Problems with outlets in one room
biznazion
| Posted in Energy, Heating & Insulation on
We had our electrical power go out for a short time yesterday (about 30 seconds) and then return. After the power came back on, I noticed that I could not turn on the light in my son’s room. It’s connected to a 1/2 switched outlet. I then noticed that nothing electrical was working in his room. The rest of the house lights and outlets are working fine – but the four outlets in his room don’t work. I’ve used a multi-meter on them and they show 120v, but when you plug something like a desk lamp it won’t light. The house is about 12 years old.
Replies
ya got a good bulb in the lamp???
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Yes, the same lamp works in the gfci plugs in the bathroom.
If your multimeter is digital, you're probably seeing a "phantom" voltage. Have you checked the breaker? Flip it all the way off and then back on to be sure. That's the only thing I could see affecting one room, unless (very very unlikely) you coincidentally burned out a conductor or splice in that one line...
PaulB
I have found the breaker that controls these outlets. There are outlets from a couple bedrooms upstairs on the same 15A circuit. Some of those outlets work fine, the ones in one particular room don't work. When the breaker is shut off, I see 0v on all the outlets in question.
My first guess is that you have a wire(s) that's come loose from that breaker. Time to call an electrician...PaulB
I suspect it's a wire tha's come loose in the circuit, at a receptacle.
Less-expensive receptacles have inferior connection points--a little hole in the back for each wire, the stripped wire is poked in the hole and inside, the edge of a small strip of spring bronze metal bites into the wire. It's a pretty small area of contact, and so if a lot of electricity is flowing through the circuit, the point of contact can heat up. This can cause the metal strip to lose springiness, and it's grip on the wire. The circuit is interrupted, so there's no power downstream. Sometimes the wire slips out of the hole, sometimes not.
If there's a receptacle on the circuit (or in the general area) where you plug in the vaccum cleaner, or a space heater, I'd start there. Those things use a lot of power and often the connection will fail at the outlet that they're plugged into. But sometimes not--it may take opening quite a few boxes to find the open in the circuit.
There are ways to do this more efficiently, but they require circuit tracers and other specialized equipment that you probably don't have. One simple trick is to plug a lamp or radio that's turned on into one of the dead outlets, and go to nearby outlets in turn and pound on the wall around the outlet. Sometimes this'll cause momentary contact between the loose wire and the terminal, tipping you off as to where the bad connection is--where the circuit is open.
When you start to open boxes, of course, you have to start by turning off the power to the circuit, which may be hard to do if you don't know the circuit layout. Cut power BEFORE you take off the cover plate. Make sure the power is off before you open up the box, and test it again after you've pulled the receptacle out of the box. IF the hot wire is loose, the outlet will show no power at the face but there's a live wire in the box...possibly loose, and waiting to bite you as you pull the receptacle out of the box.
With power off (to the whole house, if you need to), take off the cover plates and pull out the receptacles. If the receptacles have poke-in backwiring connections, look for a loose wire.
Better yet, replace the old plugs with better quality ones, that have side terminal screws, or backwiring connections that use a pressure plate/clamp that's tightened by the side screw. These make for a very good connection and are easier to install than by using the side terminal screw.
While I'm in an outlet box, I always look to make sure the ground wires are properly spliced, that there's not a lot of excess paper filler from the romex cable, and that the wires are in good general shape.
It's pretty rare that a wire breaks in the wall, so it's a matter of finding the loose wire in an outlet box. And I've found more often than not, it's the neutral wire (white) that comes loose from a spring backwire receptacle.
If you have ANY question about your ability to work safely on wiring, hire a pro. It's easy to get so focussed on solving the problem that you lose track of whether a wire is energized or not, and get shocked or electrocuted.
Good luck,
Cliff
Thank you for the detailed explanation. I believe I'm on the same train of thought. I noticed that when I tried the switched side of one of the dead outlets with the breaker on, I could hear a faint click on the other side of the room. The nearest outlet to that 'click sound' actually works normally. I killed power at the breaker and pulled out the 'clicking' outlet to inspect connections and wires. Everything looks solid and still connected. I left it hanging (but still connected) and turned power back on to the circuit - the lamp now works on one of the previously dead outlets - but with noise I don't care for at that same problem outlet. So the action of moving the wires did allow amps to pass again to the other outlets and I'm of the mind that this outlet needs to be replaced. I have a friend who's an electrician coming over tonight to take a look and verify my findings. Until then, the breaker is staying off.
That "click" you're hearing might be a dead giveaway to the problem.
Sounds like a hidden, unknown GFCI. It might be in the bathroom or laundry room, or even outside, but I bet the entire circuit is protected. Could be a defective GFCI, maybe damaged by lightning.
Good luck.
Greg
Wow--good thought--could be a GFI recep in a bathroom, wired so that it protects the downstream bedroom.
You wouldn't get power in the bedroom without re-setting it, though. Unless someone else in the family coincidentally re-set it while all this troubleshootng was going on...and funnier stuff has happened.
Cliff
Problem fixed. It was the inline splice on the neutral side. I replaced both inline splices with wire nuts and proper pig tails to a new outlet. It's now working without any noise. Thank you to all that offered help.