I shorted a circuit, reset a breaker, now much of the house electricity only works if I turn on a wall AC unit

circuit breakerpower

I'm wondering if any of you could guess what might have happened. I live in an older 60s ranch with an older electrical system. I was cutting some shrubs this morning and hit a 3 strand wire that was just hanging out in the shrub that I'm assuming powered a irrigation pump (that's no longer there). Huge pop, flash of light, loppers slightly melted where I clamped down on the wire.

I came inside and the one breaker had tripped (the one labeled "Irrigation Pump"). I capped off the wires, put them in a junction box and buried them so hopefully the next guy won't do what I did.

None of the other circuits in the house had been tripped, but now several sections of my house have no power. There is a GFI outlet in the garage that had tripped, which I reset, but I can't figure out why many sections of the house no longer have power.

Any ideas what might have happened?

Many thanks.

Edit- I should mention one other anomaly. The overhead lights/fans in the bedrooms all work, but the wall circuits do not. Not sure if that means anything but just wanted to include it in case it is meaningful.

Edit 2- One new very odd detail. Our sunroom has a wall Heat/AC unit. If I turn that on, all the circuits in the house begin working again (though the AC unit doesn't sound like it normally does. It's very quiet like it's barely working at all and very little air blows out). Very strange

Best Answer

Possibly the main breaker partially (only one pole) tripped in addition to the individual circuit. Since it is presumably an older breaker, this is not out of the realm of possibility. A newish breaker would have definitely completely tripped.

Start by switching off the main breaker and then turning it back on while carefully noticing if the spring action of both poles are resisting turn on. (Don't worry if you cannot tell.)

If all circuits come on then you are good, though scheduling replacement of the main breaker should go on the todo list.

Otherwise, it is possible that the panel's bus bars need tightening or other maintenance. Remove the panel cover and have a look for anything amiss: wires dangling, soot, melted metal, melted plastic, discolored metal bus bars, discolored lug screws, etc.


Once I mis-wired a replacement electric stove top switch so that when a certain pair of switches were both on, it placed a complete short across the 240 supply. It tripped both the range breaker and the main. The range breaker was melted internally.