Half of the electrical outlets do not work and I do not know why?

Question

I bought my house about a year ago, and shortly after I bought it half of the outlets stopped working. My house was a duplex prior to me buying it and the person I bought it from converted it to a single family home. the lights and everything still work in all the rooms, even the baseboard heaters work as well. so I am confused to why the outlets stopped working.

Answer 1

sounds like a blown fuse to me. Or part of your electrical panel may be damaged. Do you have access to your own panel with fuses?

Answer 2

Hate to say this, but if it was a duplex, are you sure that the original owner didn't leave two services in place and one of them is turned off?

In any event, the old panel probably still serves about half the circuits.

Have you checked both panels?

Answer 3

Since you have tried the breakers, then either there is a switch turned off, a broken wire (loose)  or a Gfci is tripped and needs to be reset. Start in the bathroom, push the test and then the reset on the GFCI, continue to the kitchen, the garage and outside. Each should be tested monthly.  If this does not solve the problem, call a qualified professional electrician to do the work.

It would help if you knew just what happened before the outlets went off line. That gives a clue about the source of the problem and where to start looking for a solution.   Call an electrician.

Answer 4

get a plug tester from the hardware store and test the plugs and you will find one plug working on the top and not the bottom (or the other way round ) this plug will be burned out , when the house is wired several plugs are joined together in one circet and the conection between the wires is in the plug itself and one of these bars is burned out  

Answer 5

I would start with its history as a duplex and follow the wiring from the street into the house and through.  I think there is probably a second panel that served the other half of the duplex and was repurposed and it is now sitting in a closet with a breaker tripped that got overloaded early in your use of the house.  If the wiring is available, in the attic or basement or crawl space, follow it and see where it leads.   It maybe that the dead outlets were all on one circuit and where they come together a wire nut has worked free, especially if the floor flex a bit while walking so it is constantly shifting.

Answer 6

One of your curcuit breakers needs to be be reset or replaced.  Look at the panel box and if any of the breakers is in a different position, turn it off then back on.

Sometimes it is hard to tell, soo just reset all of the breakers until the curcuit is back on.

Answer 7

maybe they wired them to a single switch somewhere (stranger things have happened) and someone finally flipped the switch.  

Answer 8

Flick the circuit breakers very vigorously several times and the circuit may work. If that doesn't solve the problem get an electrician to check the wiring in the house. Something is not connected or there is a circuit breaker or fuse elsewhere.