chenley

Got a question for you seasoned electricians out there.

Went to a service call about a panel fire in a mobile home. The HO saw smoke coming from the breaker panel and flipped the main breaker off and her lights stayed on so she called the fire dept., which they called the POCO and they removed the meter.

It seems as if the "A" phase melted the the breaker at the contacts. Tested the main and "B" phase will open-close although "A" will not. The heat also charred the 60A DP above which still tested good. I went ahead a replaced both the main breaker and the 60A DP. Checked all the connections throughout the panel and everything is tight. Also checked continuity of the phases, nuetral and ground from the main panel to the service meter and that tested good.

Called the fire marshall, which had me call the electrical inspector which passed the install.

Talking with the HO for a bit, she had told me that her cieling fan in the bedroom burnt up, blowing the light bulbs out of the sockets. About a month before that the dishwasher burnt up and around five months ago had a embroidery machine where the motor burnt.

The question I have is what are the possibilities that would cause all this to happen? It seems to me that everything that has been going on there is tied together in some fashion.

All I can think of would be a loose neutral at the pole, which I will have the POCO check out when they stick the meter back in. If that is not the case, what else could cause this?

Obviously, I would like to resolve whatever the issue is, so this will not happen again.

electricista

Certainly a loose neutral could do damages as you described but usually it would show it's face more often then you stated. I wonder if the poco is having some big surge issues or perhaps lightning is causing these problems.

seo

I agree with electricista. Are there any muli-wire circuits where they may have a loose or (bad) neutral connection?

JohnJ0906

Were the things that burnt up on the same leg as the leg on the main that burnt up?

I just wonder if seeing an abnormally high voltage on that leg (as in a loose/open neutral scenario) would cause the breaker to burn up like that.

__________________
John from Baltimore
"One day at a Time"
All responses based on the '08 NEC
It's not my fault, it's not my problem, I'm not your solution.

BryanMD

Do any of the neighbors have similar problems/complaints?

__________________
March 2010: On the road with my RV. California is first primary destination then it is off to Eastern OR, Northern ID and Western MT for drycamping and fly fishing until Labor Day.

chenley

This occurred when the power was restored after the ice storm here, so the electric heat was probably going overtime heating the mobile home back up. She had stated that she was smelling something burning for 2-3 days but could not find it until the breaker started smoking.

It is a mobile home that was built around 1985, so there could be a loose neutrals all over the place. I would not be able to tell until the power is restored. I did check all the connections within the panel and they seem good and tight.

So far other neighbors have not complained about anything. The owners of the trailer parks contract with me to do all of their services and recommend myself to HO's when they call. It is up to them to call me though. There are four other trailers connected to the same transformer as this one. I will take reading on those four other services Monday, since there is access to the main disconnects to the service poles.

Seems like I'll be trying to find that 'ol needle in the haystack Monday.

chenley

Well, got the electric turned back on, checked all the loads. Ran the HVAC for about an hour and took temp reading throughout the panel. Did not find a thing, so I just wrote it up as a loose connection at the main breaker.

caseysbuilding

Electric can be very dangerous if not installed or connected properly. Scary http://www.caseysbuilding.com

brian john

Actually electricity is much more forgiving than we give it credit for. If it wasn't with the amount of hack work being completed out there 70% of the places wired would be burnt down.

crazyboy

Nice plug for your site

luby104

Just curious.

If there was a lose neutral connection... lets say at one of the receptacles,

and voltage was measured at that receptacle, would there be a voltage

drop?

nick

Well go around and check voltage at different points if its 154 volts or 80 or 40 volts 0r 167 volts it maybe high and low voltage due to the loads passing voltage between them to find a neutral point or ground to give voltage because it the neutral !!has been lost than you got a bad neutral some where in circuit .

Turn on a lite in one room lites go out in another room bad neutral . Start at you power source the main meter than disconnect tight up everything . take care

kbsparky

A bad neutral connection would not affect the available voltage at the mains. They are rated for 240 Volts, and would still have 240 Volts with or without the neutral. The neutral is not connected to the mains.

Any 240 Volt equipment would not see any change in its operation with a bad neutral condition.

__________________
-KB

Life is uncertain -- eat dessert first!

chenley

Had a loose neutral in a mobile home a couple of weeks ago. Just two receptacles were affected the second to last outlet on the line would read about 120V from H-N, then when a load was plugged in it would read about 120 H-G and the load would not work. Found the wing nut tying to neutral wires in a switchbox had come loose.

luby104

Sounds Good.

Many thanks!

B'phase

electrictim510

I wonder if maybe the burn on the phase may of caused the motors to give out because of the possible alteration in the copper or aluminum's chemical make-up due to the burn. I don't know, but I think voltage carries very different on damaged conductors, and for sure does not flow well on the burnt surface of such metals.