I made an Uh Oh. PLease help

claxius

claxius

Active member
I plugged a 1k and 2k into two different outlets in the living room and then after a minute or so the lights that were plugged in went out and I can't switch on any lights in the living room and the outlets don't work.

I realize that I probably used too much wattage, but I thought as long as I put them in seperate outlets it would be OK.

What happened exactly and what can I do to regain electricity in that area?

Thank you
 
uh-oh

uh-oh

Somewhere in the home, you have a breaker box or a fuse box, also called the electrical panel. If it's not your home, ask the homeowners (ask for an adult's help if you're under 18). First unplug the lights, then look for the electrical panel. Unless your house is very old, it probably has circuit breakers, which are like big switches that switch themselves off when too much current is drawn on one circuit. One of the breakers is likely to be in the "tripped" position, which is somewhere between the "on" position and the "off position. Switch the breaker that's tripped to the off position, then back to "on," and the living room lights should come back on. Too keep from tripping the breaker again, you'll have to make sure the lights are plugged in on separate circuits, not just different outlets.

For more information or fuse info, see: http://www.ehow.com/how_371_reset-circuit-breaker.html

Good luck
 
Hopefully you only blew a fuse or circuit breaker. To restore power, first make sure the lights are turned off and then find the breaker panel and see if the breaker has popped. You can reset the breaker by turning it all the way off and back on. If this doesn't restore power or the breaker pops again, switch the circuit off and call an electrician.

In most household electrical design, there will be 3 or 4 outlets on one circuit. Sounds like you picked two outlets that were on the same electrical circuit. Also, most household outlet circuits are limited to 15 amps.

-Dan
 
Yeah they were probably on the same circuit but if you find your power box you'll normally find it labelled which tells you which switches/fuses (And therefore circuits) run which lights. Just make sure they're on different ones.
 
For future reference remember Amperage = Watts / Volts. Most household circuits will be 15amps maximum. For example a 1K light will generally draw 10amps (x=1000watts/100). If you're in North America use 100 as the voltage rating - this makes dividing easier and allows for a pad instead of dividing by 120.
 
If I don't have time to check, and am shooting in a house, I usually plug one light in the livingroom, one light in the bathroom and one light in the kitchen. Those are almost always on different circuits.

That's for quick and dirty stuff. If I have any time at all, I check to see where the circuit breakers are. That should give me some clue as to what I have to work with. At the very least, I will know where to go the circuit breaker pops!
 
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