What to do if the light or electricity goes out. short circuit what to do

Algorithm of actions

It is necessary to inspect all devices connected to the network

If the lights in the apartment are turned off, the first thing you need to check is whether the neighbors have electricity. If there is no electricity in one apartment, you should look for the problem. To do this, you need to provide yourself with a source of lighting - it can be a flashlight, a candle, or matches.

Next, you need to carefully inspect the devices connected to the network. If an electrical appliance has a burning smell or visible burnt parts, it must be carefully disconnected from the power supply with one hand, without touching the exposed parts of the wires. All powerful household appliances should also be turned off.

There are cases in which you cannot solve the problem yourself; you need to call an electrician:

the appearance of sparks from the socket, shield;
smell of burnt plastic from wiring;
receiving a message about a planned shutdown.

When the machine is triggered in the panel, before turning it on, it is necessary to conduct a visual inspection

For the first two reasons, the light may go out due to problems with the electrical wiring. Only a professional must fix this problem; repairing the wiring yourself is prohibited. In the latter case, the shutdown is planned, and residents will be warned that the lighting will be turned off for a certain period.

When the light goes out in the apartment, the machines can be turned on or off. If any machine is disabled, it is not recommended to activate it immediately. You must first carefully inspect the insulation - it should be without damage or darkening. All manipulations must be carried out with one hand - the other does not touch anything. The plugs can be knocked out due to a household appliance (for example, due to an old iron). Then the device must be unplugged from the outlet. Only after these steps is it possible to turn on the machine. If the lights in the apartment are turned off, but the machines are on, you need to call a technician.

It's worth looking at the electricity meter. On newer devices, the red LED will turn on and off; on older models, a rattling noise can be heard. If there is no sound or flashing, there is no electricity flowing.

Illegal power cuts

So that over time the actions of the management company are not recognized as unlawful, its employees must correctly carry out the procedure for suspending the supply of light. It is illegal in the following cases:

Having debt for water or gas supply, but not for electricity.
The debt has been fully repaid, evidence of its absence has been provided to the company, two days have already passed since the last date.
Contractual terms were not met, and a violation of the law was established.
According to the law, it is impossible to apply a rolling restriction of services. Neighbors who regularly pay their bills should not suffer because of non-payers.
In winter, when houses are heated with electric appliances. Illegality threatens the health of residents.
Disconnection from electricity to citizens from the socially vulnerable group.
The organization does not follow the consistent procedure for turning off lights (due to non-payment) required by law.

How to find the right machine?

Some would-be electricians on the forums recommend acting logically and turning off the circuit breaker that corresponds to the location of the apartment on the floor. This shutdown method is extremely unsafe, because there is a possibility of an illogical arrangement of the protective automation. As a result, you will turn off your neighbors' lights, and if you decide to replace the outlet at this moment, you may suffer from electric shock.

If you don’t know which circuit breaker is yours, it is best to warn your neighbors that they may lose electricity for a few minutes and at that time, use the method of elimination to find your circuit breaker. All you need is an indicator screwdriver, which you will use to check the presence of voltage in the outlet. We talked about how to use an indicator screwdriver in the corresponding article!

Once you find your own circuit breaker, we recommend signing it to avoid this problem in the future! It is enough to simply write the apartment number with a marker above the device and subsequent blackouts will be more understandable!

Ilyich's light bulb

Incandescent lamps are the most expensive consumers of electricity. You should always turn them off, but it's better to just get rid of them. If your electricity bills lead to indignation or despondency, then you urgently need to switch to more modern devices.

The fact is that only 10% of the energy consumed by incandescent lamps is converted into light, the rest, which is 90% of the resource, is converted into heat. The advantage of these sources can be considered the instant output of the maximum amount of light flux. They do not require time to adjust to operating mode. In addition, they look very nostalgic; designers love to use them in modern interiors.

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Power cut for non-payment

You will be warned in advance about power outages for non-payment.

The power supply may be turned off due to debts on utility bills. The procedure is prescribed by law and has no right to be violated. If the light goes out without following the procedure, you can go to court.

The shutdown procedure is as follows:

The owner has debts on bills exceeding two months' payment.
The service provider (management company, housing office) notifies the owner of the debts in the appropriate manner. The notice is delivered personally to the owner.
After notification within 20 days, the owner closes the debts.
If the debt is not paid, another notification is sent after 20 days.
If after the second notification the debt is not repaid within three days, a new notification may be sent again, or the supply of electricity to the apartment will be immediately stopped - depending on the decision of the service provider.

Emergency or planned

Emergency shutdown occurs due to technical reasons, as a result of emergency situations. In this case, the light will be turned off without warning. It is clear that a prolonged power outage can cause significant damage. That is why every consumer should take into account the following information:

The reasons why the emergency occurred, as well as the nature of the breakdown.
Time frame within which the power supply will be restored.
What to do if the repair time exceeds the norm.

