As soon as you discovered the problem was not the house side of the meter, but the utility side of the meter is when you pack up and have the utility company come out. I'm an electrician and that's my rule of thumb. Last year a house lost half it's power, so I tested for voltage and then I tested for continuity. As soon as I found out it was the utility side where the issue was at I told the home owner they needed to contact the utility company and have them come out. Utility came and saw that the problem was on their side and fixed the problem. I went back to the house after they were done and retested everything to be sure the house was back to 240.
@@TheForgottenMan270this is true brotha!! But also there was breakers outside by meters that could be bad. Had to rule it all out so I'm not looking dumb
hey sparky, you ever hear of stray voltage? That panel could be energized always check for voltage specially after a storm. Good to see you taken on other ventures other then drains and sewers😂 great troubleshooting and a thumbs up for taking calculated risks 👍
I’m a 3rd year electrician. The moment you figured out some things are on and some things are off. You’re most likely missing a hot leg into the house.
I knew it when every other breaker in the row was dead. He could have found it right away if he tested the entrance lugs. Every light or outlet is on one leg or the other. If one breaker is bad, everything else would be on.
We had generator running at work but we had half power to building. One of the ceramic fuses on pole needed replaced. Boss said instead of waiting go get it and replace. I looked at him and said, I’m not Jesus and I’m not dying for you. Power company uses like 60 ft pole with special end and wear gloves that go to arm pits when replacing it. Happened 2 times in 30 years.
wise choice, especially if an insualtor is broken or cracked and you go fiddling without inspecting it first, touch it with hot-stick and it breaks off shorting out the primary. yeehaw, not only are you in for a wild ride of arc flashed eyes, a big shower of molten metal and then drilled by the power company, probably jailed after the hostiptal releases you. if it's fused upstream it wills top then, if it's not and on a recloser it could get reenergized and arc three or more times(depends on settings). and that all assumes the whole primary wire doesn't come down or make the ground live around the pole and kill you. 🤪
If your not qualified to work on electricity than don't do it. It takes years & years to get the confidence to work around electricity & feel confident in your abilities. It's Definitely not for the meak. Obviously your boss is teasing you? If he is not? Tell him to do it. He can be the hero for the day. There is a reason why there are minimum approach distances for qualified & unqualified people. I'm considered qualified with the right equipment. Let the generator run. It's doing its job. The right people will show up & repair the condition.
@@J-Colt Worked 16 years at a cheap shake Gannett newspaper when they were still making huge profit. Asked them to order some 1200 amp 600 volt fuses for a safety switch that feed air compressors needed to run presses & mailroom equipment. Told me to make one out a piece of copper tubing. Told them to go shit in thier hats & pull it over thier ears because no way I would do that. Asked them to put it in writing or send me an email so I could cover my butt.
@@J-Colt While on call I had to go to a building where IT guys found out remotely that they lost power to a lot of their equipment on a Saturday night. Found a dead leg on one of the incoming 240 volt legs so I called lazy foot dragging Exellon to report problem. They & linemen that came out gave me the fifth degree asking why I thought it was their fault. DA. Transformer on a pole was bad and it took them almost 24 hours to replace it.
Those gloves are absolutely not rated for any electrical work by them self. They are the outsider protective layer for the rubber gloves that you should be wearing. You might as well be wearing 3mil blue latex gloves. You need the rated rubbers and to be inspected and tested before using them if your going to poke around on hot electrical equipment.
@@gotspeed1212 Gloves MUST be inspected & dated stamped every 6 months. At the large hospital / research centers that I retired from each sparky had four pairs of 1,000 volt rubber gloves & outer canvas protection gloves & four pairs of 20,000 volt gloves & outer canvas gloves. Keep a set of each in main hospital & other set in furthest building. We would switch over to the remaining 4 sets of gloves when we sent the others out for testing. They had about 14 13,200 volt switchgear rooms. Luckily the combination hood & face shield had a built in cooling fan that we used while transferring or racking in or out 13,200 volt circuit breakers and tie breakers.
