Why the hum?

[Guest]

I am asking for some help to understand the effects of an early morning power outage here.

The power went down in my area. I was happy to have a gas range to make my breakfast on. I turned on the garbage disposal by habit and of course it was dead. I forgot to turn it off.

Later I heard a low-hum and I tried to find it. I put my ear to the kitchen counter & the disposal was humming. I turned it off.

I put my meter on the main breaker and there was zero voltage to ground from either leg. I turned off the main breaker in case there were any other humming motors.

The power came back on before I was able to do any more testing.

What caused the disposal to hum during the power outage? Thanks!

[ October 20, 2003, 10:54 PM: Message edited by: awwt ]

 

[racraft]

Re: Why the hum?

It was humming because it didn't know the words. Sorry, couldn't resist.

 

[hurk27]

Re: Why the hum?

Awwt
Many times when there is a power failure there is a brown out just before and every time the POCO trys to reset the breakers/switches if there is still a short circuit somwhere down the line maybe a few miles from you the power will try to come back on but at a very reduced voltage. this is what most call a brown out you just happened to be close enough to the disposal to here the results of having not enough voltage to start the motor and the results is a hum.

 

[bennie]

Re: Why the hum?

Wayne: Ask the power company what transpired to create the outage. Find out if it was an open circuit, LL fault, LG fault, a winding to winding fault, a layer to layer fault, or a winding to ground fault.

When this is known then the cause should be obvious.

 

[Guest]

Re: Why the hum?

Their line has been busy for the past hour. They just answered and said there's a three-day turnaround on getting the answer from the electric department