OUR POWER WAS GOING ON AND OFF DURING A WIND STORM THIS WEEK. ?

Now everything on my 220 line is not working correctly. Dryer is running but not heating. air is running but not cold. microwave is running but not turning. I checked and we do have full power in the lines. What happened?
I used an ohms meter into the outlet and the reading came out at 126 on each side. that is how I teated the power. I borrowed one from someone at work. also none of the breakers are tripped. this makes no sense to me
i put the ohms reader into a 220 outlet each side read around 126 each of resistance. that should mean that I am getting a total of 220 volts correct? I will call an electrician if I have to. I was hoping to fix this on my own hoping it was a no brainer. Thank you for your help but please there is no reason to be mean……Kimberly

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Comments (4)

#1 written by Ron G
about 2 years ago

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The list here could be endless. It sounds like one leg of the 220 is out. The most direct advice is call your insurance agent and an electrician.
#2 written by eagle
about 2 years ago

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Let’s assume that you are getting 220v to your house. I’m not a power company man so I don’t know if it is possible to get 110v without 220v. I’m going to guess that it is not. Therefore, the problem must be on the house side of the electricial box.
220v takes two wires connected to 110v supplies and a ground to provide 220v.
First, is there any circuit breaker that has fliped or turned off? If so, you are only getting one leg of the 220v supply.
The next guess I have is that there was an electricial short that burned out one of the legs and now you are only getting 110v.
I’m not an experienced electrician so you may need to call a repairman who has the skill to fix your problem. Good luck.
#3 written by callipygenous
about 2 years ago

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Please describe how you “checked”. I’m afraid from your explanation of the symptoms that I don’t believe you. In all likelihood you have a dead hot leg. I guess that the pot or pad transformer could have experienced a short and is now providing exactly 110 VAC rms on both hot legs. If this were the case and you measured the potential difference between the two hot legs, you would find it to be 0 VAC. You could also have all your breakers on one side of the main panel or all of your single poles on one side and all of your double poles on the opposing side. This would look like a poorly played game of connect four. Nothing that was 110 VAC would give you any problems (except that your load would be horribly unbalanced) but everything that was 220 VAC wouldn’t work correctly. The only other viable reason for these phenomena is that you do currently have 220 VAC and that during the windstorm you got hit by one helluva voltage surge and it miraculously destroyed exactly half of the working components in everything you own.

I was once asked on a test to give a probability for me suddenly appearing on the other side of a closed door. Believe it or not, according to QM theory, the probability is NOT 0, as you would expect. Pretty low, but not 0. Hey, I was as surprised as you are.

–EDIT–
“into the outlet” … huh? What outlet? A 110 VAC outlet? Or a 220 VAC outlet? If you did it on a 110 VAC outlet and merely flipped over the VOLTMETER leads, you will get exactly the same reading. I’m real hesitant to say this, but you need to crack open your main panel and measure the potential difference between the two main buss bars. For God’s sake, please be careful. BTW an ohmmeter measures resistance, not potential difference.

Tell ya what, just call the power company or an electrician.
#4 written by Nick the Tile Man
about 2 years ago

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During a storm everything can go wrong. I would install a device that will harvest wind energy during a storm and also during normal climate. If you have a power failure, the wind energy will continue to provide you with electric. During normal times, any extra energy that is unused can be sold to the utility company. The DIY kit is under 200 dollars but it would come in handy all year round.