The power line to the house goes through the walnut tree in the back yard. Well a branch rubbed through the insulation on the wire which arc to the common line burning it into. It was like a movie, Poltergeist! Lights going on and off, even if the switch was off. Then when the lights came on they were Superbright. Had a couple of fans on and they almost took flight. Then the home theater system started smoking, bad and it wasn't even on! Then tvs started smoking! Anything plugged in was smoking! I'm running around unpluging things, talking to 911 and trying to figure out what's going on. Can't believe that the circuit breakers didn't trip, I turned them off. Firetruck shows up. They look around and don't find fire just the smoke from the electronics. They say that it was some sort of power surge. Firetruck leaves and I call PUD. Before PUD gets here I go outside and that is when I found the wire problem. When PUD shows up I point out the wire and he says yup that's the problem. He pulls the truck down in the yard and uses the cherry picker to go up and splice the wire. Flip the circuit breakers and everything is good, sort of! Several items Fried, 2 Xbox games, clock radio, a fan, dvd player, water boiler, and the clothes drier! The tvs and the home theater all work but I think they are seriously compromised. They were smoking so bad I thought they were going to burst into flames. I now need something from PUD and then talk to the home insurance. Could have been a lot worse.
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Wow Man, I didn't know a tree limb rubbing through the wire would cause that overvoltage situation. The power company came through during the Summer and cut the trees way back from the lines, I'm glad they did..
It doesnt effect it at all. The only way there is going to be an overload is if some that is a conductor touches it and the ground or if so much voltage goes through. Then you could have possibly had the tree limb touching two lines together.
Good to hear the house is still there. Going through the Power Company is useless, they ignore you until you go away. Start with your insurance company and see what they can do both with the replacement of the burnt up stuff and with the Power Company. Make sure your insurance premiums don’t go up… !
Update. The home theater is toast, turned off it ticks and makes the lights blink. Just unpluged it, rather safe than sorry. About half my light bulbs are dead, guess they didn't like being over powered. Have those spendy energy saving bulbs. I should check with PUD to see if they have any for free. Anyway, talked with PUD and they are sending me a claims form. They sounded like they are going to replace the damaged items but we will see. My homeowners insurance already went up this year.
Sorry to hear that, but I work for a power company and that happens all the time! When the hot wires rubbed through to the neutral wire, it sent voltage to everything that is grounded in your house...
wow man please keep us informed on what happens. srry to hear but its better those things went up in smoke and not u or the house
