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Lost leg, power company question.

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crucible

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 15, 2012
Messages
927
Location
Northern Virginia
We had the same issue happen two years ago: lost one leg and functionally lost power on every other breaker so nothing @240v would work (hot summer so no a/c nor well water either). Our power company came out quickly at night, installed the isolation transformer by 2:00am (!) and we were back in business. The next day they found our underground drop had a nick in that leg that had to have been arcing for a long while and finally gave out with recent storms (that nick was in there since 1986 when the drop was laid!)

Cheers to Dominion Power line crews!
 

jeepxj

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 2, 2008
Messages
17,891
An MWBC is a 240 V circuit, used as two 120V circuits. because the two hot legs are 180 degrees out of phase with each other, the neutral only carries the difference between the currents on the hot legs. the highest current on the neutral is when one leg is running at full power, and the other is at zero. At that point, it sees the rated current of one of the legs. If both hots are 100%, the neutral is zero.

If you make the two hots on the same leg, the neutral carries the sum of the two hot leg currents, potentially twice what it's rated for.

yet the power company still does it. they play by their own rules
 
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R

Radio Flyer

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 28, 2010
Messages
1,691
Location
Suburban Chicago
Following up.....

ComEd came out and spent about 2 hours at the junction box in the neighbors yard. They put the meter back in and now everything works. They said that the permanent repair is scheduled with a contract company for early June.

I wish I knew what was done for my own knowledge, but it really dosen't matter that much anyway.


Thank you GJ for all the help!
 

DAustin

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 30, 2021
Messages
5,166
Over the winter my daughter lost a leg to the meter of her house. Power company came out, pulled the meter and put a temporary fix in place. They said they would have a repair crew come out, but could not say when.

Today was the first time she turned on the A/C. The compressor does not come on. I Facetimed with her and noticed the meter is still out.


Any thoughts on if it may be related? She is 30 min away, and ill check it with a meter tomorrow. Any thing else to look at? Seems too coincidental to me.
I thought this was going to be a Moby **** kind of thing.
"From hell's heart I stab at thee; for hate's sake I spit my last breath at thee."
 
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