#Open neutral outlet problems generator

#Open neutral outlet problems generator

I have thought I should get a whole house backup generator (I have a plug in type when I need it) and an automated transfer switch on a backup generator might have saved me too (not 100% sure about that but seems likely). I wonder too how much a protected breaker panel would be. I wish all my major appliances had that feature!!!!! Sure enough a couple minutes later it was happy, it faired well in all this. I immediately called my HVAC contractor and they reminded me of the lockout. When the power company restored power I went to turn it on first as it is my primary source of heat (it was 20 degrees the 24 hours I was without power). It then wakes up, checks voltage, and then either allows you to turn it back on or goes back to sleep. My boiler has a lockout circuit that when it senses a low/over voltage situation it just shuts off for 5 mins.

Now it's just dealing with insurance and power company to repair and replace everything, clean carpets and drapes to try to get rid of the burnt electrical smell throughout the house. The last photo is of my souvenir, my neutral (on the left) and one of the two hot legs (on the right) where the squirrels did their thing.

My other insteon devices are surprisingly working as well as my ISY, yay. In fact, after it was all over, that is the only breaker that had tripped. The only good thing that can be said for the OutletLinc's reaction to this is that because it melted, the insulation on line and neutral wires in the box shorted and threw that circuit breaker. My one and only outletLinc (2473S) caught fire and melted in the electrical box while spewing flames up the wall (see attached pics). Their circuit boards were burnt to a crisp before the fuses blew. There are several items that have line input fuses and I was hopeful when I found the fuse burnt but alas the fuse did not protect them. Surge protected power strips did nothing (other than burn), many devices attached to them were damaged. Things were buzzing, popping and flashing all over the house. An older Ecobee EIM module went up in flames as I was shutting off breakers in a sub-panel near my furnace (one of which was burnt). I carried an APC UPS out the door on fire. Had someone not been home to cut the main breaker our house very likely could have burnt to the ground. Some are repairable, many are burnt beyond repair. Many devices in our house were damaged, about 40 in all. In our case we had a strand or two of aluminum wire on the neutral that would probably cool and reconnect for a second or two reeking havoc arcing and causing wild voltage swings. Then it swings to the next lowest resistance device and so on. When neutral is cut there can be large arcs and the full 240 VAC across the two hots swings through the lowest resistance device to ground on each leg and either shorts it or burns it open. A loose/cut neutral is one of the leading causes of house fires. I don't know if anyone has ever had this happen but it is devastating to electrical devices. A couple weeks back we had an electrical problem that turned out to be a critter had chewed through our neutral wire at the transition of the pole to underground to our house.