Verified answer

I had the following problem in my house last night.

- Half of the house had electricity.

- None of the three heaters were working.

- Electricity to the fridge but not to the ovens or dishwasher.

- Pool pump was whining but would not switch on.

- No breakers tripped. No GFIs tripped.

- In another answer on Yahoo, someone mentioned the possibility that one of the phases to the house may have died.

- Called electricity company at 3:00am last night. They came at 3:30am and reported that there was a faulty transformer and would have it replaced. By 6 am every appliance is working.

- Thank goodness it was 25deg outside last night.

First thing is to investigate how it happened, ask them what they were doing when it happened. That would give you an idea on how to fix it. Now, its in the bedroom. Unless somebody kicked in outlet in the wall, I really can't see a breaker tripping for no reason, in a bedroom, maybe in a kitchen. If the wiring is very old then it is possible.

Now try resetting the breaker by pushing in all the way back to the off position and then turning it back on. If this goes of right a way and sound like a popping sound, then you have a dead short. That means some where in the circuit the hot wire is touching ground or a neutral. That is a pain to fix. You have to open all the outlet on the circuit to find it. Without the right tester, it's hard.

If the circuit breaker came on and still no power, take a test light and put in the outlet. Now the outlet has prongs. Take the test, light put it in one prong and then to the screw in the middle of the outlet. if its a newer outlet with big and small prong. Test the small prong to the screw. That should be the hot side. If you get power, then you have a neutral problem. (run for the hills) Nothing to do with the circuit breaker. You need the right tester to find a neutral problem. Or start opening up every outlet in the bedroom and checking the splices or the screws and make sure they are tight.

I wish I could help more.

Good luck

Tommy

Breakers do wear out, but it's rare. Check to make sure there isn't an overload (3 or 4 plug in heaters)

Also does the renter know how to reset a breaker. It must be fully opened before tring to close it.

If these two tests don't fix it then the breaker may need to be changed.

If changing the breaker does not help then you have a problem inside one of the outlets or inside the walls. NOW YOU HAVE A PROBLEM!

call an electrician

Possibly, but there are a few things to check before that. Unplug anything that is plugged to a socket that is not working. Try the breaker. If it stays to on, then one by one plug in units and see if one of them is tripping it off.

Reset GFI as well.

make sure he's resetting the correct breaker. prob no gfi's in the bedroom. but it could be a bad receptacle that could be feeding power to the bedroom. if its an old home, the problem can be more widespread.

there shouldnt be a problem with the breaker it might be foughlty wiring in the walls that touch and trip the breaker or dont let power to the outlets

it's probably a shot in the lighting or he actually tripped the safety on a GFCI...reset all of the gfci receptacles.....sometimes renters don't give the full story

have them to check to see if there is a gfic plug in the bathroom or anywhere in the house,reset it and see if this takes care of your problem