My evaporative cooling had died, I got a plumber in who has charged me over $400 to fix it, 30 minutes after he left all power in the house went off except the lights. I flipped the switch in the meter box and made sure everything was turned off and started eliminating what is causing the problem, it seems that if I plug in the dryer it shuts everything off, if I plug in and use the kettle, it does the same thing, half my house I can't use appliances or it trips the switch. What is going on?

Hello, Do you live here in the US?

By switch, do you mean a circuit breaker inside of the main service panelboard?

Is this a home or an apartment? If you have lost half of your circuits, yo need to call the power company and have them check the supply to your home. You may have lost half oh the supply circuit.