Electical Problem...

You need an electrician NOW. Your house may be about to burn down.

Yes, you need an electrician. This sounds like a grounding problem and it can be very serious.

You are overloading the circuit and the breaker is tripping. Stop doing that.

Electric heaters usually draw heavy current. If the circuit that the heater is plugged into has a loose connection somewhere between the heater and the circuit breaker, there will be significant voltage drop at the loose connection. The insidious thing about that is that there will be considerable heat generated at that point... likely sufficient heat to cause a fire.

Get an electrician pronto!!!

He doesn't understand that you can't reset the breakers while the overload still exists.

There are many things which have auxiliary inputs on them - some VCRs, Radios, Etc....... I am curious - just what did he "plug the heater into" - to power it? NONE of those devices are made for that kind of abuse. Many of the cheap power strips won't even handle it. As stated above - heaters drain current. The "devices" it was plugged into - probably have melted connections - luckily they didn't catch fire.

I agree, if he plugged it into the wall outlet and still nothing - get help FAST. While you're at it, if you still live in the place, install a smoke detector to get your family out just in case. Should have a Smoke Detector in home - anyway. That electrical problem is a fire waiting to happen.

I can't tell you how many "electrical" fires I've helped extinguish in the last year - many of which caused extensive damage. Too many to keep count. DO NOT PLAY with that problem. GET HELP.

I would like to reassure you that you need an electrician. I suspect you have "back stabbed" outlets. The wires were stuck >Alright i'm just going to go ahead and establish the fact that i dont

This is OK for lighting but it is lunatic for power outlets.

You have an issue with the circuit that is in that room. After reading your message here, i would suggest you hire an electrician very soon other wise, the next message you'll be sending will be to one of your relatives (that's still alive)! if you get my meaning!

That may be it. Quick solution is to stop using that heater. But all the advice about calling an electrician still holds. There may be a very hazardous problem with the wiring.

Hi...

Gives me flashbacks to the horror days of aluminum.

I'll second or third or wherever we're at to the motion to get an electrician as soon as possible.

Meantime, plug in as little as possible. Turn on as few lights, etc., as possible.

At outlets that do have things plugged in and turned on, use the palm of your hand to feel around the outlet, feeling for unexpected warmth. Do the same at light switches that are turned on.

Check and double check the batteries in your smoke detectors.

And get it checked. Now.

Take care.

Ken

This sounds like a grounding or neutral return problem. I strongly suggest a qualified electrician. There can be serious safety hazard risks with bad electrical wiring and installations.

--

JANA _____

You see everytime i plug this heater in with another appliance the outlet doesn't work any more, or suddenly stops working. Well one day i had the heater in with another appliace and it made half the outlets in the room unusable. Well i went down to the garage and turned off the curcuits breakers and cut them back on. When i went upstairs they still didn't work && the lights dont seem to work either. The thing is though, non of the lights were on it was, the middle of the day their was no use for them. I dont understand why this is screwing up to much.

I know i probably need an electrician but i'd just like some people who know what they're doing to reassure me i do.

I lived in an apartment building wired with all aluminum. Whoever the electrician was he did a first class job. Everything was done to code or beyond and there was never a problem.

I worked in a commercial building also so wired. When half the lights and outlets failed I went out to the outside switch room and peeked in. I only had to hear the arcing sounds for a coupe of seconds to know to get the hell out of there. We called the owner who called in a team to work on the place. I'd already noticed that some of the outlets seemed to be warmer than expected but since it was none of my business I'd let it alone!

Thus spake JANA:

OK, he needs an electrician, pronto.

But why does it sound like a neutral or ground problem? Couldn't it as well be a problem with a hot conductor failing to make connection?

Is it because more than one outlet and lights too failed that points to a neutral conductor? Being a common element among several circuits?

Thanks,

It's common to have romix or what ever used at the time to feed and outlet and from there, feed the rest of the room, many times a wire can be loose causing arching which maybe to main supply feed circuit for the rest of the room.. You don't want this arching which indicates a poor connections which in turn, causing heat to build up and then you know to rest of the story. If you're lucky, it will simply burn away the connection with out incident .

Yes best get someone who knows how to fix that . It sounds like its an older house . Many times things were added by people that are not up to code . Inside each electric outlet box wires can run one to another box inside the wall . Sometimes when the average Joe adds on he might add to many boxes and light fixtures from one to another using to small of wire , not tightning screws good enough or not tightning wire nuts enough causing an overload then burned off wires. If thats the case then where the wires start from all the things that stopped working probably burned off inside a box or breaker panel or in the wall .

I had a problem >

Outlets should be wired with as full a wrap around the screws as can be managed. I would never use push connections for this.

Even better if the wire is just stripped and looped around the termination screws and not cut and reconnected.