Time is money… you identified the issue after ~5 minutes as a provider issue. Nice job. Call it a done at that point and don’t waste time and money potentially putting yourself in harms way.
You were ok opening the customer service box before the wires. I would have skun the wires before the crimped connections to verify a bad hot leg before the weather head. 112 is low voltage for 120/240. Minimum at our utility is 113.6 volts. That would prove it was ComEd’s problem. Service loop was low, probably a broken basket at the pole. FYI, those gloves offer zero di-electric strength. They are for cut resistance only. Nice troubleshooting though. Very thorough. As a lineman we check the meter. If the meter is not lit up tells me we have a bad hot leg. They need 240 volts to light up. I wouldn’t need to do everything you did. I would check the connections at the mast & then the pole before the house. More than likely a bad connection up stream?
ANY utility company that would allow a primary set up like that is MICKY MOUSE, primary voltage should be around 118 volts, the minute I saw 112 volts at the main breaker I would have called the power company. You went too far. to make a video.
For not knowing anything you did a pretty good job. Although I would've tested the line coming into the panel in the house and said the outside doesn't look like it's been messed with it's probably related to the line being yanked down during the storm.
Those gloves are just leather Kevlar there not rated for electricity so be careful if there wet you will feel that 120 volts I use these glove every day but I wear my low voltage gloves for secondary work and primary gloves and sleeves for high voltage. I didn't want you to think because you got it from a lineman that there rated for electrical. Bye the way the issues is on the pole tree branch fell on the loop and pulled a phase apart or bad connection. I deal with this all the time. When someone complains about only half the house has power I go look at the meter and usually can tell if a phases is missing than find the issues
If the meters are smart and the failure is on the supplier side then they should automatically report the issue. This is in contrast to a failure on the sub panel which is invisible to the meter.
That's a good point 👉, ur totally right !! I never thought of that. I'm sure they are notified when the meter goes down. But I'm sure they are so over whelmed
Are you a licensed electrician too ? That's one thing I won't mess with. Electeic .... and HVAC ..😂 Good video though man. I would have called the power company as soon as i saw that line all hanging down.
Yea I have my electrical license but really like 99 % of electricians aren't licensed and they just work off their bosses license. Don't know nothing about hvac lol
"some things have power and some don't", start by making sure both legs are hot or three if three-phase. also checking all to neutral and ground(if sub panel). storms and issues are great at removing a phase/hot also breaking neutrals.
good video only advice is when you are tracking down a fault to a panel that could have a fault always check from ground to panel if your outside just stick one probe in the dirt and the other to the panel never know when that fault could have the casing live with 240 volts ( always remember it tickles to touch 120 but you wont forget you touched 240 )
Worse handyman failure that I heard about was when a guy attempted to clean an energized 200 amp panels buss bar with a steel brush. Set himself on fire and spent several days in a hospital. Only qualified people with the proper PPE should perform electrical work. Besides the yearly 8 hours of continuing education had to do sn OSHA 10 class to renew my electrical license.
You said there was 120v between the two hots. If one of the hots was loose I’d expect to see 0v there. So I’m guessing that the one hot is actually shorted to neutral. That way it’s conducting the power from the other hot to neutral giving you 120v.
Same happened to one of my rentals recently. Thanks to Duke the transformer was sending 244 down one leg and the other was zero :( Not covered under their insurance since there was no complaints about that transformer
by 15:48 service drop hanging low, unknown protective insulators separated and slid down the drop, meter not reading(lost a phase/hot at service mast or at pole), stop visually inspect the service mast to drop connections(binoculars from the ground), repeast at pole and call power company. not your issue and from the sounds of it, it's been fubar for a long while. the insulators may have been at the mast end, to cover it where near the roofing. often installed if there's going to be any work or repairs done near the drop.
