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Seeking advice. My neutral wire from the transformer fell during a storm. This is at a cottage and luckily I was there when it happened. The surge move around the house and popped light bulbs and the GFI's in the kitchen and bath basically exploded and popped a breaker in the panel. I turned off power to everything and had an electrician out within the hour. He found the neutral had fallen from the transformer and had me called our power company. Several hours later the power company technician said our ground has failed (sub 1950s cottage, only has one ground) repaired the pole also saying I need to have 2 grounds installed in the spring.

My question is, other than replacing the GFI's and any additional outlets that may have failed, should I have wiring inspected for damage (within the wall). If I have the GFI's replaced, and the breaker resets, could the wiring still pose a future problem?

Thanks for any advice!
 
Without waiting for @Megawatt , our USA specialist, I would say it would need checked. How that is done, I'm not sure. In the UK we have instruments for testing the soundness of hidden cables. Guess you have something similar

If the surge was enough to pop a few bulbs, its maybe not only damaged the cable but also the breakers and GFI's
 
I'm in the UK as well, and live in an area where, very unusually, there are several US style split phase supplies, although 240-0-240 volts, rather than 120-0-120 volts, and I've had a few of these scenarios over the years.
Depending on the loads on each side of your supply, the least loaded phase will have received somewhere between 120 and 240 volts, and the more loaded phase between 0 and 120 volts. The most spectacular effects are on the least loaded side, with blown lamps and destroyed electronic power supplies, but damage can occur on the other phase as well, especially to anything with a motor, where it stall, or more likely, fail to start, and overheat.
I very much doubt if any damage has been done to the fixed wiring, switches, breakers and outlets, etc., since the overloads it has all been subjected to is less than 100%
 
Seeking advice. My neutral wire from the transformer fell during a storm. This is at a cottage and luckily I was there when it happened. The surge move around the house and popped light bulbs and the GFI's in the kitchen and bath basically exploded and popped a breaker in the panel. I turned off power to everything and had an electrician out within the hour. He found the neutral had fallen from the transformer and had me called our power company. Several hours later the power company technician said our ground has failed (sub 1950s cottage, only has one ground) repaired the pole also saying I need to have 2 grounds installed in the spring.

My question is, other than replacing the GFI's and any additional outlets that may have failed, should I have wiring inspected for damage (within the wall). If I have the GFI's replaced, and the breaker resets, could the wiring still pose a future problem?

Thanks for any advice!
All I can tell you is when you lost your neutral your 120 volt circuits went up to probably between 180vac and 160vac. Having said that everything that was plugged into a receptacle or on a 120 vac circuit probably got fried. The actual wiring is fine but you do need to install another ground rod since the 2020 edition of the NEC states that your service requires a second ground rod. Since your home was built in the 1950’s you probably don’t have a ground wire to any circuit. To rectify that you need all your circuits protected by GFCI breakers. Good luck
 
Thank you for your responses. I really appreciate it!

When the first electrician was in the house he noted that one "leg" was 135V and the other one was 95V. That's what made him go outside and look at the transformer on the pole.
 
Thank you for your responses. I really appreciate it!

When the first electrician was in the house he noted that one "leg" was 135V and the other one was 95V. That's what made him go outside and look at the transformer on the pole.
Good deal my friend and glad we could help also and have a great day.
 
Just wanted to follow this up. I really appreciate the responses to my help request. What had happened was the neutral from the house had fallen during a storm. It ended up being that the ground on my house is also not sufficient (nor is most of my neighborhood pre-1950s cottage). I had an electrician out just after it happened (luckily I was there to see the surge moving through from room to room and able to shut things off in a panic). Quickly had an electrician find that one leg was 135V and one was 95V. Called our energy supplier who repaired our service and pointed out that our cable service neutral is shared between the energy supplier and the cable company. The cable can handle 35 amps, and it burned about 36 inches, then let go. This along with me shutting the power off is probably what saved my major appliances as it gave me time to hit the main breaker. It blew out (exploded) the GFI in the kitchen and the GFI in the bathroom which needed to be replaced. Power in the living room was still out, but that ended up being the surge protector on the tv/dvd/stereo was shorted and wouldn't allow the breaker to be reset. Replaced the GFI's, removed the surge protector and everything was working again.
 
Just wanted to follow this up. I really appreciate the responses to my help request. What had happened was the neutral from the house had fallen during a storm. It ended up being that the ground on my house is also not sufficient (nor is most of my neighborhood pre-1950s cottage). I had an electrician out just after it happened (luckily I was there to see the surge moving through from room to room and able to shut things off in a panic). Quickly had an electrician find that one leg was 135V and one was 95V. Called our energy supplier who repaired our service and pointed out that our cable service neutral is shared between the energy supplier and the cable company. The cable can handle 35 amps, and it burned about 36 inches, then let go. This along with me shutting the power off is probably what saved my major appliances as it gave me time to hit the main breaker. It blew out (exploded) the GFI in the kitchen and the GFI in the bathroom which needed to be replaced. Power in the living room was still out, but that ended up being the surge protector on the tv/dvd/stereo was shorted and wouldn't allow the breaker to be reset. Replaced the GFI's, removed the surge protector and everything was working again.
Good deal and yes You got lucky that could have fried everything in your house using 120vac. I ran into a similar situation today and was measuring 197vac in the receptacles. It was a very loose neutral.
 

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