200 AMP Feeder Cuts Off For Certain Branch Circuits

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jessemichael012191@gmail.

Member
Location
Coppell, TX
Occupation
Electrician
I am fixing a vandalized panel. Some disgruntled tenant cut various wires in the main panel. While I was reconnecting and testing the 20A breakers, I noticed that certain 20A branch circuits would cause a complete loss of feeding power when on. When I switched them off, the feeding power was restored. I was also able to repeat this same scenario when flipping on the light switch in a guest bathroom: as soon as the switch went on, the feed I also noticed that the phase-to-phase voltage on the line side of the 200A emergency disconnect box was at 108V. What could be causing this problem? Neither the 200A main breaker nor the 200A emergency disconnect tripped. I swapped breakers and none of them were faulty. The 200A main breaker wasn't faulty.
 
LarryFine

LarryFine

Master Electrician Electric Contractor Richmond VA
Location
Henrico County, VA
Occupation
Electrical Contractor
Welcome to the forum.

It sounds like you have lost one line. Try turning off all 2p breakers and test again.

I'm guessing you won't have 240v.
 
Bluegrass Boy

Bluegrass Boy

Senior Member
Location
Texas
Occupation
Commercial/ Industrial/ Maintenance Electrician
If it is the tenant in question’s dwelling, it may be worth further investigation inside the building to see if further vandalism was done. Loosened connections, or?
 
Fred B

Fred B

Senior Member
Location
Upstate, NY
Occupation
Electrician
LarryFine said:
Welcome to the forum.

It sounds like you have lost one line. Try turning off all 2p breakers and test again.

I'm guessing you won't have 240v.
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Also turn off all branch breakers and test with no load and no way to feed thru to confirm 240V at utility source. May be a coincidental failure of utility feed not related to the vandalism.

It takes some b**** and a level of stupidity to open a panel and cut wires in an act of vandalism. The unfound cause of voltage discrepancies may even raise to a level legally beyond vandalism to one that it posed a threat to life and safety. Hope the law is involved and owner pursuing criminal charges.
 
H

hillbilly1

Senior Member
Location
North Georgia mountains
Occupation
Owner/electrical contractor
I had a call at a Boy Scout cabin, they only had one leg hot from the meter. Pulled the meter, found the plastic sleeves the poco uses to shut off the power with the meter still on. Some homeless person that was living in the cabin had rocked the meter back and forth enough to tear a hole in the sleeve.
 
qcroanoke

qcroanoke

Sometimes I don't know if I'm the boxer or the bag
Location
Roanoke, VA.
Occupation
Sorta retired........
hillbilly1 said:
I had a call at a Boy Scout cabin, they only had one leg hot from the meter. Pulled the meter, found the plastic sleeves the poco uses to shut off the power with the meter still on. Some homeless person that was living in the cabin had rocked the meter back and forth enough to tear a hole in the sleeve.
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Had a family member on my wife's side call me about no power in their 2nd home. Pulled panel cover nothing at main lugs. Went outside and looked around and seen no problems. I will pull a meter at times so I did. Meter was booted. Come to find out another family member had a case of the ass against them and booted the meter and put a new tag on it too.
 
N

Njonescontracting

Member
Location
Saint Louis, MO
Occupation
Electrical Contractor
readydave8 said:
1st question on trouble call--"Did you pay your light bill?"
I don't use it often because noticed wasn't getting many laughs
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That is one of my favorite lines. And of course the "did you check the light bulb?" I would say about 60 percent of the time its the darn light bulb. Then they get mad at you for charging for the service call when it took 3 minutes.
 
