electricity question

[robinthegeek]

Maybe someone here can help me with this. I live in a cabin up in a forest, and it's been raining and windy here. When I woke up this morning, non of my florescent bulbs are working, the one above my sink, and the main one in the living room. Also my exhaust fan isn't working. The rest of the lights in my place are all very dim! Anyone ever had this happen?

Robin

[big rockpile]

Had this happen to me,it was a Breaker at the Substation.Called the Electric Company they took care of it.

I would be worried using some things until it is corrected.

big rockpile

[Fla Gal]

Welcome to the board. Did you go to the electrical panel box and check the breakers, or fuses if you have them?

[fordy]

...................I'm assuming that you don't have a Voltage test meter . Personally , I'd go to Home depot or Lowes and buy a 30 dollar or so volt meter and learn how to read the voltage for your home so you can atleast know what your electrical system is doing , fordy...

[BobBoyce]

Sounds like one heck of a brownout ;-)

Contact the utility and let them trace it out.

Bob

[robinthegeek]

Problem solved! Shortly after I posted that message the power went out completely, due to the storm, but it's back on now. The power goes out quite a bit here, but I'd never experinced the dim light scenario before. Thanks to everyone for the tips and advice.

Robin

[Darren]

In a situation like that, don't run anything with a motor. The refrigerator, as an example, should be unplugged.

[aaatraker]

Originally Posted by robinthegeek

Problem solved! Shortly after I posted that message the power went out completely, due to the storm, but it's back on now. The power goes out quite a bit here, but I'd never experinced the dim light scenario before. Thanks to everyone for the tips and advice.

Robin

Maybe you should think of getting a backup system for when you loose power. There's been lots of threads on this board on what works and is cheap. Do a search of the threads to fine the information.

[Windy in Kansas]

It sounds like--one side of the 220 voltage lines went out. Basically two 110 volt lines are used to produce 220. A breaker box will often have breakers on each side, thus taking 110 off each side. When the power went out on one side your circuits on the side losing power went out entirely.

As to the low voltage on the other side, I would suspect that a line snapped somewhere and the lost 110 line was laying on the other 110 line shorting it enough that limited power was all that was going through.

That is putting it in the simple form as voltages are higher and then transformed. Still there are two power lines and a ground making up a system.

I don't know how cold your cabin is, but a fluorscent light often will not work at colder temps.