers seems to be on... I'm not sure how to check to see if something is on or broken (sorry for my ignorance).

Issue #2

I'm not sure if this issue happened around the same time as issue #1, or maybe they could even be related in some way... For some reason, it seems as though my furnace turns off at random times. I have come home from work a couple of times to find a cold house since the furnace wasn't running during the day. The furnace has this separate external on/off breaker switch. I usually just turn the switch off, then back on again. Once I do that, the furnace powers up and starts heating the house again. At first I thought that my issue was with the furnace, but now I feel that the issue is electrical. Why would this issue be happening? I have my thermostat set to 69F at night, and 71F during the day/weekends. The on/off issue with the furnace happens at random times - sometimes during the night, sometimes when I'm at work.

I'm really hoping that these issues have easy fixes, or at the very worst, if an electrician has to come fix something, I really hope it's not more than a couple hundred dollars.

Here's a picture of my electrical panel (not sure if it would be any help): https://www.dropbox.com/s/jqfk8ijfci...93954.jpg?dl=0

Any help or advice that you could give would be GREATLY appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[Msradell]

There are many possible causes for both of your problems although I highly doubt they are both being caused by the same problem.

For the first problem you first need to determine if all of the outlets are not working are on the same circuit and if there are other ones that are working on that circuit. If that's the case then you have a bad connection in one of the boxes where the outlets are located. I'm guessing they are quite possibly "Backstabbed" connections which are known to fail.

The furnace problem sounds like it's tripping out for high temperature or some other fault. By turning it off and then back on again you are resetting the fault. If you can see the control board there may be some LED lights on that will help you troubleshoot the problem.

 

[user_12345a]

A furnace can lock out without an electrical problem. post over in the hvac forum to get help with that.
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Edit: oh wait, before you proceed, check for tripped GFCIs, - push the test and reset button on each gfci in the house. They interrupt power downstream.

You'll find gfci plugs in kitchens, bathrooms, anywhere where there's exposure to moisture/water.

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For the outlets you need to use a plug tester to see what's going on.

Plugs in, has three lights, tells u what's wrong -> very cheap at any hardware store.

You could have loose/bad connections (especially with there's some improper aluminum to copper connections) or another issue.

You could have an outlet that has hot but a disconnected neutral, also outlets without a ground in spite of having the third prong slot.

Generally procedure would be to identify which circuit the bad outlets are on, see if some work and some don't. If all of them don't work I would be checking for voltage in the panel at the breaker with it on. (dangerous working with live panel)

If some work and not others, with the right breaker off you would have to open every plug, switch and junction on the circuit, check all the connections.

Electrical is daisy-chained and any break any where will cause issues.

Potentially dangerous and if you don't know what you're doing with electrical you would be better off calling an electrician.

In a 1950s house you may very well have questionable electrical -> old circuits grandfathered with a circuit breaker, grounded outlets. Illegal splices hidden in walls and ceilings, aluminum to copper connections if someone did electrical work in the 1970s.

Everything can look rosy on the surface; home inspections mean nothing -> the crap work is hidden behind the walls and as u saw if u got an inspection they pretty much have to waive any liability to sign the agreement.

 

[dmxtothemax]

Both issue's seem to indicate a loose/[poor connection.
a high resistance connection.
under small loads (led) very little loss so appears ok.
but under heavy loads much loss and things don't work properly.
one could be one responsible for both ?
Or could be several.
Sounds like a job for an electrician.
As could lead to a fire.

 

[kingtosh82]

If I did call an electrician, would someone be able to give me a ballpark estimate of how much it would cost for them to come out to diagnose the issues and repair them?

 

[jimn]

We generally don't discuss pricing as one, this is DIY, two there are too many variables, like where you love, demand, etc. generally when I have work down on my house I get three estimates. I evaluate the references and choose. Unfortunately with diagnostics it is rarely this simple. A electrician has a pretty good idea of how long it will take them to change out a service panel for example and can give a fairly firm quote. Troubleshooting is another story. In my neck of the woods electricians are between 100 and 200 US dollars per hour or portion of.

I agree, your furnace issue is probably unrelated. I hope that second fridge is really useful. They consume a lot of electricity and if you are on a tight budget, you should probably ditch it. But you still need to fix the electrical, it may be nuisance but it could also be a fire hazard.

 

[user_12345a]

^They can. new ones not so bad, but usually people take the old one and keep it as a second fridge, needlessly burning up an extra 1000+ kwh per year.

 

[Tom738]

A second fridge may be useful if (1) you purchase large quantities of something on-sale, (2) you garden, or (3) you have space and want a backup. But you may also just want to sell. Anyway...

On the electric side, troubleshooting can be frustrating and we have no idea your level of accident-proneness, so especially for the non-HVAC troubleshooting you may be better hiring out. But basic electric skill can sometimes be useful for a homeowner.

Electric can easily kill people or burn down a house, so if you do decide to tackle it yourself, learn a LOT more than it feels like you need to at first, and be MUCH more careful than it seems like you need to be. Safety first, second, and third, and everything you do should be with a belt-and-suspenders approach. This means it takes you a lot of time to learn how to do it, and you may be better off hiring it out.

I am risk-averse by nature, but would not even consider letting anyone touch a circuit until they understood (1) the two hots, neutral, and ground in residential wiring; (2) that light switches don't necessarily cut all power; (3) how to use a circuit breaker; (4) how to test and use a non-contact voltage detector; (5) that bad connections cause fires; (6) that the code is not optional; and probably a few other things I'm not thinking of.

 

[user_12345a]

Electrical theory and some working knowledge is very good to have and can save you lots of $$$$ on professional repairs. (not only on home wiring but the theory extends to all appliances)

 

[kingtosh82]

FYI... it's a newer fridge. (4 years old I think... Kenmore). According to the Energy Guide, it only costs about $45 per year. I use it for more storage, and I buy a lot of things in bulk. I also entertain frequently and it comes in really handy.

As for my electrical issue, I think it's way beyond what I'm willing to tackle on my own. I'm just hoping that the total cost to fix the issue is no more than $300. As long as my outlets can be fixed and I can plug my fridge back, and my house doesn't burn down, that cost is definitely worth it.

Thanks to everyone for their suggestions and help. It was very much appreciated.