My electric keeps going off without dripping the box? anyone help?

Question

My Electric keeps going off without tripping any of my box, when we switch everything off and all electric switches in the box after a few times it comes back on, any ideas????? A friend came out and looked at the box and checked all the sockets and can not find anything wrong but there must be something going on.

Answer 1

If your entire  house or apartment goes off at once it is either a power failure, a bad feeder to your house, or the main breaker.  When your power goes out, do your neighbors lose power as well?  If not, the problem is isolated to you.  

If only one circuit in the house goes out but does not trip the breaker it is loose wiring somewhere along the line but most likely at the one breaker or the associated neutral wire.  It COULD be a bad breaker but this is rare.  

If the entire house goes out, this could be the main feed to the breaker or the main breaker itself.  It could also be a faulty meter.

You need to have a real electrician and not just some friend look at this.

Answer 2

My brother in law was electrocuted at the age of 26, so don't  attempt to guess the solution.  Get a qualified electrician to  source the problem. You don't get a second chance if you're wrong.

Answer 3

Call your area suppler and see if they have a problem at the sub station or something.

Answer 4

Loose connection? Make sure you wear rubber gloves and rubber-soled shoes like trainers and wiggle the wires while the power's on. If you see a flicker of light it's a loose connection.

Also check the meter, although I doubt anything's wrong with it or your problem wouldn't go away after fiddling with the trip switches.

Lastly, call the electric company and get them to send someone.

Answer 5

That used to happen in my previous house and I found that if I tried  turning off an electric appliance that I was using at the time if it still happened. It turned out to be a problem with my kettle!

Answer 6

It sounds like a loose connection in the box, especially if the switches aren't tripping.  If your friend, who I'm assuming is a spark, could not detect any loose connections then it must be due to the supply and will need checking out by your utility company.  It's inportant to use the rightr equipment to check for loose connections because sometimes it could be a break in a wire not visible to the eye.

Answer 7

the next time it goes out you need to check and see if you have power coming in to the main breaker in the panel, it will most likely be the only breaker in the panel marked 200A, and is usually located at the very top of the panel by itself. (BE VERY CAREFUL WHEN TESTING THIS, AS THIS MUCH CURRENT WOULD KILL INSTANTLY. DO NOT TOUCH IT.

I would get a cheap conductivity proximity tester. the kind that lights up and/or beeps when it gets near current.

If there is no current at the main, then you most likely have a faulty electrical meter, this is rare but does happen, and symptoms of this would be as you described.

you would have to contact your local electrical service provider for any maintenance on the meter.

Hope this helps.