Before you call for emergency electrical repairs…

Sometimes, it’s a burned lightbulb. Or a tripped breaker.

Systematic exploration with a few tips from a pro can help you avoid the cost and embarrassment of paying for emergency electrical repairs that amount to a breaker reset or fixture lamp change. And, if you want to get ankle deep in electrical troubleshooting before calling a professional, head on over to the excellent resource devoted to homeowner guidance, The Circuit Detective.

Circuit outage:

1. What activity was going on when the circuit stopped working? If you did not witness the moment of circuit failure, then when was the last time anyone in your household remembers it to have certainly been operating (go back as far as needed to be CERTAIN)? Has any construction activity been going on between last certain normal operation, and the failure?
2. What else has failed? Identifying the full extent of the problem can give you an essential clue that makes a solution obvious and easy, or at the least will ensure that your electrician making a service call will know the extent of problems that need fixing. A single circuit may serve locations on different floors, and usually when one part of a circuit goes out, other parts go out, too.
3. Are you sure you have replaced the lamp with a known good lamp? Miscommunication among members of the household, or replacing one bad lamp with another bad have been recurring themes in some of my easiest service calls. In a case like this, you may wind up paying $85 for me to drive to your building and do paperwork to collect the $85 and pay taxes on it. That is, you may wind up paying the overhead for a ‘service call’ visit, without hardly receiving any real service.
4. Is GFCI protection involved? GFCI receptacles may be inserted into a circuit, protecting ‘downstream’ loads, and tripping if they detect a ground-fault at the downstream location — possibly in another room or even on another floor. GFCI’s may be reset by pushing a button on the face of the device. If a GFCI won’t reset, it may be because a) the circuit has no power (breaker tripped?), b) there is a continuing ground fault in the circuit, or c) the GFCI device has failed. GFCI’s age and fail at a higher rate than circuit breakers, and are subject to more everyday wear-and-tear. Installed outdoors, they should be weather-resistant type (WR), but a majority of installations are not. GFCI’s consume some power in monitoring the circuit for faults, and they generate heat that may attract roaches, which can gum up the works inside. The most common place for GFCI’s is in a kitchen, where the GFCI device and other receptacles protected by it may be all within sight of each other. However, GFCI’s may protect loads in a whole other building, such as a detached garage. Bathroom GFCI’s often protect the lighting and/or exhaust fan circuit. If you never use the receptacle, you may not think to reset it in order to restore lighting — especially if it’s behind a mirror. A GFCI located in a basement or garage may protect kitchen loads, outdoor loads, or anywhere in the building.
5. Are you sure you have reset the breaker? The mechanical position of a breakers’ handle does not necessarily correspond to its electrical state (OFF / ON / TRIPPED). Start by looking for tripped breakers. Most will trip to a mid-way position, but breakers may trip without indicating, especially as they get older. Once you identify a tripped breaker, TURN IT OFF, then ON. For safety reasons, breakers do not reset with a single action. They must be turned off to clear the latched fault condition. Older breakers may seem to move to and stay in the on position without first being reset, but the electrical circuit contacts inside the breaker will not close (turn on) without first resetting a tripped breaker by turning it off (if a breaker resets without being turned first off, then it should be replaced).
6. Don’t see a tripped breaker? If you can’t see a tripped breaker, and your breaker labels don’t clearly indicate which breaker operates the disabled circuit, then your next option is to reset every breaker in your building (excluding any “Main” breaker = a breaker that disconnects all the others from power). By doing so, you will either clear the fault, or re-activate it (in case of re-activating, you may hear a loud or a soft pop or thud, or the breaker handle may simply not latch in the on position. Ideally, if you are resetting multiple breakers, you should use a buddy to help identify the specific breaker that fixes the problem when it comes back on. This breaker should be labeled (all breakers should be labeled) and then monitored for subsequent tripping activity, and you should contact an electrician for repairs if any breaker trips more than once per year. Such a breaker may be fatigued, or the circuit may be overloaded, or there may be an intermittent fault in the circuit, all of which are problems that you should address with the help of a professional. Whether you have circuit trouble or not, you should consider mapping your breaker panel to facilitate future breaker resetting, service calls by electricians, or renovations/remodeling in your home. A map may also give you information necessary to shift loads within your building to avoid overloading a particular troubled circuit, rather than spend money on new circuits you don’t really need.
7. Success? The troubleshooting isn’t over, yet. Why did the lamp burn out? Why did the GFCI or breaker trip? You should note the date of the failure, the steps taken to clear it up, and anything else that occurs to you about recent events in the building. If the problem recurs, you will want reliable information about its history. If a GFCI or breaker trips more than once per year, you should reduce load on the circuit, identify faulty equipment that is connected, and/or consult a professional.

Troubleshooting tips haven’t helped?

Contact Robert Monk for electrical emergency/troubleshooting service.

See also:

• Learning to live with old electrical wiring in Philadelphia homes
• Troubleshooting dusk-til-dawn floodlights
• Why do squirrels chew? And what to do about it
• The Circuit Detective