Electrical Service Question /Concern

[MossRoad]

We have friends that had just the opposite happen.... they turned onto their street at night, and as they approached their house, the exterior lights were REALLY BRIGHT. Turns out their drunken neighbor had backed into a power pole and somehow got 220V on their 110! Sheriff and Insurance Companies were involved.

 

[Looking4new]

As soon as
seeing the word "Hydro". I knew without looking that the poster is a Canadian and probably from Ontario or Quebec.

Echo Bay, east of Soo, ON.

South of North Bay,ON

 

[buickanddeere]

Echo Bay, east of Soo, ON.

Should have said so sooner.I have driven past your place twice a year for the past 18 years every September .

 

[buickanddeere]

South of North Bay,ON

How south ? Into Earlton or into Northern Muskoka ? Used to drive up there annually to the Matheson area.

 

[gwstang]

We have friends that had just the opposite happen.... they turned onto their street at night, and as they approached their house, the exterior lights were REALLY BRIGHT. Turns out their drunken neighbor had backed into a power pole and somehow got 220V on their 110! Sheriff and Insurance Companies were involved.

Something somewhat similar happened to me about 15 years ago. Took the family out for supper and a movie. There was a big thunderstorm at the home while we were gone about 30 miles away. When we returned about 9 pm I unlocked the front door and the lights we had left on were very bright...all of them. I walked down to the shop and got my voltage meter and checked. The voltage was at around 155V. Supposed to be around 115V. I called the power company and they came and checked and spent the next two hours replacing the transformer on the pole outside my home. I guess the storm zapped the transformer. Everything was back to normal after they left. I can still remember how bright the lights were, it was just unreal.

 

[Looking4new]

How south ? Into Earlton or into Northern Muskoka ? Used to drive up there annually to the Matheson area.

Earlton is North of New Liskeard. I am 40 miles south of N.Bay.
Are you around Sarnia, or Clinton areas?

 

[Mace Canute]

........Last night we had a severe wind storm and for a very short time period (maybe 2 seconds) the lights went out in maybe half the house random locations then came back on. Meanwhile the other areas in house were not effected. For example I was watching TV upstairs and it did not even flicker , and if you know satellite TV then you would know how typical it is for them to be effected. Same as down stairs TV my wife was watching, (different circuit too) did not flicker, but a light in another room went out and then came back on seconds later.

So what worries me is how can wind cause me to lose for a second or two just part of my power. (so it was not a brown out, it is was something else)

My first thought was loose connection pulled by wind either at pole or in my service panel but I am just guessing. Or is it possible that my Hydro supplier can send power interrupted like that ?

what thoughts , should I be investigating further ?

I'm assuming you have an overhead service with the meter at the house. If it's wind related it could be a loose connection somewhere on the secondary side on just one of the hot legs. The wind caused movement which wiggled it and caused it to open for a sec, then it made connection again and the current caused it to weld itself together. It will likely get worse and end up opening and staying open. It could be a secondary connection inside or outside of the transformer or any one of the connections (or a splice in the hot leg) on the secondary service line to the meter. It most definitely is not related to the primary feed to the transformer. If your service runs through trees the possibility exists that the insulation on one of the hot legs has been rubbed off and the line shorted to ground or to the neutral but that's not near as likely as a bad connection. Even more unlikely but possible is it's a bad connection in the meter box or in the panel or even internally in the main breaker and by weird coincidence it just happened when it was windy but I seriously doubt that's what happened. I've seen crimped connectors fail and even crimped splices. The electrical utility should be happy to trouble shoot it; I know we were always happy a customer called in before it went off in the middle of the night during a storm.

 

[MossRoad]

Something somewhat similar happened to me about 15 years ago. Took the family out for supper and a movie. There was a big thunderstorm at the home while we were gone about 30 miles away. When we returned about 9 pm I unlocked the front door and the lights we had left on were very bright...all of them. I walked down to the shop and got my voltage meter and checked. The voltage was at around 155V. Supposed to be around 115V. I called the power company and they came and checked and spent the next two hours replacing the transformer on the pole outside my home. I guess the storm zapped the transformer. Everything was back to normal after they left. I can still remember how bright the lights were, it was just unreal.

Our friends found the neighbor passed out in the bed of the pickup truck. Apparently, he was too drunk to drive home, so he had is 8-10 year old kid drive him home and back the truck into the driveway, which backed into a guide wire, that pulled the pole with the wires into a tree, which.... oh good grief!!! :laughing: Anyhow, they lost both garage door openers, stereos, TV, electric range, dishwasher, and pretty much anything else that had an electronic brain. Aaaannnnnddddd..... it happened again a year later only the kid wasn't driving. First time, insurance company just told them to go buy everything new and throw out the bad stuff. The second time it happened, the insurance company came out and confiscated all the burnt up stuff when it was replaced. Neighbor stopped drinking, but now (and this is in small, 65 x 135' lots) has a pit bull, half a dozen quacking ducks and a pig that snorts at our friends through the privacy fence cracks! Its a friendly snort, though! :laughing:

 

[wawajake]

That makes sense what Mace and Coby stated....thanks everyone......no trees along hydro line so considering they (Hydro company) had problems at transformer with it flipping last year , I will report it and hope their end connections of one leg being reviewed and maybe even fixed, prevents my end from needing to be worked on....on my dime.

 

[wawajake]

To Lookingfornew.............I helped my daughter build a house just off HWy 11 just a stones throw south of the MTO weigh scales between Callender and Powassen. (So just north of you I imagine) They had a nightmare dealing with Ontario Hydro with them charging ridiculous for pole installation and even my daughter having to pay to replace the pole on the rural road (not on their property) and then had service read billing charges always wrong for the first year, yep HYDRO company , Ontario's biggest boonddoggle yet.