About Jeff Evans Expertise Can answer most residential and commercial electrical questions, Installing recepticles, switches, general wiring, troubleshooting.
Experience Experience in the area 13 years as an electrician, 10 as a Journeyman Electrician Organizations I belong to:
NFPA
Education/Credentials
Master Craftsman - Associated Builders & Contractors
Associate Degree in Computer Programming - Clark College
Question our problem started because my husbnd kept tripping our 220 breaker from welding in the garage. now our north circut, my kitchen and the outside lights all quit working if we use any of the outlets..this does not trip the breaker though. we do have the gfci outlets and we cant push test or reset when we loose power.. how can my 120 be interfered with our 220 circuts to cause such a problem?
Answer First the easy part. Just make sure the resets on the GFI's are in, not popped out. Should be flush with the face. It sounds like the continuous tripping of the 240 volt breaker may have damaged the Main breaker. Turn off all the breakers, then turn off the main breaker. Wait about 30 seconds and turn just the Main breaker back on. Then 1 at a time, with about a 5 second delay between each, turn each 120 volt breaker on. Then see if the outlets and outside lights work. If they do turn on the 240 volt welding breaker. If all of the 120 volt circuits don't work, turn off all the breakers including the Main. Then carefully remove the panel cover. The wires going into the Main breaker are still hot so be careful. Down the left side each breaker space is number 1,3,5,7...41 and down the right they are numbered 2,4,6,8...42. You may have less than 42 breaker slots. Turn the main breaker On and also breakers 1 and 2 as above. Ok, now with a meter, cheap one is about $15, see what voltage you have coming out of 1 and 2. Then do 3 and 4. If you have around 120 volts at each location, [110 - 130 is common] then there is power to both phases. If there isn't power on either 1,2 or 3,4 then you have lost 1 side of the incoming power. So if that is the case check the incoming power CAUTION THIS IS THE FULL 60, 100 or 200 AMPS coming in. It will throw you across the room and you will experience severe pain. And see what the voltage readings are. If you have around 120 volts on each then most likely the Main breaker is bad. If you don't have 120 on either of them then the meter box is bad. Call the power company to check the incoming power. Ok, so you checked all of this, got 120 everywhere except on 1 or 2 breakers. These have probably gone bad. Turn off the Main, remove the wire from the end and put some electrical tape over the bare end. tag it somehow with the circuit number, masking tape, etc, take the breaker(s) to the store and get a replacement. All breakers are not the same. Then replace the breaker and turn the power back on. After you have removed the breaker, and put the cover back on place some tape over the holes were the breakers were turn the power back on, same way as above, while you run to the store. If you have 120 volts at all the breakers locations, but still no power as you describe above you are going to have to start tracking the wiring down and checking voltage at each junction of the nonworking circuit. Hope this helps. Jeff
About Electrical Wiring in the Home
This site answers questions related to home electrical wiring, home wiring, general electrical help,and other electrical questions related to aleternating current (AC). You can find help on the National Electical Code, home electrical issues, wiring electrical outlets, installing lighting, electrical grounding, and general electrical help for do-it-yourself projects not require an electrician. If you do not see your home electrical wiring question answered in this area then please ask your electrical wiring question here
