I'm giving up for now, hatches are just not meant to be

[jossanne]

Good luck! I hope you haven't lost too many of them. Have you guys been getting the rain that Ruidoso has? You're closer to them than I am, aren't you? We've had 2 inches in the last 2 days, but dry today.

 

[WriterofWords]

We've gotten some of it, they are about 95 miles from me. Yesterday we got 3 3/4 inches, and it's thundering and lightning right now. It may pass us though, I'm hoping, I can't afford to lose what power I have left. It looks like the damage is to a buried line to my home.

 

[jossanne]

Hang in there, and don't wash away along with Ruidoso. Hope you get your power back tomorrow!

 

[PurpleChicken]

If you are only losing power in part of your house then one of the
connections between the pole or underground line and your house
has a bad splice.

Have you called the utility? They are responsible for repairing it.
Rain usually worsens the problem.

An electrician will come out, bill you, and say call the utility.

Do you have one electric panel in the house or multiples?
You may also just have a bad or tripped breaker feeding
another panel that feeds your office.

If you wanna take some pictures of your panels I can probably talk
you through it.

 

[WriterofWords]

Thanks Purple, my panels are good, but there is a splice underground that was repaired a few years ago and I had forgotten about it. I called El Paso Electric and since it's on my property they will check the pole tomorrow, and the connection to the house but they won't dig up the splice. I've called a couple of electricians but they are all busy. Tomorrow I'm asking the school district guys if they can come give me a hand with it. My brother could check the panels with his equipment, but the rest of it I need a licensed electrician, his specialty is electrical fork lifts!

 

[PurpleChicken]

All someone needs to do is put a meter on the main circuit breaker
input to determine if it's the splice or not. If your brother
is an electric forklift tech he is MORE than qualified to replace
a bad breaker and no license is required because he is not
charging you or doing what's call a service change.

Does your central air conditioning work? If it does then the underground splice must be good.

 

[WriterofWords]

The breakers are good, this is what happened last time when they fixed the splice.
The a/c on the roof, both of them work. Half the living room works but none of the dining room, the plugs in the wall of the kitchen work, but the over head lights don't. The washer doesn't work but the dryer does, dryer plug low, washer plug high. Office dead, bathrooms dead, half my bedroom ok, half my son's room ok, plugs ok but over lights out.
When they fixed an underground break and spliced it all the areas started working again. I think the splice has been corroded by all the rain the last 3 days.
I can't find a darn pattern to it! By the way, I live in a double wide mobile home, not a site built house. I thought about the crossover but the panel checked out ok. Being a Sunday didn't help around here, no one works anyway.
I'll have a better chance of help tomorrow. Hopefully the ground has a chance to dry out a little, but I'm not holding my breath. I'm lucky compared to some, I didn't float away!

 

[WriterofWords]

The difference this time and I just realized it, is that all the overhead lights are out but both A/C units are still working, one on the front half, one on the back half.

 

[PurpleChicken]

What is so wierd about your situation is your dryer works.
Electric dryers are 240 volt. To have 240 volt you must have both
electrical legs coming into your main panel. The ACs may be 120 V.

When a splice goes bad you lose half the items in the house
including any 240 volt aplliances like electric stoves, dryers,
ac units(unless they are 120volt), electric hot water heaters,
well pumps, etc...

Do you only have one electrical panel?

 

[WriterofWords]

Yes only one,, and the water heater is ok too,, just the washer in the utility room. The water got deep under my house due to road work but that was 2 weeks ago on Tuesday. They fixed the road to drain away from me, so that hasn't happened again. But this is just silly, I have to be patient and get a pro and it's driving me nuts to wait. I'm hoping the rest of the power holds out.