During emergency repair work, shutdowns occur due to emergency situations. If it is possible to connect reserve power, the supplier usually uses it. A planned shutdown occurs if the repair work was planned; in this case, the electricians work according to a pre-thought-out scenario.

It doesn’t matter whether the outage occurs in winter or summer, the organization must warn people about the outage in advance . Today, a variety of notification methods can be used:

by calling a phone;
letter by email;
personally;
through the media.

Option #1

Check circuit breakers. Circuit breakers are protective shutdown devices (circuit breakers, plugs, RCDs, differential circuit breakers, switches) that are located in the electrical panel in your apartment or entrance, and they turn off under certain conditions (overloads, leaks, short circuits). There are several types of machines, and sometimes it’s difficult for an inexperienced user to understand them. If you don’t know what they look like and where they are, look at the pictures!

You found machines, what to do next? How to understand where yours is, where it’s not, whether it’s on or off. With modern machines or RCDs, everything is clear - the toggle switch on them falls down (there are cases when machines are installed upside down, look carefully at the inscriptions). Here you can easily calculate your machine in the dashboard. Carefully, with one hand, without touching other wires and parts of the electrical panel, turn on the machine. Everything is fine? You don’t have to read any further and like and repost the article.

How to turn on machines correctly. You need to turn off all the machines (don’t touch the neighbors’ ones), and turn them on one by one, starting with the most important one, in this way you can calculate the problem line, leaving the problem machine turned off until the causes are eliminated. Leaving light on other lines. Option #2: You have old black machines, how can you tell where yours are? Typically, the machines in such panels are arranged in numerical order, in groups of two or three for each apartment. Old Soviet-style machines do not indicate that they are “off” in any way; they need to be overloaded, that is, turned off and on. Figure out where yours are, and feel free to turn them off and on again! Problem solved? Likes, reposts, ovations...

Do fish need light at night?

At night, lighting fixtures must be turned off. The only exception is when the container is located in a dark place where the sun's rays do not penetrate. In this case, it is necessary to use a lighting device during the daytime and leave a night light on at night.

LED lamps can also be used, which act as part of the decor and illuminate the container at night, giving it the necessary tone.

How to safely turn off power to an apartment

Let's consider a typical option for the correct distribution of electricity in an apartment building.

In addition to the general electrical safety requirements, there are purely mercantile requirements of the energy sales company. They are aimed at stopping unauthorized (more precisely, unaccounted for) electricity withdrawal. In this regard, there should be no access points for connection between the apartment entry machine and the electricity meter.

In practice it looks like this:

At the entrance there is a common use panel with circuit breakers or fuses (plugs) for each individual apartment. After the machine there is a metering device, the contact block of which is sealed by a representative of the energy company. If the meter and machine are located outside the apartment, it will not be possible to connect unnoticed “bypassing”. In practice, you can turn off the electricity meter, but for unauthorized selection you will have to pull the cable into the apartment.

In theory, the panel should contain information about which metering device or circuit breaker belongs to your apartment. At least for safety reasons (in case of an accident or electric shock to a person), and simply for the convenience of taking meter readings.

If your driveway panel looks exactly like this, the question is: “how to turn off the lights in the apartment?” can be solved by switching the desired machine to “off” mode. Unfortunately, in practice, many driveway panels look like this:

You can identify your metering device by its serial number (it is indicated in the electricity supply contract). Then you need to visually trace which wire goes from the meter to the circuit breaker (or fuse). If this is possible, you're in luck. You simply turn off the machine or unscrew the plug.

What kind of protection devices can be found in access panels:

A classic modern machine that is triggered by excess current. On the case there are marks on the position of the key and a color indication: “on” (red or I icon) and “off” (green or O icon).
The classic “plug” is a fuse in a ceramic housing. The power supply is turned off by simply unscrewing the fuse from its socket. Sometimes this is difficult to do - the thread may stick to the cartridge. At the same time, check whether a so-called wire bug is installed instead of the fuse.
A circuit breaker that replaced the outdated ceramic fuse (the so-called plugs). The socket is made exactly the same as on the “plug” (thread and central contact), instead of a fuse, there is a mechanism inside that is triggered when the rated current value is exceeded. For To turn off, you need to press the small red button. Considering the general dilapidation of the design, it is better to unscrew the machine after turning it off.

Why do you need to turn off the electricity?

Before turning off the light in the panel at the entrance, you must gain access to its contents

Turning off the power involves a break in the phases and neutral wire, made manually using devices installed on the line. We are not talking about switches or sockets with toggle switches. Shutdown assumes a complete lack of power on the input cable coming from the common panel on the landing. At the same time, there is not only no voltage in the network, but also random stray currents that arise when measuring and protective devices are incorrectly connected.

The decision to turn off the lights in the apartment is made voluntarily or under pressure from circumstances.

Reasons to turn off the electricity may be as follows:

Going on vacation. The risk of short circuit and fire due to old wiring or in case of flooding by neighbors above is eliminated. In addition, after a lightning strike, household appliances connected to the network may break down.
An emergency situation occurs when there is sparking in sockets or smoke from melting wire insulation.

