Troubleshooting residential

[ptonsparky]

Cold winter day with my thermal camera scanning overhead triplex connections.

 

[LarryFine]

But on the same token, I have made a few lineman look bad, when they have said nothing was wrong on their end when a customer had called them before me. When I show them the problem is beyond the customer side. That's usually because they only "looked" at a weatherhead connection, or transformer connection from the ground. When I showed them the measurements I took and where, they then will dig deeper and find it's one of their connections.

Absolutely. I had a service call for exploding bulbs and burning wall-warts. Two 150a panels, opened both and immediately diagnosed a bad neutral, same readings in both.

I turned off both main breakers and told them what to tell the POCO. They called me back about an hour later and told me the POCO guy said there's no voltage problem.

I actually had to have them tell the guy to turn on one of the mains and check it again.

 

[ptonsparky]

Absolutely. I had a service call for exploding bulbs and burning wall-warts. Two 150a panels, opened both and immediately diagnosed a bad neutral, same readings in both.

I turned off both main breakers and told them what to tell the POCO. They called me back about an hour later and told me the POCO guy said there's no voltage problem.

I actually had to have them tell the guy to turn on one of the mains and check it again.

Wow, I never saw fireworks!

 

[Hv&Lv]

I agree, check everything before you call.
But on the same token, I have made a few lineman look bad, when they have said nothing was wrong on their end when a customer had called them before me. When I show them the problem is beyond the customer side. That's usually because they only "looked" at a weatherhead connection, or transformer connection from the ground. When I showed them the measurements I took and where, they then will dig deeper and find it's one of their connections.

I agree MANY service men do not really know what they are doing and cant really troubleshoot electrical problems.
Heck, I've made lineman in our company look bad for the exact reason you stated.
Old aluminum WW split bolt connections under 20 wraps of 40 year old tape have to be curt apart to check properly.
Your right, just looking up there and saying its fine is lazy and unprofessional

 

[meternerd]

I agree, check everything before you call.
But on the same token, I have made a few lineman look bad, when they have said nothing was wrong on their end when a customer had called them before me. When I show them the problem is beyond the customer side. That's usually because they only "looked" at a weatherhead connection, or transformer connection from the ground. When I showed them the measurements I took and where, they then will dig deeper and find it's one of their connections.

I DID NOT want to hijack this thread, but as a former "POCO" guy, it may not be such a bad idea to call the utility for flickering lights or similar complaints. There was usually no charge for that kind of a trouble call (at least where I worked). Plus, to do any checking of the service at the meter you have to cut seals to get to the connections. That may not make some POCO's happy. The Beast made the test fast, safe and easy for me. I'm done........ Remember...let go before it gets to your elbow.

 

[kwired]

I DID NOT want to hijack this thread, but as a former "POCO" guy, it may not be such a bad idea to call the utility for flickering lights or similar complaints. There was usually no charge for that kind of a trouble call (at least where I worked). Plus, to do any checking of the service at the meter you have to cut seals to get to the connections. That may not make some POCO's happy. The Beast made the test fast, safe and easy for me. I'm done........ Remember...let go before it gets to your elbow.

This could depend on the POCO you are dealing with as well. According to some on this site getting a POCO rep to show up can be a challenge to schedule at least in a timely manner. In those cases you probably better be pretty certain nothing is wrong on customer equipment before even thinking about calling. Not that hard to turn off all loads and then add your own test load, usually a 1000-1500 watt heater of some sort is sufficient, to help determine if the supply is good or not, or even add a second test load but of a different resistance to help show bad neutral conditions.