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So, over the past few months we have been having weird power issues in the home office. Of course, for most of that time I didn't really notice it. Thinking back I remember the power flickering every now and then, and a couple of days while I was working where the power would go out for a few seconds, but I always assumed it was happening to the entire house and was an external issue. Also, Kris has been having problems with her computer where it would just abruptly shut down for no apparent reason. Her shutdown problems were gradually getting worse, and then one evening last week I went to turn on the overhead light in the office and all of the power in the room went dead.
Except, as I began to look around I realized that it wasn't the entire room that was out. There were still two functional outlets. I went out to the garage to check the breaker box, and no breaker had been thrown. The circuit for the home office also included the garage and the living room, and it seemed like only half the circuit was down. After an hour I went to bed, and when I got up in the morning the power had magically started working again. That kind of magic makes me very nervous.
I called in an electrician, who seemed baffled when I described what had happened. He poked around for a while, and then basically suggested that I should run a new dedicated 20 amp circuit into the office because of all the computer equipment. Now, that's a fine suggestion on its own merits but it didn't address the current issue.
With Kris' computer, it turned out that the power supply had been damaged (I assume from all of the sudden power drops). I wound up replacing her case and power supply, and it has worked like a champ ever since. Well, except for the part where Monday night the power dropped out in the office again for an hour. Then came back. Then dropped out again. Then came back. Then went out for good.
Electrician #2 arrived yesterday morning, and he seemed much more competent. He immediately said that there was probably a loose or damaged wire somewhere, and he set about checking all of the outlets and switches. He was very confused at first by the circuit layout, because there seemed to be too many dead ends. It seemed like there was another circuit, but when he traced back to the breaker box he confirmed that there really was just the one circuit involved. Finally, after about an hour, he found the bad outlet. it was in the utility room, which shares a wall with the home office. There was a loose hot wire, complete with melted sheathing from where it had repeatedly heated up and cooled down, as well as burn marks on the connection terminal. He clipped off the damaged end to the wire, replaced the outlet, and everything was all better. We haven't had so much as a flicker since.
I am very, very relieved to have the problem definitively fixed. That was a serious fire hazard, and could have sparked in exactly the wrong way at any moment. I really like this house, and don't want to see it burn down. I was also pleased that all of my wiring in the home office passed muster. I was genuinely afraid that I had done something wrong or poorly in my work here, so it was nice to find out that all of my stuff was solid.
So anyway, we have power again now. Yay.
Except, as I began to look around I realized that it wasn't the entire room that was out. There were still two functional outlets. I went out to the garage to check the breaker box, and no breaker had been thrown. The circuit for the home office also included the garage and the living room, and it seemed like only half the circuit was down. After an hour I went to bed, and when I got up in the morning the power had magically started working again. That kind of magic makes me very nervous.
I called in an electrician, who seemed baffled when I described what had happened. He poked around for a while, and then basically suggested that I should run a new dedicated 20 amp circuit into the office because of all the computer equipment. Now, that's a fine suggestion on its own merits but it didn't address the current issue.
With Kris' computer, it turned out that the power supply had been damaged (I assume from all of the sudden power drops). I wound up replacing her case and power supply, and it has worked like a champ ever since. Well, except for the part where Monday night the power dropped out in the office again for an hour. Then came back. Then dropped out again. Then came back. Then went out for good.
Electrician #2 arrived yesterday morning, and he seemed much more competent. He immediately said that there was probably a loose or damaged wire somewhere, and he set about checking all of the outlets and switches. He was very confused at first by the circuit layout, because there seemed to be too many dead ends. It seemed like there was another circuit, but when he traced back to the breaker box he confirmed that there really was just the one circuit involved. Finally, after about an hour, he found the bad outlet. it was in the utility room, which shares a wall with the home office. There was a loose hot wire, complete with melted sheathing from where it had repeatedly heated up and cooled down, as well as burn marks on the connection terminal. He clipped off the damaged end to the wire, replaced the outlet, and everything was all better. We haven't had so much as a flicker since.
I am very, very relieved to have the problem definitively fixed. That was a serious fire hazard, and could have sparked in exactly the wrong way at any moment. I really like this house, and don't want to see it burn down. I was also pleased that all of my wiring in the home office passed muster. I was genuinely afraid that I had done something wrong or poorly in my work here, so it was nice to find out that all of my stuff was solid.
So anyway, we have power again now. Yay.