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Thaxxx

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It's on its own breaker. Possibly the hall recepticals are on the same breaker. I didn't check. The reason I even asked about this is because it was so strange. I'm no electrician, but I know enough to know it's not normal.
 

alexebrenz

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I've connected my three XR30w G3 to the 220v instead of 110v (it was set to 110v). There was a "bang" loud sound then I disconnected all. Since I have one spare part of the power supply I tested all lights and all three are ok. However when I inserted the fuse of the good power supply in the one of the bad power supplies, there were another "bang". So the I returned the fuse to the good power supply but it didn't work. Do you know what is happening? Do I need to buy this chinese board? Is there a specific orientation to insert the fuse?
 

Brew12

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It's on its own breaker. Possibly the hall recepticals are on the same breaker. I didn't check. The reason I even asked about this is because it was so strange. I'm no electrician, but I know enough to know it's not normal.
@Paul B is almost certainly correct in his assessment. Your utility lost a phase to your house and then restored it. A typical home has 2 x 120V circuits that are 180 electrical degrees apart. If set up well, you should have 1/2 your 120V breakers on each one. Your 240V loads use 2 breakers side by side to connect the 120V circuits.

If you lost one of the 120V phases you would likely lose several rooms with no indication of a problem in any other rooms. This could easily make it look like only the Master Bedroom was impacted. All of the other outlets around it could have been working fine.
 

Brew12

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I've connected my three XR30w G3 to the 220v instead of 110v (it was set to 110v). There was a "bang" loud sound then I disconnected all. Since I have one spare part of the power supply I tested all lights and all three are ok. However when I inserted the fuse of the good power supply in the one of the bad power supplies, there were another "bang". So the I returned the fuse to the good power supply but it didn't work. Do you know what is happening? Do I need to buy this chinese board? Is there a specific orientation to insert the fuse?
Well, to start, you need to buy a new fuse for the good power supply. Fuses are a one use item. When they blow, they need replacing. That will fix the other supply.
Fuses are designed to protect against too much current, not too much voltage. It's possible you damaged the 3 power supplies and need to replace them.
Edit: If you can find a replacement for the board in the power supply, that would be much cheaper.
 

thatmanMIKEson

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Brew, he lost a phase coming into the house. The power company was probably working on a line and dropped a phase. Then it came back on as they fixed it. It is actually fairly common.
actually commenly when you drop a phase allot is affected like air conditioning water heater more receptacles than just one room and more than likely some lights. so just one room more than likely a receptacle could be going bad, they daisy chain together, or old, or a few things its really hard to diagnose over a couple sentences and to know for sure the problem then being able to replicate the problem again to be sure. but wait till it happens again and see all whats effected by it, if it truely is just one room see if it happens when you unplug something maybe
 

Paul B

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Yes it would affect anything that is 220 and is on in the home. As you said, we don't know that from a few sentences. But I have been a Master Electrician in Manhattan for 50 years and I have seen it many times and it is very common. Receptacles don't go bad then get good again. Not usually anyway.
Many circuits in a house are receptacles that are rarely, if ever used and many homes, especially this time of the year don't have air conditioning on but since the problem fixed itself, that is my best guess.
 

Thaxxx

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@Brew12
How is this possible?
The power in my master bedroom was off this morning. The rest of the house was working as normal. I'm looking around at all of the things in the room that should be on, but everything was off. As I was leaving the room to go to the fusebox to check it, I hear the TV click on. Everything is now turned on.
How is that possible without me resetting the fusebox? What happened to cause this? My house was built in 2007 if that helps.
Thanks...

@Paul B is almost certainly correct in his assessment. Your utility lost a phase to your house and then restored it. A typical home has 2 x 120V circuits that are 180 electrical degrees apart. If set up well, you should have 1/2 your 120V breakers on each one. Your 240V loads use 2 breakers side by side to connect the 120V circuits.

If you lost one of the 120V phases you would likely lose several rooms with no indication of a problem in any other rooms. This could easily make it look like only the Master Bedroom was impacted. All of the other outlets around it could have been working fine.
Ok a new update.
This just happened again. With another symptom.

