Ladies' and gentlemen!!! Your attention please!  For today only!! Splash_4 industries is introducing the 1/2 electrical failure system at a reduced cost!  That’s right, you can have this wonderful device installed that will kill the electricity to 1/2 your house at one time… All with the flip of a single switch!

Well tell us kind sir, how does this amazing item work? Well, sit back and let me tell you.  All you have to do is flip the switch for heating and air to OFF.  This will immediately kill the power to your entire second floor and refrigerator, all with one single switch. No longer do you have to climb those pesky stairs and search out each individual switch!  Simple turn this amazing device to off and there you have it!!!!

Ok, enough silliness. I know you are all dying to know what in the heck this is all about. So I will tell you. On Friday evening as Ruth and I were settling in for the night we realized it was getting a little toasty in the house. Upon inspection I discovered that the compressor for the A/C was not running any longer. The blower for the HVAC system was working well, but no cool air. Thinking that the compressor had gone out (not out of the question at the end of the summer) I called an A/C repair company out to do a Saturday repair. Figuring there was no sense in running the blower motor I went ahead and flipped the thermostat to off.

After this, Ruth and I walked through the house opening windows and turning on ceiling fans. All of a sudden Ruth yells down the stairs “Did we just lose power?”  Curious, thought I, as the TV was still running and the lights were on all of downstairs. Upon further investigation we realized that if we turned the blower off on the A/C system, it killed the power to the entire upstairs!!  Now this was a little disconcerting! Not wanting to risk a house fire due to a shorted electrical system, we called Mr. Sparky (a local electrical repair company) to come out on an emergency and look at our system.

The tech showed up promptly and started to work. The first this was walking through with us what the problem was. Right after we showed him what was going on, his first words were “You have a backflow problem.” (apparently while ac power flows both directions, the house is wired so it really only goes one way). Heading out to our circuit panel, he took the cover off and tested each circuit as well as the leads into the house.

Deciding everything looked good, he headed out to the main panel next to the meter. Doing testing here he declared “You have a break in your main line coming into the house, we need to call your electrical company to come out and fix it.” So, he placed the call to Walton EMC.  About 30 minutes later, a rather large truck and a crew of two arrived and started their work. First the shut off the power to the entire house and then they went to the service pad and disconnected the service. Next the installed a box that sent a signal down the power lines and followed that with a device that looked like a divining rod that gave a constant tone. Once they got to a spot that the tone beeped at them, they marked the sport and grabbed a couple of shovels. Digging a 2 foot by 2 foot hole about 20 inches down they discovered the main electrical cable feeding the house. Sure enough, there was a break in the line and the two phase power had welded itself together.  In about 15 minutes, they had the cable repaired and the hole filled in and we had power back to the house. Even the A/C was working (remember, that was the cause of the problem?)

All in all, it made for an enlightening  (har har, couldn’t help it!) Friday night!

As a postscript, if you ever need electrical work done. Call Mr. Sparky!!! Thad, from Mr. Sparky, took the time to explain to us everything he was doing even to the point of stopping to draw pictures so we could understand. He would also tell us the cost of what he was about to do before he did the next thing. While he was not cheap (it was an after hours call after all), he was very professional and a joy to work with!