Before turning off the electricity in the apartment in the panel at the entrance, you should gain access to its internal contents. In some houses, the keys are held by people in charge who do not give them to anyone. Therefore, it is necessary to resolve the issue of turning off the electricity in the panel in advance. The corresponding line about common property is stated in the contract.

Safety measures when disconnecting the apartment from the power supply

Before turning off the power to the apartment, turn off all electrical appliances and unplug them from the sockets. Modern TVs, computers and stereos are in standby mode even when turned off.
Before turning off the machine, check the functionality of the voltage indicator by connecting the measuring contact to the socket or phase terminal of the machine.
After de-energizing the apartment, re-check the absence of voltage on the phase and neutral conductors.
If the circuit breaker is located in the entrance, it is necessary to take measures against unauthorized activation. Hang a sign that says “Do not turn on, people are working!” to your machine. It’s better to have an assistant next to the shield while the work is being carried out.
After completing the work, before applying voltage, check whether there are any connected electrical appliances left in the apartment. If you do something wrong, you can damage the equipment.
After connecting the apartment, check the voltage value in the network using a multimeter. After making sure that the power supply system is working properly, you can use electrical appliances.

The most likely causes of power outages

Electricity in residential premises disappears for various reasons, and the scale of the disaster varies - it can cut off one specific apartment, or an entire neighborhood or settlement.

In the event of a general shutdown of several households, there may be three reasons for this situation:

Planned preventive or repair work that is necessary to prevent equipment wear or replace it. Usually they are warned about in advance - advertisements are posted in entrances or in the private sector indicating the date and time of power outages, advertisements are published in local newspapers, etc.;
An accident at a substation or a broken power line, which can be caused by literally any external factor - overheating of the substation itself, rupture of wires due to strong wind, a fallen tree or a car hitting a pole supporting the line;
Rolling blackouts are a rare occurrence these days, usually caused by local economic conditions or the need to redistribute existing capacity.

Why shutdown?

As we have already said, it is necessary to turn off the electricity in two cases:

If you decide to replace the electrical wiring in your apartment or carry out repair work, for example, when you need to disassemble a light switch.
For the duration of your vacation, if you need to leave the apartment unattended. It's better to be on the safe side and turn off the lights before arriving.

In both the first and second cases, you need to open the floor panel at the entrance and find the machine that serves your apartment and which, accordingly, needs to be turned off. How to do it correctly, read on!

Important! To avoid the need to completely turn off the refrigerator, heating boiler or alarm system during departure, we recommend installing so-called non-switchable lines in the panel. We talked about this in more detail in the article: https://samelectrik.ru/dlya-chego-nuzhny-neotklyuchaemye-linii-v-shhite.html

When not to tamper with the shield

Indeed, not in all cases it is worth touching the electrical panel. There are several cases.

The lights were turned off in the entire house. In this case, interfering with the shield will not bring any effect. It’s clear that this won’t be the case. Therefore, you should first make sure that there is no light in other houses.

If the junction box is faulty, it is also called a junction box. This is a kind of splitter. The wires from the panel come there and are distributed throughout the apartment. Wires can oxidize and fail. In this case, interfering with the shield will not bring any effect.

If the electric meter is faulty. This may mislead you into thinking that electricity has completely stopped and is not being consumed. This is not an indicator at all and you can get a discharge.

If the machine is in the entrance, and the meter is in the apartment

Quite a common situation. The dashboard can be organized neatly, with signed apartments, or randomly (most often).

In this case, the identity of the machine can only be determined visually by tracing the path of the wire. In practice, this is impossible to do - the wire simply goes into the common channel.

You can turn off the electricity in your neighbors' apartment, causing a conflict situation. In addition, this method (without warning) can damage electrical appliances or destroy information on a personal computer.

It would be more correct to call an electrician from the service company and ask them to accurately identify your circuit breaker. After that, try to make an information plate with apartment numbers on your own (although this is the direct responsibility of the power engineers).

The value of the tripping current does not matter: this is not a protective device - but a simple switch. The main thing is that the parameter is not lower than on the circuit breaker in the driveway panel. With this switch, you can always turn off the power to the apartment for work, or simply when leaving for a long period of time.

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LED lightening

One of the simplest methods to reduce energy costs is to replace all light bulbs with LED lighting. According to some studies, such a step will reduce costs by up to 85%.

LED lamps are energy efficient and have a long service life. By using them in your home, you don’t have to worry about the lights being on; even constant use won’t greatly increase your monthly expenses.

LED lights turn on without delay and reach full brightness instantly, so you can flick the switch as often as you like. LED crystals do not explode and produce a constant stream of illumination.

But they also have disadvantages - these light bulbs are very expensive to purchase. It is believed that their service life can be up to 11 years; in fact, the manufacturer only provides a warranty for 2-3 years. And most importantly, the spectrum of the light produced is very uncomfortable for humans, which is why only a small number of people install total LED indoor lighting. Typically these lamps act as companions.