Power Line to my house was broken

   / Power Line to my house was broken #291  
Related and may be of interest...

Last week Mom's 1980 Space Maker Microwave started taking 3x longer to heat a cup of water and my first thought is nothing lasts forever so I planned to pick up a new one for her Saturday... then she also started having furnace problems as in delayed combustion.

Friday after work 95 year old neighbor said his T12 4 bulb kitchen light just hums and sometimes glows so I replace with T8 ballast and new bulbs.

Meanwhile Mom's 1978 Amana Refrigerator compressor is having trouble starting but does

Im checking Mom's furnace and see and hear delayed ignition...

Put my Fluke Meter on line and measure 69 volts... go to neighbor and 69 volts... just then another neighbor comes home with a new microwave as a furnace repair drives up to another.

Low utility line voltage is the problem.

What is interesting is everyone's LED lights worked fine never missing a beat with the low voltage.

As darkness fell the street lights did not come on...

I call PGE and was told crews are dealing with record snow in the mountains but someone would be out... I said make sure it's the truck with a new transformer and she laughed saying there is no way to know until evaluated.

I let neighbors know and not a good idea to use furnace and microwave and turn off refrigerators... said electric cooktop ok.

24 hours later crew arrived and said our transformer picked up load for a failed transformer nearby and low voltage in afternoon/evening due to overloading.

It was interesting that street lights came on late at night when power measured 91 volts.

My take away is simply being able to turn on the lights is no longer a good indicator of power being on.

I still had a incandescent in shed and it was just a faint glow at 69 volts.

The furnace delayed ignition due to low voltage to ignitor but enough to flow gas on this 2005 high efficiency gas central furnace... the result was a boom each cycle.

After power restored I noticed my ups was unplugged and mom said it kept beeping... which is probably when the problem started and that was the day before!

When PGE left 117 volts measured at last house on the line...
 
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   / Power Line to my house was broken
  • Thread Starter
#292  
I thought that each house has it's own transformer? Does your moms house share a transformer with the neighbors houses?
 
   / Power Line to my house was broken #293  
I thought that each house has it's own transformer? Does your moms house share a transformer with the neighbors houses?
16 single family homes on transformer serving her and 13 on the other so 29 affected but I was the first to call in because no one realized because the lights "Worked"

Transformers circa 1957...

Wonder if all the new plug in cars factored...?

There are 4 out of the 16 neighbors and more around the corner.

Only one home had no issue... the roof covered in solar panels plus two Tesla Power Walls...
 
   / Power Line to my house was broken
  • Thread Starter
#294  
Do they all have 200 amp service? I'm shocked that a single transformer works for that many homes!!! I guess I just never noticed it before.
 
   / Power Line to my house was broken #295  
Do they all have 200 amp service? I'm shocked that a single transformer works for that many homes!!! I guess I just never noticed it before.
All these 2200-2400 square feet homes have 125 amp 240 service... most are still original circa 1950's.

All also have gas hot water and gas central furnace and only two have A/C and these are homes with new service at the time solar installed.

Have wonder with ban on new natural gas and the popularity of plug in cars and new home central air how the grid which is more than a 100 years old in some places can meet the challenge as these older neighborhood homes wired 30 amp 120 volt service.

It took a PGE crew of 4 vehicles and 8 people to change out transformer with some doing residential traffic control.
 
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   / Power Line to my house was broken #296  
That's a big drop in voltage. I'm surprised anything electronic worked on that. Hope there wasn't much damage to stuff because of the 'brown out'.
 
   / Power Line to my house was broken #297  
This was my concern but shortened life is hard to prove on old appliances...

The furnace boom could take out heat exchanger or worse...

PGE pays actual cash value if claim approved... been told $75 for 12 year old refrigerator so anyone's guess on 40+ years old.

I am surprised the LED and T8 seem to work just fine at 69 volts AC.

Also did not realize neighboring pole transformers can share load?
 
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   / Power Line to my house was broken #298  
Not only could the transformer be bad but it also could be a upstream auto booster or regulator that feds that section of power line.Some crews are chitty trouble shooters and blame a bad transformer when it could be a bad auto booster or regulator for low/high voltage problems.If the problem continues have them check those two things.Keep a eye on the furnace and appliances as they might go bad real soon.
 
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   / Power Line to my house was broken #299  
Speaking from personal experience, I can attest that these brown outs / failed neutrals don't jump to top of mind or at least top of me for me.

Just replaced the furnace blower motor; I noticed it was "grunting" longer and longer at each start up, but it took a while to register that something had changed. The HVAC service technician came December 8th, new motor ordered December 9th, second day air. (versus six weeks ground) Trane then proceeded to ship an empty box, a box with random part, a box with a motor with a bent axle, and finally this week the right motor. Only took four weeks for "2nd day air"... When the old motor was pulled, the original motor had 3/8" in/out play in the axle, so the bearings were totally shot. The house now gets warmer faster, which I think is due to better air circulation.

All the best,

Peter
 
   / Power Line to my house was broken #300  
Do they all have 200 amp service? I'm shocked that a single transformer works for that many homes!!! I guess I just never noticed it before.
Wow, I never seen a shared transformer either. My property has two and this is a "small" place. Both are 25kW. Places are too spread out around here to share a transformer.
 

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