You did that backwards. Find where it's good first. You sparkies are such drama queens. The moment you saw that triplex hanging low was your first clue. Duh.
You definitely did the right thing 👏. First assessment is it something thata my lane? I advise people of this stuff all the time if we can pawn the issue off on the utilty it costs them nothing so best to start there. Yea you can get hurt doing what your doing if there's a direct to ground or fault so I'm glad you had some training on the subject. Sometimes we have to play hard in a sandbox that's not our own! Grown adults having fun 😁.
15:45 Looks like all of the utility meters were blank screen which is a good indicator the problem is on the utility side as the meters are usually fed from one of the incoming legs of power. ua-cam.com/video/TlQX8L60OHo/v-deo.html (2:45), ua-cam.com/video/NFDS096bVdM/v-deo.html (1:30)
As soon as you discovered the problem was not the house side of the meter, but the utility side of the meter is when you pack up and have the utility company come out. I'm an electrician and that's my rule of thumb.
Last year a house lost half it's power, so I tested for voltage and then I tested for continuity. As soon as I found out it was the utility side where the issue was at I told the home owner they needed to contact the utility company and have them come out. Utility came and saw that the problem was on their side and fixed the problem. I went back to the house after they were done and retested everything to be sure the house was back to 240.
@@TheForgottenMan270this is true brotha!! But also there was breakers outside by meters that could be bad. Had to rule it all out so I'm not looking dumb
hey sparky, you ever hear of stray voltage? That panel could be energized always check for voltage specially after a storm.
Good to see you taken on other ventures other then drains and sewers😂 great troubleshooting and a thumbs up for taking calculated risks
👍
This is true , definitely should be more careful
I’m a 3rd year electrician. The moment you figured out some things are on and some things are off. You’re most likely missing a hot leg into the house.
This is true but I still have to rule it out, could have been a bad breaker outside
I knew it when every other breaker in the row was dead. He could have found it right away if he tested the entrance lugs. Every light or outlet is on one leg or the other. If one breaker is bad, everything else would be on.
We had generator running at work but we had half power to building. One of the ceramic fuses on pole needed replaced. Boss said instead of waiting go get it and replace. I looked at him and said, I’m not Jesus and I’m not dying for you. Power company uses like 60 ft pole with special end and wear gloves that go to arm pits when replacing it. Happened 2 times in 30 years.
Sounds crazy 🤪 tough stuff!!
wise choice, especially if an insualtor is broken or cracked and you go fiddling without inspecting it first, touch it with hot-stick and it breaks off shorting out the primary. yeehaw, not only are you in for a wild ride of arc flashed eyes, a big shower of molten metal and then drilled by the power company, probably jailed after the hostiptal releases you. if it's fused upstream it wills top then, if it's not and on a recloser it could get reenergized and arc three or more times(depends on settings).
and that all assumes the whole primary wire doesn't come down or make the ground live around the pole and kill you. 🤪
If your not qualified to work on electricity than don't do it. It takes years & years to get the confidence to work around electricity & feel confident in your abilities. It's Definitely not for the meak.
Obviously your boss is teasing you? If he is not? Tell him to do it. He can be the hero for the day.
There is a reason why there are minimum approach distances for qualified & unqualified people. I'm considered qualified with the right equipment. Let the generator run. It's doing its job. The right people will show up & repair the condition.
@@J-Colt Worked 16 years at a cheap shake Gannett newspaper when they were still making huge profit. Asked them to order some 1200 amp 600 volt fuses for a safety switch that feed air compressors needed to run presses & mailroom equipment. Told me to make one out a piece of copper tubing. Told them to go shit in thier hats & pull it over thier ears because no way I would do that. Asked them to put it in writing or send me an email so I could cover my butt.
@@J-Colt While on call I had to go to a building where IT guys found out remotely that they lost power to a lot of their equipment on a Saturday night. Found a dead leg on one of the incoming 240 volt legs so I called lazy foot dragging Exellon to report problem. They & linemen that came out gave me the fifth degree asking why I thought it was their fault. DA. Transformer on a pole was bad and it took them almost 24 hours to replace it.
