# No power after trying to change outlet - Help plz!



## gregzoll (Dec 25, 2006)

I am still scratching my head on this one. Sorry, but you are lucky you did not cause more damage. If half the house is out, You probably blew one side of the main breaker, knocked the neutral loose at the panel, or worst yet, burned up one leg if the branch circuit you were working on, was not properly installed originally.

By a lot of breakers, are we talking 4, 6, 100? Since you did not do the right thing in the beginning by killing power to that circuit, you now get to go through and figure out why you have no power on what? A bunch of outlets, a bunch of outlets and lights? Stating that half the house has no power, is like saying that you think that it is dark outside, but you see what appears to be sunshine peaking through your drapes.


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## jproffer (Mar 12, 2005)

Sometimes a tripped breaker will look like it's on. And yes, next time do turn off the breaker first ....but the past is the past, so......

If you can find out what breaker controls the devices that are not working, that would help a lot. If you do, you could try to put the wires in question on a different breaker and see if that helps. I'm guessing that it wont. I don't think it's a bad breaker, but ya never know.

Could be the short you caused blew apart a connection that was already marginal....but one step at a time, see if you can track down the breaker.


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## joecaption (Nov 30, 2011)

Most likly just a tripped GFI someplace in the house, it could be on the porch, kitchen. bathrrom garage.
I hope you were not changing out and old two prong for one with 3.


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## dearly23 (Dec 26, 2011)

joecaption said:


> Most likly just a tripped GFI someplace in the house, it could be on the porch, kitchen. bathrrom garage.
> I hope you were not changing out and old two prong for one with 3.


yes i was trying to change a two to a three. you mean you can't do that?


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## dearly23 (Dec 26, 2011)

gregzoll said:


> I am still scratching my head on this one. Sorry, but you are lucky you did not cause more damage. If half the house is out, You probably blew one side of the main breaker, knocked the neutral loose at the panel, or worst yet, burned up one leg if the branch circuit you were working on, was not properly installed originally.
> 
> By a lot of breakers, are we talking 4, 6, 100? Since you did not do the right thing in the beginning by killing power to that circuit, you now get to go through and figure out why you have no power on what? A bunch of outlets, a bunch of outlets and lights? Stating that half the house has no power, is like saying that you think that it is dark outside, but you see what appears to be sunshine peaking through your drapes.


There are 14 breakers on two sides. Both side have working breakers. I have not gone through and checked them all. It's dark here, so I have to wait until daytime to monkey around with this. I am so bent out of shape right now! I have a feeling this is going to cost me....have to call an electrician! No money!


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## Billy_Bob (Sep 11, 2008)

I recommend that you not do any electrical work and call an electrician from now on.


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## joecaption (Nov 30, 2011)

Nope, not unless the house has been rewired and there's a ground now all the way back to the panel.
You needed to install a GFI instead and put the tag that comes in the box on it that says ungrounded outlet.


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## gregzoll (Dec 25, 2006)

dearly23 said:


> yes i was trying to change a two to a three. you mean you can't do that?


Only with a GFCI, and you have to put the label on that states that it is not grounded.


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## gregzoll (Dec 25, 2006)

dearly23 said:


> There are 14 breakers on two sides. Both side have working breakers. I have not gone through and checked them all. It's dark here, so I have to wait until daytime to monkey around with this. I am so bent out of shape right now! I have a feeling this is going to cost me....have to call an electrician! No money!


You are telling all of us, all of the power is out in the house, and you do not have a flashlight? I would suggest going through and cycling each breaker, starting with the main.

How old is this house, and what is the manufacturer of the breaker panel? If the outlet circuit you were working on now, was like my house was, before we completely rewired it, it could end up feeding a large part of the house, including lighting circuit. I still have one circuit that has lighting on it, and only because I would have to tear apart some walls to redo.


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## dearly23 (Dec 26, 2011)

gregzoll said:


> Only with a GFCI, and you have to put the label on that states that it is not grounded.


So if this is not a problem with the breaker, what else do you think it could be? There are lights and outlets not working (no GFI ones).


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## gregzoll (Dec 25, 2006)

Bad junction point somewhere. Do you have a basement or crawlspace? Do you know if this place was ever rewired? How many wires were there inside that outlet box that you were working on? Also, how old is this place, can you please post the manufacturer of the breaker panel.


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## dearly23 (Dec 26, 2011)

gregzoll said:


> Bad junction point somewhere. Do you have a basement or crawlspace? Do you know if this place was ever rewired? How many wires were there inside that outlet box that you were working on? Also, how old is this place, can you please post the manufacturer of the breaker panel.


TRI-shield GFI is the sticker on the breaker panel box. I don't know about the rewiring history of the house. House was built in '62 and we bought it it '96. There were four wires in the outlet I was attempting to change. I have a finished basement and the house is a ranch. I changed all the light switches in the house and the bathroom and kitchen outlets with no problems when I bought the house. I guess I was lucky until now!


