Lights & AC not working. HELP PLEASE

[chimpoko]

PLEASE HELP!

A few weeks ago half the lights and the AC in my house suddenly turned off.
For the first week, the lights would come back on for several hours then turn off again. At first, turning the AC on when the lights came back on would trigger the lights to shut off again. Then a few days later the lights came on again so I tried the AC again. For about a week everything including the AC worked fine. Now a week later those lights in the house and the AC dont even turn on any more.

I figured it would be the breaker because not all of the lights in the house turned off. The weird thing is all the breakers look fine, but i reset them anyway and still nothing.

I dont know much about home wiring so I would appreciate it if anyone could give me any ideas about what might be happening.

Can this be a loose connection in the breaker box or would a loose connection have cause the breaker to blow?

here are all of the symptoms:

-AC doesn't work
-only half the lights in the house work
-some wall sockets not working
-sprinkler system not working
-breakers look fine

Thank you in advance for your help.

[Sparks]

:!: :!: :!: SERIOUSLY HERE. Call an electrician in. This could be a loose connection in main panel, a sub or elsewhere within the walls of the house, maybe in the meter can as well. Loose connections are a serious fire hazard. Either call your local power company or call in an electrician. Lights flickering and the like can be a sign of a dangerous situation.

[montytx]

Has to be a loose connection somewhere. Or a bad wire in the attic...Maybe it has been chewed through. If you dont know anything about electric you need to call an electrician for sure. Also if someone did a really bad job of wiring it there could be a GFCI that it is all tied into and needs to be reset. In which case you need to call an electrician and have it rewired.

[dhill]

Sparks said it perfectly. Call an electrician.

[Dormer_man]

I agree this situation is dangerous. But personally I would check for loose backstab connections in receptacles.

A backstab connection is where the wires in your outlets are pushed into the back of the receptacle and are held in place by a spring. The spring may eventually lose its tension, causing the wire to lose contact.

Any backstabs should be pulled out of the receptacle and reattached by screwing them to the side of the receptacle.

[giddonah]

I dont know much about home wiring
One more vote for an electrician. If it's worth the risk of shock, it's certainly not worth your time when an electrician will work much safer and much faster.

[montytx]

Reminds me of a story a friend told me. His Dad was changing out an old water heater and as he was pulling it out against his body. There was an old open electrical box on the other side. Unfortunately his Dad was also standing in water. Didn't have a chance. RIP. So the moral is make damn sure you know what you are getting into before you get into it.

[chimpoko]

Thank you all for your input. I will definately call an electrician. I just wanted an idea of what might be happening so I dont get reemed by the electrician.

....Dormer_man, if it is a loose backstab connection in one of the receptacles would this cause the AC and some of the lights not to work also or would it effect only that outlet?

Either way I understand that an electrician is needed. And I thank you all for your help.

This forum is awesome!

[Dormer_man]

Chimpoko,

I am not telling you to try anything yourself, just that I have had similar situations over the years and was able to troubleshoot and diagnose the problem on my own.

Open circuits are just one type of electrical problem. Besides loose backstab connections, they be be caused by hammering a nail into the wall and splitting a cable, a squirrel or mouse chewing on the cable, or any number of bizarre situations.

An open circuit problem may be intermittent, and be notoriously difficult to track down. For example, slamming a door may cause a loose backstab to either make contact or pop loose. Or the vibration from the compressor in a window air conditioner may do the same thing.

Let me preface my remarks by telling you that when I worked my problem, I pulled the main breaker out of the panel.

Also, I checked each receptacle plug with a $5 tester for status of hot, neutral and ground. Then as I pulled each receptacle I put a continuity tester or multimeter across the black and white leads to make sure they were not hot. It is not enough to just test the plugs on the receptacle, you need to test the black and white wires entering the receptacle from the panel side.

First of all, is your AC central air or is it a window unit?

If it is central air then it should be on a dedicated circuit. In other words, there should not be any other receptacles, fixtures or switches on the circuit. If you have central air, do a wind sprint to the electrician.

If it is a window unit, then it is most likely plugged into a receptacle that is in a circuit with other receptacles, light fixtures and/or switches.

If there is an open circuit in which the hot or neutral has come loose, the offending receptacle, fixture, or switchbox will cause all receptacles, fixtures, and switchboxes downstream to not work, all the way to the terminal box on the circuit. So in this case, the answer to your question is yes.