Call the electric company. Don't try to be a hero.
True true but have to rule out my side
Those gloves are absolutely not rated for any electrical work by them self. They are the outsider protective layer for the rubber gloves that you should be wearing. You might as well be wearing 3mil blue latex gloves. You need the rated rubbers and to be inspected and tested before using them if your going to poke around on hot electrical equipment.
@@gotspeed1212 this is true
@@gotspeed1212 Gloves MUST be inspected & dated stamped every 6 months. At the large hospital / research centers that I retired from each sparky had four pairs of 1,000 volt rubber gloves & outer canvas protection gloves & four pairs of 20,000 volt gloves & outer canvas gloves. Keep a set of each in main hospital & other set in furthest building. We would switch over to the remaining 4 sets of gloves when we sent the others out for testing. They had about 14 13,200 volt switchgear rooms. Luckily the combination hood & face shield had a built in cooling fan that we used while transferring or racking in or out 13,200 volt circuit breakers and tie breakers.
Time is money… you identified the issue after ~5 minutes as a provider issue. Nice job.
Call it a done at that point and don’t waste time and money potentially putting yourself in harms way.
This is true but there was breakers outside and didn't want to look dumb but I definitely have to get more efficient
“Check engine light”
😂
You were ok opening the customer service box before the wires. I would have skun the wires before the crimped connections to verify a bad hot leg before the weather head. 112 is low voltage for 120/240. Minimum at our utility is 113.6 volts. That would prove it was ComEd’s problem. Service loop was low, probably a broken basket at the pole. FYI, those gloves offer zero di-electric strength. They are for cut resistance only.
Nice troubleshooting though. Very thorough.
As a lineman we check the meter. If the meter is not lit up tells me we have a bad hot leg. They need 240 volts to light up. I wouldn’t need to do everything you did. I would check the connections at the mast & then the pole before the house. More than likely a bad connection up stream?
Good info bro!!
ANY utility company that would allow a primary set up like that is MICKY MOUSE, primary voltage should be around 118 volts, the minute I saw 112 volts at the main breaker I would have called the power company. You went too far. to make a video.
For not knowing anything you did a pretty good job. Although I would've tested the line coming into the panel in the house and said the outside doesn't look like it's been messed with it's probably related to the line being yanked down during the storm.
@@imark7777777 but there was also breakers out there which I had to rule out
Missing a hot leg. Service drop looked low should be higher. I'd also report the cut meter tag to the utility company.
Amen brotha!
Welcome back. You are right Comed problem. Please just leave it alone.
Wooo lol 😆 wish I could
Those gloves are just leather Kevlar there not rated for electricity so be careful if there wet you will feel that 120 volts I use these glove every day but I wear my low voltage gloves for secondary work and primary gloves and sleeves for high voltage. I didn't want you to think because you got it from a lineman that there rated for electrical. Bye the way the issues is on the pole tree branch fell on the loop and pulled a phase apart or bad connection. I deal with this all the time. When someone complains about only half the house has power I go look at the meter and usually can tell if a phases is missing than find the issues
Good info bro!
You are definitely playing with fire . Ones slip and touch something you’re not supposed to get roasted
If the meters are smart and the failure is on the supplier side then they should automatically report the issue.
This is in contrast to a failure on the sub panel which is invisible to the meter.
That's a good point 👉, ur totally right !! I never thought of that. I'm sure they are notified when the meter goes down. But I'm sure they are so over whelmed
Same thing happened to my building 120v and 59v on all 3 panels wire fried on the comed side if you're not testing you're guessing.
Amen dude!! Gotta rule it out, don't wanna look dumb
Are you a licensed electrician too ? That's one thing I won't mess with. Electeic .... and HVAC ..😂 Good video though man. I would have called the power company as soon as i saw that line all hanging down.