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## Wildie (Jul 23, 2008)

I was wiring houses in 1962 and Romex grounded cable was a requirement at this time.
Grounded cable was a new code requirement at that time.
Two prong receptacles were allowed because manufacturers had too much product in stream! They lobbied that these devices would be allowed and then their replacement cost could be off loaded to consumers at a later date.
Its a good bet that your home does have grounded wire in place. You can tell by looking in the electrical boxes and checking to see if a bare copper wire is connected under a screw at the back of the box.
You will also see the bare copper ground wires in the electrical panel.
There are devices for checking wires for power. For around $10 you can buy a probe. If the probe held near a hot conductor, it will give a signal that it is hot.
So, with the panel cover off, you can hold the probe near each conductor where its attached to the breaker and find which one is dead.

Whenever, I move into a new place, the first thing that I do (electric wise) is identify what each breaker supplies and then write it down on a list, taped to the panel. 
This will save having a problem like you are experiencing.


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## gregzoll (Dec 25, 2006)

Now, what colors were in there for that junction box that you changed the outlet in? As for the breaker panel, really need to know the manufacturer on it if you could. There are some panels that at that age of a home, it may have one, and it could be the problem when you tripped the breaker. Just having one circuit go out in one room, would not shut half the house down, unless they wired the house with a lot of multi-wire branch circuits, or someone did some creative wiring back some time ago.

You can get testers that will tell you what breaker goes to what circuit, but in your case, you first need to visually go through and check everything on that circuit, to make sure that someone did not wire in a GFCI, and that could be what is causing it. Look behind stuff, inside cabinets, in the garage behind shelves, outside, you never know. I know how my house is wired, due to I did it, but the next guy may not, is why when things are done, you should make notes and leave it on the panel, and hope the next guy/gal does not toss it.


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## dmxtothemax (Oct 26, 2010)

dearly23 said:


> Anyhow, now part of my house has no power. All the breakers show on. I shut them all off and on again several times, but still no power. Do you think the breaker is now somehow shot or something else happened?


What testers do you have ?
Is all the non functioning part of the house
coming from one breaker?
Or even one seperate hot ?
Or are the problems spread across 
multipule circuits ?


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## AlKapone (Sep 11, 2011)

Seen this before... Could be the same problem. The dead short you caused was so harsh it bypassed your main breaker and hit A. your taps or B your meeter connections. If they were already old or corroded this was enough to knock them loose. If you lost one leg every other breaker will have power from top to bottem. Call your power company and tell them half of your house is out and dont mention that you did it. lol. Outside of the house is their problem and here (in philly) this job is FREE. If you say its arching they will be there pretty quick. Good luck and i guess i dont have to tell ya what to do first next time...


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## dearly23 (Dec 26, 2011)

Ok, here's the scoop today. I figured out what I did wrong and yes you all can have a good laugh at me. When I took out the old outlet, I then had no power because I obviously disrupted the electrical flow. When I put in the new outlet, the flow then continued. That's all it was! I certainly know very little about electrical wiring....well now I know a little more! :wink: Thanks very much everyone for trying to help me.


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## jproffer (Mar 12, 2005)

Can't speak for everyone else, but I assumed you already had the new one in and STILL didn't have power.....nothing to feel bad about...glad you got it figured out. :thumbsup:


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## matt151617 (Jun 26, 2011)

Go to Amazon or a home improvement store and get a book on basic wiring. It'll help a lot. You were lucky this time, so use this as a learning lesson. You don't want to screw up wiring because it'll either hurt/kill you or someone else or start a fire.

What did you think was going to happen btw when you didn't shut off the power? Did you think if you held it right it wouldn't spark?


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## justincase123 (Oct 24, 2010)

Don't feel too bad! I lived in my house 15 years before I finally figured out why one of the plugs in the LR never worked. Finally gave up on the lamp that was supposed to go there and threw it out. I had changed the outlet out and it still did not work, so I just quit trying. Just this week when I had trouble with another plug I logged on here and got the right answers to fix the other plug, but that one plug still didn't want to work. I happened to look on the wall and thought -- What is that extra wall switch for ? I had always thought it went to the hall light, so I tried it and it did not work the hall light, Then I remembered, this house was built in the 70's and they used to put a wall switch to one of the plugs to turn a lamp on and off with a wall switch, usually in the LR. I flipped the wall switch on and tried the plug and plug works fine. Now if I just had my lamp back....:laughing::laughing:


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## AlKapone (Sep 11, 2011)

lol well glad ya got it done. When i was a kid I took my dads new car out at night, parked it at a girls house and when i went to leave it wouldent start. I was freaking out of coarse. Called my buddy to help me and we found out you can turn a car off but you cant start it when its in drive. lol


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## jproffer (Mar 12, 2005)

> parked it at a girls house





> we found out you can turn a car off but you cant start it when its in drive.



Little too much of a hurry to get in there and...  ....were ya??

:jester:


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