Open Neutral

[snowflower]

A WARNING.

Just a heads up & not meant to scare anyone, I'm just one that's never heard of this before.

Last Tuesday, Dec 31/19 we had an "open neutral" here at the house. Anyone heard of this and what damage it can do to your appliances not to mention your home? In our case, the linesman explained that the electric wire connection that runs from the pole to the house had broken apart. The connection point at the pole contains 3 wires, 110, 220 watts & a neutral. When the neutral separates from the other two both the 110 & 220 touch together sending 330 voltage surges to your home. Our light bulbs lit up so bright a couple burst, it took out two dehumidifiers, our oil furnace, fridge, two wired & one handheld telephone and sensor lights outside... so far. If you're lucky you'll be awake and at home. You'll know if it happens because anything running at the time will be fried, you'll smell wires burning and your lights will burn very bright then very low then blinding bright then very low off and on. This only happens in a major lightning storm OR an open neutral. Immediately switch off the main switch in your fuse or breaker box, whichever you use. Next call your power company and explain your situation. This is dangerous and can burn your house down, especially if you're not at home or asleep at the time. The power company here is replacing everything we lost and may yet lose and DO REQUEST the power company come and check for 'weak spots' it may have caused to the wiring in your home. It's possible over time we may still discover appliances, televisions, computers, etc., to suddenly stop working or slowly just not work as they should.  If it should happen to you use a notebook just for this and take note of MONTH, DAY & TIME of separation. Enter the date and time of everything you find it has affected including any food loss. Locate manuals and sales slips you might have and keep them in your notebook for faster processing. If not, it takes longer but the power company should cover your losses. I pray this never happens to you but if it should, I hope I've helped in some small way.

[Squid]

Sounds terrible, Rosie!  I'm so glad you're ok, there could've been a terrible fire!

[snowflower]

Old year out with a bang, lol.