Only 1/2 the house having electric problems and I'm stumped

[kc.eagle]

Over the past year the electricity in my house has been acting very strange. The thing is, half of my house never has a problem and the other half always has the problem. A couple months ago the electricity was shutting off every 5 to 10 minutes, only for a couple seconds, and this went on for about 4 hours. Then it never happened quite like that again. After that it would happen only once and maybe 2 to 3 times per month, so it hasn't been a big deal. Today the power went out and it stayed off for 90 minutes. I called an electrician, he thought he fixed it, and then it happened again 5 minutes after he left. When he was here he put some antixoidant on the wires and he also switched the placement of 2 wires on 2 15 amp breakers (just revered their positions so hopefully I would not lose electric to my furnace). The circuit with issue runs my refrigerator, the fan for my furnace, the kitchen, and 2 bedrooms. I don't think they all go to one breaker as I have 4 of these 15 amp breakers that seem to power most of my house, including all the electric on the things going out. I haven't added any new appliances, I'm not running them all at once when I have troubles, it just seems to happen at totally random times without a specific cause. If this makes any sense and you can help, it'd be much appreciated. The electrician thinks it could be the meter outside or maybe I just need an entire new breaker box because it's old. I know nothing about this, I hope someone can help

 

[ban-all-sheds]

1) Despite the best efforts of Messrs Blair & Bush, this country is still not part of the USA.

2) Even if it were we would not have crystal balls - if an electrician on-site can't find the problem then people on the internet certainly can't.

 

[plugwash]

in the USA they use a system with two hots and a neutral. Some big appliances are wired between the two hots giving 240V. Most stuff is wired between one hot and neutral giving 120V. Load is spread between the two hots for reasons which I will not go into here.

If about half of your stuff is intermittant that suggests that one hot is dodgy in or before your main panel. Where it is dodgy is harder to tell, it may be in your breaker panel, in the wiring feeding the breaker panel, in the meter or even in your electricity suppliers wiring.

 

[kc.eagle]

I'd like to respond in case anyone follows up on what we were talking about.

Plugwash, you were absolutely correct. I had the electricity looked at outside and one of my 120 lines was bad. Thanks for being honest with a very well rounded hypothesis.

To my other responders, the ones with the attitude that couldn't go without notice...

I found this website by doing a simple Yahoo search. This website was unlike the others with such an active and useful message board. Electricians in my neighborhood don't want to give you the time of day unless you're paying for it. However, I didn't search for UK sites, I just posted.

ESP? Clairvoyants? Physchics? Oprah? The Queen? I didn't need any magic powers for an answer, as you see one of your own fellow Brits gave me a great answer.

And to the moderator who explained where England is, I thank you for this information, if I ever need to relocate to a place that is wet with rain most of the time and/or still apparently not over the Boston Tea Party, I'll know exactly how to find it.

By the way, I didn't vote for Bush in either election. Yet, if I was President of the USA I'd take the billions we're offering in foreign assistance and use it at home where it's needed. Just don't come calling during the next air raid.