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Fred B

Fred B

Senior Member
Location
Upstate, NY
Occupation
Electrician
Njonescontracting said:
That is one of my favorite lines. And of course the "did you check the light bulb?" I would say about 60 percent of the time its the darn light bulb. Then they get mad at you for charging for the service call when it took 3 minutes.
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Had one that got call about light not working and I did ask if they checked the bulb. They said they tried a new one but still didn't work. It was on my way home so stopped to check it. It was the bulb, just not screwed in all the way. They were watching when the light suddenly came on they asked what did I do? I simply said I tightened the bulb. This was a customer I've worked for in the past and will again so didn't charge for this one. We both chuckled over it and I finished going home.
 
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N

Njonescontracting

Member
Location
Saint Louis, MO
Occupation
Electrical Contractor
Fred B said:
Had one that got call about light not working and I did ask if they checked the bulb. They said they tried a new one but still didn't work. It was on my way home so stopped to check it. It was the bulb, just not screwed in all the way. They were watching when the light suddenly came on they asked what did I do? I simply said I tightened the bulb. This was a customer I've worked for in the past and will again so didn't charge for this one. We both chuckled over it and I finished going home.
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I do a lot of rentals for a few investors. All of them have in their lease that tenants are responsible for bulbs and that they will get the charge if I come out for it. I always ask to make sure. But... It is in the contract and it's never on the way home. Not to mention, a lot of older call me just because they can't get on a ladder to change the bulbs. In that case I won't usually charge more than 20 bucks.

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Fred B

Fred B

Senior Member
Location
Upstate, NY
Occupation
Electrician
Njonescontracting said:
I do a lot of rentals for a few investors. All of them have in their lease that tenants are responsible for bulbs and that they will get the charge if I come out for it. I always ask to make sure. But... It is in the contract and it's never on the way home. Not to mention, a lot of older call me just because they can't get on a ladder to change the bulbs. In that case I won't usually charge more than 20 bucks.

Sent from my SM-G981U using Tapatalk
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Yeh this is a customer I've had for years and not a business, and they have me and my family out to their beach house for picnics, so no I didn't charge for this one. But someone else NP charging a service call. Have one that I've done work for and I'll actually charge an "aggravation fee" to show up, don't care if I get their work or not yet they still will call.
Aggravation fee = more than my usual rate.
 
N

Njonescontracting

Member
Location
Saint Louis, MO
Occupation
Electrical Contractor
Fred B said:
Yeh this is a customer I've had for years and not a business, and they have me and my family out to their beach house for picnics, so no I didn't charge for this one. But someone else NP charging a service call. Have one that I've done work for and I'll actually charge an "aggravation fee" to show up, don't care if I get their work or not yet they still will call.
Aggravation fee = more than my usual rate.
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I call that A$$hole tax. Haha happens all the time. Some people really seem to think trades people are the lowest of the low and that they can treat us like crap. Because we "don't" have degrees in their eyes and we are all stupid.

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M

mkgrady

Senior Member
Location
Massachusetts
I once went to a house where they could not get a light to work. She had already changed the bulb. She also had a big box of new bulbs. I installed several new bulbs from her supply of new unused bulbs until I found one that worked. Bad batch.
 
N

Njonescontracting

Member
Location
Saint Louis, MO
Occupation
Electrical Contractor
I keep a full pack of daylight, bright white and soft white bulbs in the van at all times. And will upcharge for them. But I won't waste my time sifting thru a shoebox of old crap.

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James L

James L

Senior Member
Location
Kansas Cty, Mo, USA
Occupation
Electrician
I went to house about 20 years ago, had a 4 car garage with 2 keyless in each bay - 8 total - not working. 15 foot ceilings, so I decided to take the switch apart first. Had hot and neutral, and switch worked.

Get the 12ft ladder off the van and open the keyless closest to the switch. Had hot and neutral. 🤔

Moved to another keyless and open it. Had hot and neutral. 🤔

I asked the lady if she could tell me how long the lights haven't worked. She said (and I still remember it word-for-word): "it's been several months they haven't worked. But it's strange because they didn't all stop at the same time. Every so often one would go out."

8 burned out incandescent bulbs 🤦‍♂️
 
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