6 Causes of No Power at Home

6 Causes of No Power at Home

The lights go out and life as you know it grinds to a screeching halt. The TV won’t turn on, you can’t microwave a burrito, and you forgot to charge your cell phone so you’ve got an hour at most before it runs out of battery.

What are you going to do?

First, don’t panic. Most power outages can be quickly corrected, depending on why it went out. Curious about the most common causes of residential power outages? Check out the most common ones here – 6 causes of no power at home.

External Causes of a Power Outage

There are two possible sources of an outage. First, there may be a problem with the power grid and it is not bringing power to your home. Second, something may have gone wrong with the electrical equipment in your home.

Let’s look at the external causes first.

1. Mother Nature

Mother Nature is a force to be reckoned with. She leads the pack when it comes to external reasons why your power might be out. Outages can be caused by:

• Cyclones
• Lightning storms
• Earthquakes
• Fallen trees
• Wind
• Snow
• Ice

Any of these phenomena can damage electrical equipment, disrupting the flow of electricity to your home.

But what if it’s a nice day and there isn’t a cloud in the sky when your power goes out? There are other possible causes.

2. Drunk/Distracted Driver

On occasion, a drunk, sleep, distracted, or otherwise incapacitated driver might run into a power pole. If they knock it over or hit it hard enough, it can damage the equipment and disrupt service to your home.

3. Construction Digging

To avoid most storm issues, some power lines are buried where they will be safe from high winds and falling trees. However, they won’t be safe from an excavator that starts digging in the wrong spot. To ensure you don’t become the one knocking out the power, Dial Before You Dig to find out if there are any underground power lines in the area you plan to dig.

Internal Causes of a Power Outage

Barring some bad weather or a driver’s mishap with a power pole, there are also several internal causes of power outages. If your power goes out, but you see your neighbour’s lights are still on, it’s time to start investigating within your own home.

5. Overloaded Power Board

Powerboards are super handy for being able to turn on and off several appliances or devices in one fell swoop. All those little plugs lined up in a nice row make it tempting to plug in as many items as you can. Unfortunately, depending on what you plug in, you could overload the system and spark a power outage.

6. Bad Circuit Breaker

Circuit breakers will break the circuit if they detect a problem with the flow of electricity, thereby protecting your electrical equipment. A circuit breaker that keeps tripping could be a sign of a problem. To fix it safely, call a reliable electrician to get it taken care of.

Fixing Problems Caused by a Power Outage

Don’t leave your ice cream melting in the freezer, find out the cause of your power outage and get it taken care of quickly.