Any electricians?

[Miles]

Is there any GFCI outlets in the house, garage, or even outside?

I don't know, I will find out.

 

[Miles]

I agree, the only way to tell for sure is to get a volt meter or a circuit tester(can't recall the real name, Its a small pen like thing you put in your outlet and if you have a full circuit it lights up) or trace the line back from the last plug to the breaker box (taking the wire out to inspect)
I would not turn the breaker back on until you find the problem, it may start a fire in your wall if it is a broken line.

Good Call.. We disconnected the one breaker that seems to non-responsive.

I also have a 220v line going out to the fish room.. Found out the hard way, wired it up and fried some stuff last year.

The older, wiser, father type units were talking about wiring in a separate box off the 220v line, and breaking it down into a bunch of 110v lines, on it's own circuit with it's own box? Is this possible?

Does that seems like the best way to go? Just remove the old fried 110v line all together.. ?

 

[rallysman]

Good Call.. We disconnected the one breaker that seems to non-responsive.

I also have a 220v line going out to the fish room.. Found out the hard way, wired it up and fried some stuff last year.

The older, wiser, father type units were talking about wiring in a separate box off the 220v line, and breaking it down into a bunch of 110v lines, on it's own circuit with it's own box? Is this possible?

Does that seems like the best way to go? Just remove the old fried 110v line all together.. ?

The 220v line is made up of (basically) 2 110v lines. You can split it down for your fish room. you can feed 2 outlets with the 2 hot lines and share the neutral. I would check with an electrician so you can appropriately size the breakers though (if you change wire size)

 

[Miles]

Thanks for the help guys..

Looks like I will be calling an electrician monday, to charge me up the ying yang

Sucks too.. the 220v outlet is DIRECTLY under my 375g.. I will have to drain and move the tank to do the wiring. Almost not worth it.. wish spring would come around so I could build an outbuilding in my backyard. ugh.

 

[invisyblegypsey]

I agree, the only way to tell for sure is to get a volt meter or a circuit tester(can't recall the real name, Its a small pen like thing you put in your outlet and if you have a full circuit it lights up) or trace the line back from the last plug to the breaker box (taking the wire out to inspect)
I would not turn the breaker back on until you find the problem, it may start a fire in your wall if it is a broken line.

Probe

 

[tunerX]

Just remember 14 AWG is 15 amps and 12 AWG is 20 amps.

You can get a circuit tester that has 3 lights on it. It will help you determine if all of your leads are wired correctly. As far as having a short you need to find the pairs then use a multimeter to ohm out the wires. You can pick one up form lowes or home depot pretty cheap. It is a little cube with three lights on it.

Wires that burnt from overload may be caused from a breaker that didn't trip when it exceeded its max rating. This is a big problem, and can be caused by the following.

Lastly when you size your circuit you need to stay around 80 percent for a continuous load. If you have a 15 amp circuit then you should have a max continuous load of 12 amps. A continuous load is something that will be powered for more than 3 hours. This is to account for wire heat and atmospheric temp differentials.

 

[Bderick67]

I don't know, I will find out.

Myself and coworkers have been on a considerable amount of service calls that just required resetting a GFCI outlet. Also it will generally be the first outlet closest to the panel, so this is a good spot to trouble shoot to find problem wiring.

The older, wiser, father type units were talking about wiring in a separate box off the 220v line, and breaking it down into a bunch of 110v lines, on it's own circuit with it's own box? Is this possible?

You could put a subpanel here. What size wire is it? Is the wire copper or aluminum? What size breaker is the 2 pole 220v? Most likely the wiring is 2 hots and a nuetral, but does it have a ground wire? So 4 wires total.

 

[Miles]

I looked and found the 3 GFCI outlets that are in my house, 2 in the kitchen 1 in the bathroom.. It wasn't either of them, they aren't even on the same circuit.

I believe it is my basement circuit, I have been following the wiring through the ceiling. It looks as if the power cuts out at a light fixture, and everything beyond that is dead. The 2 outlets that are very close to the box work fine, but everything past the light switch is dead.

Could I have fried the light fixtures and/or switches?

Should I go ahead and try to replace these, before I have an electrician come out?

from the Sounds of it.. I should have an electrician come out anyways and look at everything and make sure everything is sound and good to go.. don't want this to happen again.

Definitely looks like I fried the line without tripping the breaker..