housetriage

The power is out. Is it your house or the street?

4 min read

Look outside. If the neighbors’ lights and the street lights are out too, it is the utility, and the useful thing to do is report it and wait. If everyone else has power, it is your house, and the next stop is your breaker panel.

That distinction takes thirty seconds and it decides everything that follows.

If the street is out

  • Report it. Most utilities have an outage map and an automated line. Reporting matters: some systems only detect an outage when customers report it, and reporting again for a single house on a restored street is how they find the one that got missed.
  • Switch off or unplug electronics, the computer, and anything with a motor. Power coming back is not always clean, and surge damage on restoration is a real thing.
  • Leave one light switched on so you know when it returns.
  • Keep the fridge and freezer shut. How long food actually lasts.
  • Do not run a generator until you have read where it has to be. This is the thing that kills people in outages.

If it is only your house

Work through it in this order.

1. Is it the whole house or part of it? Go around and try lights and outlets. Part of the house is a different problem and a more urgent one. Half the house without power usually means something specific.

2. Check the breaker panel. Look for a breaker that is not in line with the others. A tripped one often sits in a middle position rather than fully off. To reset it, push it firmly all the way to off first, then back to on. Flipping it straight back does not always re-latch it.

3. Check the main breaker at the top of the panel, which can trip too.

4. Check any GFCI outlets. These are the outlets with test and reset buttons, usually in kitchens, bathrooms, garages, and outdoors. One tripped GFCI can kill power to several other ordinary outlets downstream of it, in rooms that seem unrelated. Press reset on every one you can find. This is the single most common cause of a mysterious dead run of outlets.

5. Check whether the meter has power. If your utility uses a smart meter with a display, and it is dead, the problem is on the supply side even though the neighbors are fine. Call the utility.

6. Check for a prepayment or billing issue, if that applies to you. It is worth ruling out before paying for a service call.

Stop and call someone if

Who to call, and it is not always an electrician

The dividing line is usually the service point where the utility’s equipment ends and yours begins.

The utility owns the supply up to and usually including the meter. If the service drop, the wire from the pole, or the meter is damaged, that is theirs and it is generally free. They will also disconnect the service so an electrician can work safely, which is often a required first step.

You own the panel, the wiring, and everything after the meter. That is an electrician.

If you are not sure, call the utility first. They come out, they establish whether the fault is on their side, and they tell you if it is yours. That call costs nothing and it saves paying an electrician to tell you to call the utility.

While you wait

  • Do not open the fridge.
  • Charge phones from a car if you have one, with the car outside and running only in open air.
  • Flashlights rather than candles. Candles are how outages turn into fires.
  • In a freeze, think about the pipes. Keeping a house from freezing without heat.
  • In heat, close the house up during the day and open it at night.
  • Check on neighbors who are elderly, unwell, or on powered medical equipment.

The short version

Look out of the window first. Street out means call the utility and wait. Your house only means the panel, then every GFCI reset button in the building, which is the most commonly missed cause. Burning smells, warmth, buzzing, repeated trips, or water mean stop and call someone.