Gcox
11-25-2009, 10:17 PM
I recently worked with a tenant who was having a strange electrical problem in 30-year-old rented house. In the master bedroom the voltage would drop from around 120V to about 70V every time a lamp was turned on. This was resetting the clock radio each time.
The landlord thought this was going to be a major job like replacing the entire electrical panel - which he could not afford. So we decided to tackle this ourselves. After checking all the receptacles in the room I assumed we had a bad circuit breaker so it was replaced. The problem did not go away.
It turns out the problem was with a receptacle in another room. There was one common wall with the master bedroom so the receptacle was on the same circuit. One side was badly burned. The wires were so brittle I’m surprised it carried any load at all. I would guess they nearly had a house fire. There is no telling what caused it, but I feel better having replaced the breaker anyway.
We took a photo for the out-of-state landlord, and I’ll attach it for anyone else who is curious.
http://www.thelemonclub.com/images/outlet_damage.jpg
The landlord thought this was going to be a major job like replacing the entire electrical panel - which he could not afford. So we decided to tackle this ourselves. After checking all the receptacles in the room I assumed we had a bad circuit breaker so it was replaced. The problem did not go away.
It turns out the problem was with a receptacle in another room. There was one common wall with the master bedroom so the receptacle was on the same circuit. One side was badly burned. The wires were so brittle I’m surprised it carried any load at all. I would guess they nearly had a house fire. There is no telling what caused it, but I feel better having replaced the breaker anyway.
We took a photo for the out-of-state landlord, and I’ll attach it for anyone else who is curious.
http://www.thelemonclub.com/images/outlet_damage.jpg