Electricity oops…
Last night I settled down to watch the only network show I watch, C.S.I., and wait for Mando to drop by. About 15 minutes in the TV goes ‘pop’ and all the power disappears. Crap. I wander out to the garage to find the breaker that flipped but couldn’t see any that were tripped. Weird. I walk in to see if it could have been the surge protector behind the TV. Nope. Looks good. Then I hear the lonely beeping of a UPS coming from the computer room. Uh oh. Ok, so it’s definitely a breaker. I go out and flip every one of them off then back on. Still no dice. Shit. Mando drops by around now so we talk for a bit before I attack the breaker box again. I get out the circuit tester to test the breakers themselves. They all check out okay. I finally give up around midnight and decide to call an electrician this morning.
This morning I wake up determined to find the problem. I pulled every outlet that I believed was on the circuit and finally found what you see pictured above. Oops. That explains a lot. I had a spare outlet and replaced it and everything was good. I guess I could have burned down the house under the right condition. We got lucky.
I also found out that that one circuit served my entire computer room _and_ my entertainment center _and_ the Christmas tree. I guess it didn’t like powering 6 or 7 systems + HDTV + Xbox + surround sound + Christmas tree + a couple of lamps at the same time. Hmmm. I guess my New Years project is to rewire the computer room with it’s own upgraded circuit.