Electrical problem

[Old Onkyo]

My setup is in a family room that was an addition when the house was built in 1975. This room has two, “outside walls. For years my system was located on an “interior wall”. When I had a new tv mounted, we moved it to an Outside wall. (we could not put the wires in this wall) I had a hum from the amp or receiver. I, being hood fabulous, ran a surge connector from the interior wall to the system. Hum disappeared.

lately I noticed arcing whenever I get up and touch a light switch, ceiling fan, or anything else in the room. This morning, the first thing I touched was the media cabinet. The television went black for about five seconds….

I removed the new area rug, thinking maybe that was causing static, unplugged the electric recliners we sit in, thinking there might be a short in one of the chairs. No luck!

As you can tell, I know nothing about electricity. I think there is a short in the room, maybe a ceiling fan that was installed last year.
At this point should I call an electrician? Or does anyone here have an idea?
Thanks…..

 

[ryanosaur]

While I shudder to recommend calling an electrician, this is something you should do POST-HASTE.
Moreover, I would remove your sensitive electronics from whatever circuit they are on.
Perhaps you need to run a good High Quality extension cord to another part of your house, but risking frying your AVR or Amplifiers or TV isn't worth it.

 

[Eppie]

Any kind of arcing is a fire hazard. Where do you hear the arcing coming from? If you know which breaker or fuse protects that circuit, you can turn off the breaker, test the light or outlet first to make sure it is off, and then remove the switch or outlet for inspection. If you really know nothing about electrical wiring, yes, call an electrician as soon as possible. That you get arcing with lights, fans and the stereo is very concerning.

 

[TLS Guy]

My setup is in a family room that was an addition when the house was built in 1975. This room has two, “outside walls. For years my system was located on an “interior wall”. When I had a new tv mounted, we moved it to an Outside wall. (we could not put the wires in this wall) I had a hum from the amp or receiver. I, being hood fabulous, ran a surge connector from the interior wall to the system. Hum disappeared.

lately I noticed arcing whenever I get up and touch a light switch, ceiling fan, or anything else in the room. This morning, the first thing I touched was the media cabinet. The television went black for about five seconds….

I removed the new area rug, thinking maybe that was causing static, unplugged the electric recliners we sit in, thinking there might be a short in one of the chairs. No luck!

As you can tell, I know nothing about electricity. I think there is a short in the room, maybe a ceiling fan that was installed last year.
At this point should I call an electrician? Or does anyone here have an idea?
Thanks…..

This is a very dangerous situation on multiple levels. Switch off the breaker to those outlets immediately.

I am not even going to begin to tell you how to trouble shoot this, as you have zero experience with this sort of thing. Do not turn those breakers back on, until a licensed electrician has identified and corrected the problem. This is not a minor hazard, or inconvenience, but dangerous.

 

[Old Onkyo]

Thank you all.

 

[Verdinut]

How about a very dry air condition in your room. Dry air is often causing someone to get a shock caused by static electricity when touching a grounded metal piece.

Why Does Low Humidity Cause Static Electricity? | Condair

If you’ve experienced a nasty shock, you know how dangerous an electrostatic discharge can be. Learn why proper, indoor relative humidity control prevents it:

www.condair.com

 

[TLS Guy]

How about a very dry air condition in your room. Dry air is often causing someone to get a shock caused by static electricity when touching a grounded metal piece.

Why Does Low Humidity Cause Static Electricity? | Condair

If you’ve experienced a nasty shock, you know how dangerous an electrostatic discharge can be. Learn why proper, indoor relative humidity control prevents it:

www.condair.com

Trust me, this is way beyond static discharge!

 

[Old Onkyo]

Electrician coming out Thursday morning.The house is 48 years old.
I wiould probably benefit from upgrading the panel.
aside from running 220 for an upcoming kitchen remodel, is there anything I should consider regarding the media room? Anything that improves performance or longevity?

 

[lovinthehd]

Electrician coming out Thursday morning.The house is 48 years old.
I wiould probably benefit from upgrading the panel.
aside from running 220 for an upcoming kitchen remodel, is there anything I should consider regarding the media room? Anything that improves performance or longevity?

Maybe if rewiring is in order for some reason upgrading to a 20A circuit. Don't think 220 would benefit any av installs, outside of amps in the "ludicrous" range

 

[TLS Guy]

Electrician coming out Thursday morning.The house is 48 years old.
I wiould probably benefit from upgrading the panel.
aside from running 220 for an upcoming kitchen remodel, is there anything I should consider regarding the media room? Anything that improves performance or longevity?

Have the electrician makes sure the house has one good ground, and not multiple. Also make sure the neutral is well bonded to the ground at the panel.

If the electrician thinks you need a new panel, then code will require Arc Soft breakers. These detect faults very well, and will shut down a circuit with any aberrant leakage. When these were first introduced they drove people nuts. But now they are fine. We have a two and a half year old home, and these breakers have caused no issue at all, except to direct me to an improperly installed wall socket, it would go open circuit. On investigating I found one of the electricians had failed to tighten a neutral screw. Tightening the screw cured the problem.

