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I sincerely doubt this is caused by an AC ground problem.

A licensed electrician should be called in to make good and sure that the Line and Neutral are not reversed somewhere in the home wiring, or worse, a Shared Neutral...


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I think it can also be a load balancing issue.

This means that for the load on one side of the neutral, there should be close to the same load on the other side.


John Conley
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Know what else is weird/interesting? The way this neighborhood is wired, I have had times when there was in issue on a pole on my street and only HALF of my house was out. Apparently this street is fed from 2 sources from 2 different streets, because while the outlets in the living room and 2 bedrooms were dead, the kitchen, 2 bedrooms and bathroom had power. Strange, eh? Neighbors had the same condition. Half the house was live, half the house was dead.

#116614 06/15/11 11:13 AM
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That sounds wrong. It sounds more like you lost a phase.

However, if all the houses do that, maybe you live in a development where they were intentionally wired this way, and you have two power meters.

I would contact the power company.


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I talked to the guys when they were working on the problem. He explained that one 110v leg came from one transformer and the second 110v leg came from another, on the next block. Nobody could explain WHY, and most people don't even believe that this condition existed, but the living room was dead, thus the power strip that feeds the TV and Direct TV box had no power. However, the cable modem and router, plugged into an outlet in the kitchen, were live because I was still online on my laptop, though it was on battery power because the living room was dead. When I ran an extension cord from a kitchen outlet to that power strip, I was watching TV. 2 hours later the room lights came on, the lights and fan in the living room came on.... it was truly THE strangest thing I ever saw. And it piqued my curiosity to a point where I walked around with a lamp during the half outage and tested every outlet, making note of what worked and what didn't. When the power was fully back on I went downstairs to the breaker panel, and everything that worked was on the the RIGHT side of the panel, where everything that did not was on the LEFT side of the panel. Now when my guy was in, he explained that he changed a few things around to simplify the wiring and eliminate any "crossing" in the routing, so it was clear to see that one leg feeds the left and the other feeds the right.

Now, to the power expert (is it John that is the electrical contractor guy?), should I be asking the power company people to change that or not? The way it is now I will apparently always have power to at least half a house..... Is there any actual danger or practical reason to change it? Since it was the whole lower end of my street that had the same condition, it would seem that it was wired that way on purpose. I don't even know how I would explain this if I called the power company.

#116616 06/15/11 12:40 PM
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I'll bet the power company will be quite interested.

As far as things coming back later, I have read about phase problems where you regain power when something that is 240 volts, like a range, is turned on, allowing power to cross to the other side of the panel. It's not a mystery to someone who knows about this problem.


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Quote:

It's not a mystery to someone who knows about this problem.




And there's your key right there, Matt. Knows about it. I mean, I can't even understand why a light switch says "On" and "Off". If the lights are off you can't see to read it, and if the lights are on, you can SEE they are on....

That is the sum total of electrical knowledge I have...


#116618 06/16/11 07:39 AM
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The phase thing is simple. I doubt what you are being told is correct, if anyone who understood transformers stood and looked at you nearest one they could figure it out,
However you have 120 v from the one side of the fuse or breaker panel to the middle (neutral).

If you go from one side to the other not using the neutral you get 240 v.

There are 3 wires coming into the house. One is the neutral, the other are the phases.

There should be roughly half of the breakers or fuses on each side, the stove for one straddles the two.

When one phase goes out, either a transformer or feed wire failure, only 1/2 the panel is live. The stove crosses over. You turn on the stove and you feed, based on the variable nature of the switch, power across to the dead side. It does however flow back out towards the break to a degree, but through your dead side, so if you have lights on it will act as a dimmer switch.

I've had this happen twice in recent years and when I call up and tell them a phase is out they usually get the attitude wtf you know about that old man? Nice.

If I'm maybe wrong I usually don't open my mouth and prove it is all.

Or I tell you the story about one time...never mind.


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There is a well known situation that can happen with the 2-phase 240 wiring setup that is dangerous.

If the two sides that are 120V in respect to a single Neutral wire lose that Neutral connection somewhere, appliances end up running in SERIES with each other. This is not good at all, as one appliance's resistance may be higher or lower than the other line's appliance(s), resulting in all sorts of voltages other than 120 going to each. Could be higher than 120, could be lower.

Another situation, one that I suspect in this "mysterious" case, is that somewhere in the house wiring the Line and Neutral have been reversed. The wider blade of the socket should always be the Neutral and the Neutral should also always be Grounded back at the panel. If someone installed a socket and did not put the White wire on the Silver screw and the Black wire on the Gold screw, but instead reversed them, this could be the rather dangerous reason for that one speaker humming like that.

In either scenario, or whatever, the house wiring should be inspected by someone who knows what they are doing - pronto.


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Edit-

Never mind.

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I am not an electrician and dont know very much but you might try a mains smoother - it cleans pu the cycle in the AC.
I might say I have a studio a long way from the house and its wired by an electrician competently, but I get a hum on my speakers - it was suggested that I tried this - I did but it did not work for me. I think that my equipment is running on low powere due to the length of the cable to the studio - 40 metres.


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