We had electrical work done on my house (change the main box outside). We had all lights and central air on when the electrician turned main power off to house. After work was completed, all the lights went on at once but when we went to turn the central air on, the thermostat read that the system was on but the unit never turned on. The electrician was able to "jumpstart" the air unit but it didn't kick on itself. Also, our 25" TV burned out. Couldn't get it to turn on again after power was restored to house. The air & heating contractor was called in to determine the problem with the central air and he claims we need a new control board. My husband and I are so upset as we feel that the electrician didn't do something right when he cut and restored the power to the house and he "fried" (as the heating & air repairman put it) our control board and TV. What should be done when cutting off all power to the house prior to restoring power? Did he cause a power surge? Are these type of problems common when power is cut and then restored? Would really appreciate any feedback. Thanks in advance.

My husband is an electrician and is sitting right next to me. He says the electrician had to cross live wires or a live wire touched something that grounded it causing a power surge. But you might also want to get your main panel in your house checked because the breaker should have kicked itself off with the power surge instead of frying your TV. So the answer to your question is yes I believe the electrician is responsible.

I too believe the electrician is at fault, hopefully he is insured. I would contact him asap to get this resolved and make sure there are no more problems.

You can contact the Better Business Bureau where you live and find out if he is license and insure and file a complaint. While you're at it ask them to recommend a good electrician to try and solve your problem.

Thank you so much for your "quick" response. He is a licensed electrician, as we have used him for the last 10 years and is very reliable and knowledgeable. With that being said, he is human and can make mistakes. He seemed to non-chalantly pass it off as part of our original problem. Our original problem was that our renters (we have a rental house by the Jersey shore) called and told us that they noticed some of the lights flickering during their week's stay. We were concerned so immediately contacted our electrician and had him meet us at the rental. He checked the circuit breaker box, had us turn on all the lights, air conditioner, etc to see if the problem would repeat itself. It didn't. Then he went outside and checked the main electrical box. He said there was corrosion probably from the salt air (5 houses from the ocean) and he suggested we change the box because that was probably what was causing the flickering lights. He then told us he was cutting off all power. (Mind you we had another family coming in an hour -from Florida- to stay for a week). He changed the box and turned the power back on. Every light in the house was still on from when we did our initial testing. I suggested to my husband to turn the air on because it was getting warm in the house. When he went to turn the air on, the thermostat read "system on" but the unit never kicked on. The electrician was getting ready to pull out of the driveway and we stopped him to tell him about the air not working. He went to the unit, then to the attic where the furnace is, then to the thermostat in the living room. He was able to "jumpstart" the unit outside but it wouldn't stay on by itself. He gave us the name of an air & heating contractor who met us back there at 9:00 PM. Our new renters were already at the house before the electrician left so we felt terrible that they arrived during a repair. One of their kids wanted to watch TV right after the power was turned on and that's when we realized the TV wasn't working either. We took another TV from the shed and tried it and it worked so we knew the TV was fried. That night the air and heating contractor checked out the unit, thermostat and blower in the attic and determined that it was the control board. "It's fried" he said. $700 to repair the control board, $170 for a new 24" TV, and God only knows how much the electrician will charge us. He forewarned us when he was on his way down to the house that it was a Sat and that he would have to charge us travel time $120/hour) and that he might hit the shore traffic. We told him we just traveled from the same area he was coming from and we got there in record time so we didn't anticipate him hitting any traffic either. Some gig! My husband and I would like to return the receipts from the TV and air & heating contractor to our electrician deducting the $ it cost us for those damaged items/repairs and give him the balance owed after these deductions. I know this is going to be a battle. The control board was from the year 2000
What's their life expectancy? Thanks again. (PS-Why aren't we sleeping) Annette

My husband has seen control boards from the 1970's that still work. It all depends on how the control board has been maintained. My advice would be to get a second electrician to verify that the first one caused these damages and pursue legal action if that is the case.

Since the damage was done after the power was turned on, and after the repairs were done, I suspect the cause is still lurking. The report of corrosion can cause a loose connection, and a loose neutral in the system can cause abnormal high voltages on certain circuits.

I would like to recommend that the entire service entrance, to include the utility connections, meter, and panel be thoroughly checked for loose or poor connections, with special attention to the neutral.

The utility company should be called in to have all their connections checked. If the outside box had bad connections, there may be more on the utility side the electrician did not think to have checked.