Getting You Connected!

Problems seem to arise with Murphy, at the most inopportune time. What are you going to do? Hopefully you can find a knowledgeable person who can help you out of your predicament. What is the first thing that they are going to ask you?

  1. What happened just before the power went away?
  2. Did you check the Fuse/breaker panel to see if a fuse was blown or a breaker tripped?
  3. If fuse blown or breaker tripped, did you attempt to reset the breaker? This is the advantage of breakers over fuses. If the circuit is still shorted new fuses will be eaten until the circuit is repaired, whereas breakers will just trip again. It is now time to start tracing the circuit to determine the cause of the short circuit. This is a very methodical process.
  4. If there was no blown fuse/tripped breaker then it is time to start tracing the circuit as in the step above. A problem like this can be the result of a loose/bad connection somewhere in the circuit. Poor connections are serious safety matters. Poor connections can build up a lot of heat for a potential fire hazard.
  5. When I am inside a panel I have a tendancy to check all of the electrical connections, to make sure they are all tight. Amazing how many connections I have found over the years that are less than solid. Tighten it now and eliminate a potential problem later.
  6. There are two brands of panels that should be replaced. Sylvania Zinsco if they are outside in the weather. These panels have buss bars that will corrode in weather which sets up resistance which builds up heat which builds more resistance, an intense cycle that will burn out 30 and 50 amp breakers plus neighboring breakers AND the buss bars, very bad news. Any FPE (Federal Pacific Elecric) panel since the breakers do not work very well, sometimes they are not breakers just switches. This too is a serious safety alert situation.
  7. When you have me or someone else in trouble shooting, there can be real surprises as to what is found causing your problems. I have found mice in the walls that as they got bigger ate away the insulation on the wires so that they could still get through the wiring holes and then one day you end up with a blown circuit with a fried mouse plugging a mouse transit route. I have also found fried frog in telephone boxes, it only fries them when the phone rings.

This is a sampling of some of the solutions that you can enjoy as a result of working with me and Electric Services. Check the linked pages and then contact me at:


Keith Hall,
Electric Services,
License HIC & C-10 473564
707 887-7242