The whole master bedroom is on one breaker. Overhead light/ceiling fan, and all outlets (6).
I walk in room, Alexa is off, modem is off, directv box is off. I got a nightlight and checked all the other outlets. All not working. I go and turn on the ceiling fan to check it. It turns on. And when I did, all of the outlets turned on. I turned the ceiling fan back off. The outlets turn back off. (all of them) I turn the ceiling fan back on. The outlet turn back on. I turn the ceiling back off. The outlets stayed on this time and have now been on for about 20 minutes.
Any thoughts?
 

Paul B

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That narrows it down and makes it very easy. It is obvoiusely on the fan circuit. But not the circuit breaker. Remove the switch first and check the wires in there. It won't be on the load side of the switch because the outlets are on the line side of the switch. I would bet it is in the fan switch box and those other outlets are all coming out of that box. There is a splice in there with a few wires and one of those wires are connected ti the switch. It's probably that splice.

When you move the switch by turning it on or off, those wires are loose and move disconnecting the circuit.
If you have more than one wire on the line side of that switch, it is most likely loose and thats the problem.

When you have the switch out, move it back and forth and see if the lights blink. If they do, you found the problem.

We didn't know before that this happened when you turned on the switch.

If you don't find the problem in there it is a neutral problem and will take more investigating
 

Thaxxx

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Okay.
I think your right. It made me think. What has changed in the fan since this started. The same day I believe, when this first happened a couple of days ago. I put clean sheets on the bed. When I shook out the sheet to spread it out, the sheet grabbed the chain on the ceiling fan and pulled on it hard and cut the fan off. It must of loosened the connection.
Thanks so much.
Time to do some exploratory surgery on the ceiling fan.
 
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Paul B

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Try the switch first, you don't have to stand on the bed to check it. If it isn't there it is probably a neutral in the ceiling fan box
 

biecacka

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Quick question, moving into a house with an unfinished basement. I will be finishing it in the near future, however the sump pump and the breaker box are about 6 ft away from one another. I will frame them off from the main room, but could I also use this as a sump room? Maybe make the room 6x8 or so. Or would that be too much risk with the humidity that close to breaker box.

thanks,
corey
 

biecacka

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Yeah, I’ll be using one regardless. The tank isn’t huge but it evaporates a fair amount if my last place was any indication.

corey
 

Paul B

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That dampness will be fine with the breaker box for 45 or 50 years. I worked in Con Edison Steam rooms where it was "raining" constantly and was about 110 degrees, filled with steam. I actually had to take a breath outside the room and hold my breath. The job took forever and there was a breaker box in there.
 

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That dampness will be fine with the breaker box for 45 or 50 years. I worked in Con Edison Steam rooms where it was "raining" constantly and was about 110 degrees, filled with steam. I actually had to take a breath outside the room and hold my breath. The job took forever and there was a breaker box in there.
There are areas of the country where the service panels are outside and the humidity is routinely sky high. They seem to do OK. The bigger issue is condensation. The electrical subcontractor for our house didn’t properly seal the conduit with the main service wires, letting cold air seep in and causing condensation on the 200A disconnect breaker, causing it to corrode in about 3-4 years.
 

Azure Scolymia

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I am getting ready to run a couple of dedicated 20 amp lines for a 300+ gallon build. This will be in an unfinished part of the basement. Code calls for gfi outlets. The problem is that gfi is notorious for flipping off if you look at it funny which would reek havoc with the reef. I am in the US. What options do I have?
 

Paul B

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If you are not going to have it inspected I would not use GFI breakers. On your tank you can add a few GFI recepticles. If one trips, it won't shut off your entire system.
If we went 100% by the code, we wouldn't be able to use anything.
 

Azure Scolymia

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If you are not going to have it inspected I would not use GFI breakers. On your tank you can add a few GFI recepticles. If one trips, it won't shut off your entire system.
If we went 100% by the code, we wouldn't be able to use anything.

Essentially everything will be run through an apex. If one trips it will cause all kinds of problems.
 

thatmanMIKEson

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I am getting ready to run a couple of dedicated 20 amp lines for a 300+ gallon build. This will be in an unfinished part of the basement. Code calls for gfi outlets. The problem is that gfi is notorious for flipping off if you look at it funny which would reek havoc with the reef. I am in the US. What options do I have?
A gfci braker is less likely to trip or wait till inspection then change back to regular receptacles or brakers..ppl do it all the time then change back to gfci protection before you sell the property... thats my quick cheap idea
 

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