Yea I have my electrical license but really like 99 % of electricians aren't licensed and they just work off their bosses license. Don't know nothing about hvac lol
Well he did pretty good, he traced it down....and then knew when to stay in his lane.
I could only do so much
"some things have power and some don't", start by making sure both legs are hot or three if three-phase. also checking all to neutral and ground(if sub panel).
storms and issues are great at removing a phase/hot also breaking neutrals.
Good info!!
good video only advice is when you are tracking down a fault to a panel that could have a fault always check from ground to panel if your outside just stick one probe in the dirt and the other to the panel never know when that fault could have the casing live with 240 volts ( always remember it tickles to touch 120 but you wont forget you touched 240 )
If one line is connected to the panel it will be 120V to ground. You can't possibly have 240v to ground.
Good info!
@@pmarquisYT anything is possible and that is why you check
What I would do if not sure which meter to look at is to cut the main breaker in the apt and look for the meter that isn't running.
Worse handyman failure that I heard about was when a guy attempted to clean an energized 200 amp panels buss bar with a steel brush. Set himself on fire and spent several days in a hospital. Only qualified people with the proper PPE should perform electrical work. Besides the yearly 8 hours of continuing education had to do sn OSHA 10 class to renew my electrical license.
@@JohnThomas-lq5qp yea I did 2 OSHA 10s and a OSHA 30
You said there was 120v between the two hots. If one of the hots was loose I’d expect to see 0v there. So I’m guessing that the one hot is actually shorted to neutral. That way it’s conducting the power from the other hot to neutral giving you 120v.
Yea definitely lost a leg
Same happened to one of my rentals recently. Thanks to Duke the transformer was sending 244 down one leg and the other was zero :(
Not covered under their insurance since there was no complaints about that transformer
Holy crap!@
by 15:48 service drop hanging low, unknown protective insulators separated and slid down the drop, meter not reading(lost a phase/hot at service mast or at pole), stop visually inspect the service mast to drop connections(binoculars from the ground), repeast at pole and call power company. not your issue and from the sounds of it, it's been fubar for a long while.
the insulators may have been at the mast end, to cover it where near the roofing. often installed if there's going to be any work or repairs done near the drop.
Love it! Good info bro!!
You did that backwards. Find where it's good first. You sparkies are such drama queens. The moment you saw that triplex hanging low was your first clue. Duh.
I still have to rule it out, there was breakers outside
You definitely did the right thing 👏. First assessment is it something thata my lane? I advise people of this stuff all the time if we can pawn the issue off on the utilty it costs them nothing so best to start there. Yea you can get hurt doing what your doing if there's a direct to ground or fault so I'm glad you had some training on the subject. Sometimes we have to play hard in a sandbox that's not our own! Grown adults having fun 😁.
Nailed it bro!! Couldn't say it better myself!
"thinks he could" lol 🤣
Lol 😆 all the trades pick on the handyman so I have to make a interesting title 😆
be careful, thxs for sharing...
Always! Thanks!
You better have good insurance and a good lawyer working around there, ask me how I know, RUN AWAY NOW.
I try to limit liability ad much as possible. It might not look it but I do. I turn down alot of jobs
15:45 Looks like all of the utility meters were blank screen which is a good indicator the problem is on the utility side as the meters are usually fed from one of the incoming legs of power. ua-cam.com/video/TlQX8L60OHo/v-deo.html (2:45), ua-cam.com/video/NFDS096bVdM/v-deo.html (1:30)
Yea good call on that!
Score the edge always so it doesn't peel the paint.
I usually do but I felt it might come off. Than sometimes I screw myself lol
It's obvious you lost a leg to the units 🙃
Still have to rule out my side tho
Brave!
Sometimes
🤣🤣pulls out the leather man
Lol 😆
They sheathed that roof with lasagna. Wtf?
Lol 😆 Romen can't fix that!!