The only issue is that if you now need a new panel in an older home, you pretty much have to rewire the home, as arc soft breakers do not tolerate daisy chained neutrals, as has been previous practice. However this required rewire is a good thing. These days a lot, if not more loads are discontinuous. This means they do not take the load evenly throughout the AC cycle, and preferentially from the peaks of the wave form. This applies to LED bulbs and switching power supplies especially. This leads to what is known as neutral gouging. So this means that there is much more current on neutrals than previously. The breakers are in the live leg. So overloaded neutrals can heat and cause house fires.

 

[Old Onkyo]

Maybe if rewiring is in order for some reason upgrading to a 20A circuit. Don't think 220 would benefit any av installs, outside of amps in the "ludicrous" range

220 for kitchen appliances.

 

[lovinthehd]

220 for kitchen appliances.

Kitchen out in that room is always an option. Or washer/dryer....

 

[lovinthehd]

Once you get the kitchen and laundry room setup, I'l be glad to come over and test all three setups

 

[BMXTRIX]

...we moved it to an Outside wall. (we could not put the wires in this wall)...

Just curious as to why you could not put wires in this wall? I've never heard of such a thing. Was it the way the wall was constructed?

 

[Eppie]

Electrician coming out Thursday morning.The house is 48 years old.
I would probably benefit from upgrading the panel.
aside from running 220 for an upcoming kitchen remodel, is there anything I should consider regarding the media room? Anything that improves performance or longevity?

The only items that typically require 220 are ovens and electric dryers. Each outlet in the kitchen will be a split receptacle, but that is just two separate circuits on a double breaker. If the old panel is small, you can run out circuits / breakers with a major reno. In Ontario, for example, the microwave and refrigerator would also be on their own circuit and if there is a breakfast nook or dining area attached it also has to be on its own circuit. Critical items like freezers and sump pumps also get placed on their own circuit as their failure can be costly. A good electrician will know all of those local codes by heart. For my reno we had to rewire the whole house, so I did a complete wiring diagram to make sure every circuit was within accepted limits.

The AV gear listed in your signature should run off of a single 15A circuit, but I like to have a second circuit available just in case for future proofing. Have one outlet at your AV location on one circuit and have a second outlet nearby that is on a different breaker in case you need to split the load. This does not require any 20 amp circuits but does require two cable runs to the room. Think about where the power cords in the room will run when you plan this. Do you want to keep the outlets behind something so that the cords are not visible or do you need easy access to the outlets?

Other place to consider is a workshop if you have one. A lot of power tools can draw a lot of current. My router and table saw can draw up to 13 amps each. Most of the time you only run one tool at a time, but if you have dust extraction with a good size motor, that can put the circuit over 15 amps, so separate circuits are needed.

 

[-Jim-]

Being a licensed Electrician, I just wanted to see what the outcome is here. The comment about don't try to investigate it yourself is a good one. Electricity is not very forgiving when you mess it up. Get qualified help to assist.

 

[Eppie]

Being a licensed Electrician, I just wanted to see what the outcome is here. The comment about don't try to investigate it yourself is a good one. Electricity is not very forgiving when you mess it up. Get qualified help to assist.

I bet you've seen your share of horror stories. I used to watch Mike Holmes on TV and some of the electrical they would uncover was down right scary. Hidden junctions, live unconnected lines...

There are lots of places for the novice to go wrong. And unlike other trades, bad electrical or gas lines can be deadly.

 

[-Jim-]

I bet you've seen your share of horror stories. I used to watch Mike Holmes on TV and some of the electrical they would uncover was down right scary. Hidden junctions, live unconnected lines...

There are lots of places for the novice to go wrong. And unlike other trades, bad electrical or gas lines can be deadly.

Even though I specialized as an Industrial Electrician and was on the tools for a decade, I worked as a Journeyman Wireman for some time, but then mostly on Commercial projects and repairs in Schools. Most of my House Wiring (which is quite simple in the grand scheme of things - we learned all that in technical school during the first 2 years when all branches here took the same training) was coming to the rescue of friends and family, who had disasters from do-it-yourselfers that would make your hair stand on end!

This is not to say some folks who know how to work with hand tools, meters, etc.; and can follow written instructions; aren't able to replace a plug, or a switch, etc. But those who try to take shortcuts can put themselves and others at risk. Like they always say, a man's got to know his limitations.

 

[Pogre]

How about a very dry air condition in your room. Dry air is often causing someone to get a shock caused by static electricity when touching a grounded metal piece.

Why Does Low Humidity Cause Static Electricity? | Condair

If you’ve experienced a nasty shock, you know how dangerous an electrostatic discharge can be. Learn why proper, indoor relative humidity control prevents it:

www.condair.com

I live in the desert and don't experience anything close to what he describes!

Hoo boy, yeah this doesn't sound like anything to take lightly, and in fact potentially lethal! You be careful old man. Nobody wants to see you get hurt!

 

[Kvn_Walker]

I'm with everyone else. Pay the money; get it fixed.

Electrocution isn't a positive outcome. Nor is a house fire.