Nice 1980”s ranch, no major issues until I got to checking appliances and electrical system. The following are items that I encountered. Can anyone give me a clue as to what may be going on.
[FONT=Arial]1. [/FONT]The guest bedroom light / fan, the living room light / fan, the front porch light, the foyer light, the range, the dishwasher and the refrigerator all exhibited signs of low power
[FONT=Arial]2. [/FONT]The compressor on the refrigerator did not operate, the interior light was on but dim, turning the units control knob to off caused the light to brighten to normal
[FONT=Arial]3. [/FONT]The burners on the range top would not reach higher than approximately 200 degrees and the oven and broiler elements did not heat up at all
[FONT=Arial]4. [/FONT]The a/c system would not respond at all, not even the circulation fan
[FONT=Arial]5. [/FONT]The water heater did not work
[FONT=Arial]6. [/FONT]Turning off a 20 amp single pull breaker caused some lights to brighten; it also gave power to an outlet that was w/o power earlier when tested.
[FONT=Arial]7. [/FONT]Turning off the 30 amp water heater breaker caused the living room ceiling light / fan to lose power.
[FONT=Arial]8. [/FONT]Flipping the switches at the foyer and front porch light caused the sound of the dishwasher’s motor to change pitch.
[FONT=Arial]9. [/FONT]There were a few areas of handyman wiring but just a few added light fixtures in closets
I had a similar situation several years ago but not to this degree and just made a call for an electrician but now I’m curious.
One of the legs of 120v is not working - most likely a bad main breaker.
Some of the 120v circuits will work normally.
The rest of the 120v circuits are being fed power through the 240v appliances. The elements in the water heater (and possibly other 240v appliances) are conducting the power through them to the remainder of the 120v circuits, albeit not very well since they have high resistance.
The 240v circuits will not work because there is no voltage potential between L1 and L2.
The line side of the main breaker will show 120v to ground and neutral, because of the 240v appliances that are on. If one were to read voltage from L1 to L2, the meter will read 0. (I know the SOP says we aren’t required to do this - I am comfortable with it).
Seen it dozens of times during my sentence working in apartments.
After checking his list again I think that you’re correct. Since we see the panel cover has been removed and there has been extensive testing to the circuits wouldn’t a simple voltage check at the service be SOP?