So running into a weird situation that I have not encountered before.
Back ground – house was built in the late 60/early 70s – 3 bed 2 bath
So we have a weird situation where our house is partially losing power.
If the AC is on, power is great no issues, once the AC reaches the temp we set it at, ac will power down (go idle), which is normal…Weird issue is that randomly, minutes later or even hours later (if the ac is not triggered on manually or automatically), the power to like 80-90 percent of the house dies. The only power that stays on is the hallway power (thermostat is located in hallway), one bedroom power, and guest restroom power…other than that – all power is out (inside, outside, garage, kitchen, etc)
We check the breakers and all breakers look good and nothing seems to be popped or out of the ordinary.
The weird thing is the only way to get the rest of the power back on is if we get the ac going by turning the temp down, just so it can trigger on.
Any ideas on this?
Any help or guidance would be appreciated. Not sure how to go about troubleshooting this issue.
—————update Below ————
From what centerpoint said when they came out is everything is getting power and all properly, but when he pulled the breaker for the ac out, it was all melted and bud bars had some burning on it.
Seems it’s a common issue with the Zinsco breakers.
Best Answer
I'm going to slightly disagree with the other answers and guess you have an open hot conductor. Either way, the answer is the same: call the power company and report a power outage. The problem is very likely at the pole, so they'll come out and fix it for free.
For more information on why losing one of your hot conductors will cause the symptoms you're seeing here, take a look at Harper's answer to this similar question: https://diy.stackexchange.com/a/153926/91556