Is there an electrician in the house?

[Jujo-jo]

11 hours ago, Alchopwn said:

Can you rule out a short circuit from water damage?

Yes, there is no water damage on the ceiling and the plug comes out of the fuse box down there, then runs up along the ceiling then comes down to the middle of the wall behind the washer, it is also all in metal or aluminum conduit.

[ChrLzs]

Not a sparky, but..  cheap bulbs may blacken just from normal use - is it only the blown ones that have the soot?  If so, then yes, probably a power surge / lightning strike.  Modern homes have good systems to prevent this, but no human endeavour is perfect!

As for the half-working business, those Xmassy lamp things often have weird combinations of parallel and series wiring combined, partly to offer some form of redundancy.  A short or break somewhere along the line can have odd effects.  But either way, they look cheap and nasty and I would not be using them again in any situation where they were not supervised ..and you should have a fire extinguisher handy...   

[toast]

On 2/14/2020 at 10:51 PM, Jujo-jo said:

Now thinking about this, why didn't all the 100 light blow during the power surge?

Because of different resistance/contact resistance values of the units. And because its China-crap.

Edited February 17, 2020 by toast

[Jujo-jo]

22 hours ago, ChrLzs said:

Not a sparky, but..  cheap bulbs may blacken just from normal use - is it only the blown ones that have the soot?  If so, then yes, probably a power surge / lightning strike.  Modern homes have good systems to prevent this, but no human endeavour is perfect!

As for the half-working business, those Xmassy lamp things often have weird combinations of parallel and series wiring combined, partly to offer some form of redundancy.  A short or break somewhere along the line can have odd effects.  But either way, they look cheap and nasty and I would not be using them again in any situation where they were not supervised ..and you should have a fire extinguisher handy...   

Thanks, & Yes, oh yes on the fire extinguishers, smoke alarms and carbon monoxide testers.

[Jujo-jo]

(Limited PM's...)

......

Today I had to call the electrician again, can't wait for him next week, thought I had a fire down there, I could smell something up stairs like rotting flesh then, like burnt rotting meat, it was awful then the smell went right into a smoky smell, it took me a bit to figure out where it was coming from but was cleaning at the time and the smell just came on hard fast and strong out of no where, then I grabbed the fire extinguishers and ran down there it was a little hazy and smelled smelled of smoke so I turned off the washer, dryer and electric heater and kept checking it felt uneasy down there at the time and then after about an hour it smelled real strong like diesel fuel but we dont have that here, we have natural gas.

The electrician told me to turn the washer back on and see if the smell happened again but it did not, turned the dryer on but nothing turned the heater on and again nothing! But we're keeping the appointment next week he said he's is sure nothing is wrong but he'll come check it all anyway to be safe.

[Jujo-jo]

Pretty tired from running up and down the stairs all day today. I'm just greatful I didnt have to use the fire extinguishers and that those smells are gone!

Edited February 21, 2020 by Jujo-jo

[+Desertrat56]

11 hours ago, Jujo-jo said:

(Limited PM's...)

......

Today I had to call the electrician again, can't wait for him next week, thought I had a fire down there, I could smell something up stairs like rotting flesh then, like burnt rotting meat, it was awful then the smell went right into a smoky smell, it took me a bit to figure out where it was coming from but was cleaning at the time and the smell just came on hard fast and strong out of no where, then I grabbed the fire extinguishers and ran down there it was a little hazy and smelled smelled of smoke so I turned off the washer, dryer and electric heater and kept checking it felt uneasy down there at the time and then after about an hour it smelled real strong like diesel fuel but we dont have that here, we have natural gas.

The electrician told me to turn the washer back on and see if the smell happened again but it did not, turned the dryer on but nothing turned the heater on and again nothing! But we're keeping the appointment next week he said he's is sure nothing is wrong but he'll come check it all anyway to be safe.

Did you call a different electrician?  This sounds bad.  It could be a short inside the wall.

[Jujo-jo]

3 minutes ago, Desertrat56 said:

Did you call a different electrician?  This sounds bad.  It could be a short inside the wall.

No only because this guy is top notch for a large area around here and becuse he's done so many other jobs and projects for us I am confident that if something is wrong he will find it.

One time we got an electric bill for $12,000.00 for a different dwelling location & I called him, he came out and I watched him trace every line or whatever he did with his little machine and it wasn't our lines at all it was on the companies end, thank God I didn't get stuck having to pay that bill but I feel like if he can find there mistakes I think he can find whatever may be wrong here.

