First, let me say that I have very little experience working with electricity. The other day my wife noticed that the oven was not heating up like it should have been. Then she noticed that the dryer was not drying the clothes. After this, I can't remember why, but I went to the thermostat and noticed that the air conditioner should have been kicking on but it wasn't. When I turned the A/C to the off position, half the lights in our house went off. When I turned it back to cool, they came back on. :eek: When I switched it to heat, they would just turn back off again.

The next morning, I had the electrician over and he tested my circuit breaker. Apparently both of the 110 legs are working properly by themselves but when he tested them together to try to get 220, nothing was showing. I have no idea how this could be possible but he didn't seem to think that it was a big deal. He then showed me that the 220 was working outside of the outside box (the 220 that belongs to me and not the electric company). He told me that the main line leading from my outside box to my circuit breaker must be faulty somewhere. He said it would fairly expensive. He told me to just cut the main power at the box outside and replace the main line running to the house.

This seems like a straight forward job. Cut the power, dig up the wire, loosen it from the house, feed it under the house, loosen it from the main box and remove all wire. Then I would just connect the new wire inside, slide it through some pvc (the old wire is just buried directly in the ground with no pvc), and connect it to the main box. I will have the help of an uncle that has some experience with electricity but is NOT an electrician. Will this be as easy as I think it will? Any advice is much appreciated!

Thanks!

Straight-forward? Maybe. Easy for a novice? No way.

Hmmm. How can I put this? If you don't understand what needs to be done, you would be a fool to do it yourself. I'm not insulting you, just saying that everyone has limits to their ability. Get a few different electricians to look at the job and tell you what needs to be done. Something is wrong with the diagnosis. If both legs are working properly then you should have 220 (240) It does sound like you have lost a hot leg. Did he shut off the main and test the connections to see if both legs have voltage to ground?
Am I missing something here?

MB, you're hitting the nail on the head as far as I can tell. The reason I posted here was because I thought to myself "if both lines are reading correctly, why is the 240 not reading anything at all?" I won't be doing this by myself and after a lot of thought, I may not be doing this at all. I was hoping that I could save myself some money if the job was going to be fairly simple. The more I research this, the more I think I'm going to hire a professional. My initial rationale was "as long as I have the main power shut off, whats the worst that could happen?" The thing that bugs me the most is the fact that I'm not even comfortable with what the electrician said. I can't say conclusively that he shut off the main and tested both. I'm not really sure what to do at this point. I'm guessing that it will be even more expensive to have it done on the weekend too. Here is what I actually saw him do inside. He showed me that one main wire was reading normal, then the other. Then he touched both wires with the multimeter and it showed nothing at all. Like I said earlier, I have very little experience with electricity but I would assume that if both lines were reading normal then combined, they should still read normal. Both my uncle and father-in-law have offered to help but I would have to wait until Sunday for one and Monday for the other. Should I be concerned about an electrical fire until then? I shut off all of the 220 appliances at the box.

That reminds me. I unplugged the water heater since it couldn't draw enough power to actually heat the water anymore and it caused my kitchen lights to go out. The water heater and the kitchen lights are not on the same breaker but, again, I know very little about how these things work. This whole situation boggles my mind. The only real experience I have with electricity is installing some ceiling fans, some light fixtures, and converting our water heater plug to something heavier. The guy that lived here before us had spliced a microwave plug into the water heater and had it plugged into a normal outlet. Needless to say, it melted into a big ball of goo.

Thanks!

What's probably happening is that any 240 volt appliance, such as the water heater is backfeeding... that is, the voltage if going into one side of the appliance and going back out. That would explain 120 volts at both breaker locations. If all 240 volt dbl pole breakers were shut off when testing, there would be NO backfeed. What he showed you was the same phase on both lines, indicating a backfeed. Shutting off the dbl. pole breakers isn't a bad idea. And as far as the electricians diagnosis... he's probably correct. If you have the time, get a few estimates... I expect it will be costly. Do you have any electrician friends?

I'm confused:



He then showed me that the 220 was working outside of the outside box (the 220 that belongs to me and not the electric company).

Outside box is what?
Inside box is what?
Where is the electric meter in all of this?

Loose connections can do the same. When you draw an appreciable load, they can let go. The right people can identify that. You measure ACROSS connections that are supposed to have nearly zero volts across them with something on on that leg. If you get line voltage something is wrong.

I think you need to hire another electrician, one that is licensed and qualified. License you can ask to see, it is the qualifications that you cannot determine, I realize.

The electrician should have never told you just to change the "main line" with no definite reason. My guess is he really did not understand what or where the problem is. Perhaps he is correct, but something is weird with how he just passed it off to you.

You don't need to ull out the wire that is already buried. You will need to dig a new trench, this is something you can do, worth proper guidance and Call Before You Dig.

An electrician needs to install the conduit and pull wire, both need to be sized properly, and connected properly.

MB said it best, get a few estimates from well established electrical contractors.

Another consideration.

Have your local power company verify that the wiring to your home is intact and that the meter is providing the correct output to the service panel.