electricity, not may favorite topic but need help EDIT to revise barn lights

[Kali]

Last edited Sun Sep 26, 2021, 06:31 PM - Edit history (1)

no electricity at barn and beyond. it was there in May. some good thunderstorms this summer but don't think any poles got hit. electric goes to a subpanel on the shed/garage. a trailer and the garage itself are fine. two breakers for the barn, one trips but we don't know what it goes to specifically. there is also a switch below the subpanel on the garage that controlled the well pump only, at the end of that line. the well was decommissioned years ago and the line was coiled up and is now hanging from the last light pole. the two corral lights have switch at the first light. there are several outlets and lights in the barn itself but no subpanel (I am almost positive - need to go double check that), just junction boxes.

I don't even know what to test or where to start, anybody able to give kindergarten level instructions or have an idea where to start?


excuse my sad drawing but it might help visualize what I am talking about.







REVISED barn area.

[doc03]

1. Could just be a bad breaker. They go bad especially

those push type breakers.

[Kali]

4. switching them around it is only if a breaker is in one slot that trips

I also think he tried getting some new ones. seems to just be the one position/wire that must be bad but how to trace it down at the location?

[Kali]

10. I need to correct the reply I made earlier.

two breakers in question. both have big heavy wires that go down to the barn area. one has a "side" switch right below this panel on the garage. it is the other one that trips. it just has the big heavy wire that goes out the top of the panel and on to some poles and down to the barn area.

[CentralMass]

2. Well this maybe a dead end suggestion but GFI outlets that have

Tripped and or gone bad can sometimes create issues like the one you are experiencing. You might check any GFI outlets that could possibly be linked to that circuit and reset them if they are tripped.

[doc03]

3. That is another one GFI breakers, I had one go

bad on my septic tank aireator this year. Maybe critters damaged the insulation on the wires. Field mice like to use insulation for nests. One spring my tractor wouldn't start. Found all the insulation on the wires gone and a mouse nest made of it on the engine

[Kali]

5. don't have any of those down there

[taxi]

6. maybe take a voltage test on both legs at the first junction in the barn (if 240)

that will tell you where to look. the well pump (if 240) could run without a common, but the outlets and lights wouldn't.

edit: does the power go to the meter on the house, inside to the box, and then feed out? if so it could be that one leg isn't making a good connection on that first juction, only feeding a single leg to the trailer and having nothing going on the second leg to the far end. anyway, i slept somewhere and this is all i know

[Kali]

7. the answer to the question of meter

meter is on a stand alone pole, a line goes to a panel on house and a second line goes to a panel on shed/garage. this panel controls shed/garage, trailer, barn, coral lights, former well.

I need to revise barn info. the line spilts BEFORE going into barn. barn has a subpanel with 2 breakers, only one hooked up and this panel only controls barn.

am I correct that the problem almost has to be at the shed/garage panel or the lines from it to the split just before the barn if both barn and corral lights are off, and shed/garage and trailer are fine?

[taxi]

8. if you are comfortable with disconnecting the second line at the feed?

if so, connect the ends of the now-disconnected-circuit.
you can use anything to check each point of the circuit now - a buzzer, a light bulb, whatever. just go to the first connection and check the continuity. proceed to the second...

[Kali]

9. I am not that comfortable but the husband will mess around in the panel

changing breakers out or whatever. when you say second line at feed, I have no idea what that means.

I did go look more closely at the panel on garage. one breaker is connects to the switch below the panel that used to control the well pump. otherwise it just connects to one of the two heavy lines that go up and on to the barn area, it is the breaker that is not switched right there that is tripping. it is a brand new breaker. other than that and aside from some sun fading on the outer insulation all looks intact and functional. nothing sparking, or obvious recent melting etc.

the neighbor who is a pump and windmill guy might be able to come out later this week and check things but otherwise I have to get an electrician out from Tucson (60 miles one way) and it just seems like it should be something we could figure out!

[tikka]

11. where is the breaker that is tripped?

[Kali]

12. it is on the panel on the shed/garage

the other breakers are working, the trailer and garage have power.

the breaker that trips has been tried both in other slots and other wires in the panel and is brand new. it trips in any position in the panel and it has been tried on other wires, working fine so it does seem to be only one of the two big wires that go to the barn area.

[tikka]

13. Without being there, the tripped circuit breaker must control

the line going to the barn and lights. What confuses me is the switch on the garage for the pump. Either there was a separate wire to the pump from the switch or the switch controls all the electricity to the barn area. That may explain the coil of wire by the pump. If you can access where the wires split by the barn, try disconnecting the wires and see if the circuit breaker still trips. If it still trips, the problem is between there and the garage. If it doesn't trip try hooking up one of the branches of wire and check the circuit breaker. If it trips the breaker, that's the problem area. If not, it's the other area.

This doesn't solve your problem, but it gives you a smaller area to search.

[Kali]

14. yeah it has been so long since we lost the well I don't remember

quite how that worked, whether electric was on all the time and we just switched the lights all off, or whether something else was going on. At the time it was installed we were all feeling modernized that we could walk out to the garage and turn the pump on and not have to walk all the way down to the well like we did in the really old days. LOL

After we got used to that we kept saying why didn't we put the switch on the porch or on the house itself?

Now our source well is 5.5 MILES away and we have to drive to it.

the split at the barn is 20 feet in the air and our extension ladder is too short (have to put it in the back of a truck to reach up there) so I think we are just going to wait and see what the neighbor/well guy says. thanks for helping!