FAQ's

There are three possibilities. One brand of breaker shows a "red flag" when the breaker is tripped. Another brand trips all the way to the "off" position, you can't miss it. The majority of breakers trip to an "intermediate" position, and those can be tricky to locate. They trip to a position half way between "off" and "on". You'll have to look closely. Sometimes they barely move from the "on" position. When in doubt, and when it is safe to do so, reset all of your circuit breakers. You might find one that feels "soft" and you'll know you found it.

Circuit breakers have to be forced all the way to the "off" position first, before being turned to the "on" position, or they won't reset. First force the breaker all the way off, then all the way on.

Go to the affected area and determine what all doesn't work. Unplug every appliance or lamp plugged into a "dead" outlet. Switch off all lighting in the affected area. Disconnect everything you can find on the "dead" circuit. Then return to the circuit box and try again to reset the breaker. If it trips off again, I will need to visit your site to troubleshoot the problem. If the breaker now stays "on", return to affected area and start reconnecting everything you disconnected. Often times you'll find that you have a defective appliance that is causing the problem. If you plug in the toaster and the breaker trips, you need a new toaster, not an electrician.

Many outlets in modern homes are "GFI" protected, meaning there is a GFI outlet somewhere in the circuit that has tripped, and killed all power to the remaining outlets on the circuit. Look for a GFI receptacle somewhere. They look different than a normal power outlet, they have a "Test " and "Reset" button on them. They will be found in bathrooms, basements, garages, outdoors, kitchens, or any area around a sink or water source. Push the reset button on any GFI outlet that you find, and power will likely be restored. This simple knowledge may save you a service call.

Modern lightbulbs don't work well with old-style dimmer switches. Many new LED lightbulbs are not dimmable at all, and they will cause flickering problems, or not work at all. Read the fine print on the lightbulb base or packaging and it will tell you whether it is dimmable or not. Some of the dimmable LEDs still will not work well with old-fashioned dimmers.