But it may not be a bad idea to have a second opinion at this point providing it's in my budget, so I'm not totally against it that's for sure but honestly I think it's just a fluke silly thing that happens from time to time that no body can  explain but id hate to think like this then be sorry later so we'll know more next week and if it happens again after he xhe is things out again, then for sure I'll call someone else in.

(What strikes me odd as well though is that a smoke filled room is much different than what I saw and what I call being hazy, it looked more foggy like down there - "hazy", not like smoke at all. Maybe condensation, maybe from the dryer?) Idk...

[+Desertrat56]

24 minutes ago, Jujo-jo said:

No only because this guy is top notch for a large area around here and becuse he's done so many other jobs and projects for us I am confident that if something is wrong he will find it.

One time we got an electric bill for $12,000.00 for a different dwelling location & I called him, he came out and I watched him trace every line or whatever he did with his little machine and it wasn't our lines at all it was on the companies end, thank God I didn't get stuck having to pay that bill but I feel like if he can find there mistakes I think he can find whatever may be wrong here.

But it may not be a bad idea to have a second opinion at this point providing it's in my budget, so I'm not totally against it that's for sure but honestly I think it's just a fluke silly thing that happens from time to time that no body can  explain but id hate to think like this then be sorry later so we'll know more next week and if it happens again after he xhe is things out again, then for sure I'll call someone else in.

(What strikes me odd as well though is that a smoke filled room is much different than what I saw and what I call being hazy, it looked more foggy like down there - "hazy", not like smoke at all. Maybe condensation, maybe from the dryer?) Idk...

Maybe your dryer vent needs to be cleaned.  Where does it exit the house?  For example mine goes up to the roof and out a vent on the roof (flat roof, single story).  I am guessing yours goes out the side of the house some how.  It can get clogged.

[Jujo-jo]

12 hours ago, Desertrat56 said:

Maybe your dryer vent needs to be cleaned.  Where does it exit the house?  For example mine goes up to the roof and out a vent on the roof (flat roof, single story).  I am guessing yours goes out the side of the house some how.  It can get clogged.

Found the problem!!!

Yes it does and I did checked that this morning all was fine there but then I did a small load of laundry in my washer and for some reason when it is set on the light load cycle, it isn't spinning out properly, it sounds like it is but was not and then it started to smell hot like a burning tire... I'm not sure why but I switched it from light load over to extra large load and it took off and started to spin out just fine...

There awww... bebunked lol YAY, found the issue but now I think this means I'll be needing a new washer soon, I'm going to call the appliance repair man first though, hopefully it's an easy and inexpensive fix.

& I'm guessing it was getting hot by trying to spin out but not being able to and then causing issues with the lights idk but it sounds good to me lol, I won't cancel the electrician just yet ; )

[Jujo-jo]

On 2/14/2020 at 8:58 PM, Manwon Lender said:

I would try a different receptacle, but then you wouldn't know for sure if that one is bad. Like I said before, I would plug in a surge protector and plug the lights in to that and see if the protector trips, if it does the receptacle is bad. As far as your vacuum cleaner, I think you may have a faulty switch because a surge of electricity wouldn't turn it on, or maybe you just have a magnetic personality.

Peace

UPDATE

No incidences lately.

Had the electrician here to check things all is well.

Hooked up a nice surge protector not long after this post, so far so good, no surges.

It does make me feel much better knowing my new strand of white lights are plugged into it, a bit of peace of mind after learning it could have caused a fire.

 

Thank you everyone!

[Duke Wellington]

On 2/14/2020 at 8:31 PM, Jujo-jo said:

Wondered if anyone can tell me what could be the cause of these lights to do this...

The last 50 of the 100 strand of bulbs have blown, everyone of them and one bulb looks like it burst all together.

The first 50 lights still work is it safe to still use this strand of lights?

(From time to time we have lighting issues, I do have my electrician coming in 2 weeks he was just here in December all was good but we'll have him check things out AGAIN...)

 

Are they cheap?

And what else was plugged in at the time? Specifically things with motors or heating elements in them?

[Jujo-jo]

9 hours ago, RabidMongoose said:

Are they cheap?

And what else was plugged in at the time? Specifically things with motors or heating elements in them?

I guess you could call them cheap but I have others in the house the same brand, in my bedroom, on a post in our living room and in another room and they all seem to be fine and haven't given me a problem.

There was nothing plugged in to the out let, not even the washer at the time just that strand of lights.

(I plug in fans and a diffuser and air purifier to the same plug and when I'm done using whatever item I am using, I unplug the item and put it back where it belongs and see no reason to plug anything back into the plug until I'm ready for the next thing I'm going to use at the time.)