While I was at work today I had a power outage in one of my rooms. I know because I had multiple computers in there that were off for several minutes(fully booted back up in 14 minutes), but the computer in my bedroom did not shut off.
I would like to find out why this happened. Is it possible that a fuse is going bad, but has not completely blown? The fuse is warm to the touch from all the power I'm drawing in that room.
I also tried gently flicking the fuse with my finger(in case the metal strip inside was starting to come off) but the power remained running.
Best Answer
You probably just lost one phase of power for a few minutes.
Since you're in a 120V country, the power that comes into your house has 2 120V cables, each running opposite to each other, in order to provide a 240V supply to anything that needs that much power. This means that it's possible to get 120V from either cable. Most houses split the circuits in order to balance the load.
This means while it's possible for a power outage to result in a loss of power across your house, it's also possible (although rare) for only one cable to go out. This will result in a loss of power to only the circuits using that cable. (Approximately half of them.)
Unless it re-occurs, or you notice other problems, it's not that big of a deal. (There's an outside chance that one leg of the circuit is still off, which can cause super-weird stuff to happen.) It's worth contacting your electrical provider, but they might just respond with a shrug.