We had a 35 second power outage today that was different from every other power outage we’ve had in the past. This one did damage.
After the power came back on there were four breakers in the main panel in the basement that had tripped, including the 240v breaker for the air conditioner. All of them turn back on except one (more on that later).
I spent some time trying to figure out what was keeping the breaker from resetting. In the process I found several GFCI outlets that had tripped as well. We got to the bottom of the tripped breaker a little while later when we unplugged the two power strips in the game room and it reset just fine.
I then did a continuity test on all of the pins in the first power strip. Nothing appeared shorted, so… I plugged it in. There was a tremendous POP! followed by a sizzle.
I unplugged it promptly. I then proceeded to throw both of those power strips away.
Later, my wife noticed the Air conditioner wasn’t working.
I went in the basement and opened up the indoor unit and everything looked fine. So, out of curiosity I removed the board from it’s mounts and I got to use one of my favorite lines, “Well, there’s your problem!”
The 240 volts coming in was temporarily a whole lot more than 240!
I ordered a replacement board for $300 and I’ll get it installed as soon as I can.
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