I own an appartment in the residential, 2-storey building in Edmonton, AB, Canada. There is an older oven that always worked well with no issues. I recently cleaned it thoroughly.
In the process, I unscrewed 2 crews that hold the top heating element and after cleaning, screwed them back in. Now, when I turn the oven back it works fine for about 10-12 minutes, but then the power in the whole appartment goes off. After about 15-20 minutes the power comes back on. No breakers are tripped. I have 2 questions:
- Obviously, my removing the heating element caused some issues with the oven. What could they be? Should resetting the element help? Should I replace the heating element? Should I replace the stove?
- Why would this issue cause the power in the whole appartment to go off. When the power goes off, no breakers are tripped and the power loss is confined to my appartment only.
Thank you for your help.
Best Answer
Had an electrician over who confirmed that the oven and all the wiring in the apartment was in perfect condition. He was puzzled himself, then told to me to hang on and dialed some phone number and after 20 minutes on the phone he found the solution.
Turns out that the power company placed a limiter on my apartment's line because the new renter picked up the power service a bit later than the rules allowed. Basically if one renter stops his/her power service and there is no one who picks up the power service within few weeks, the power company (Epcor in Edmonton) places a limiter on the line. You still get the power at the apartment but if you exceed a certain power flow - the limiter shuts down the power in your unit. Here is more about this: https://www.epcor.com/learn/meters/Pages/power-meter-limiters.aspx
Thank you all for your suggestions. Lesson learned.