As Tony already found out last night about midnight thirty ( or so )... I found out that I lost power to my bedroom, bathroom and hallway lights at some point. I went out to the breaker panel and I found none of the breakers were thrown. To make things more challenging, no one had marked anything except the major appliances, so I was "in the dark" more than just one way.
Too add insult to injury, I also noticed that there were several tree limbs that had fallen in my backyard that I'd failed to notice after a storm blew through with about 55 mph winds ( several reported up around 60 mph ) and had dumped over an inch of rain in less than 15 minutes. The downed branches would be there later, what I concerned myself with was finding out what was going on with the power.
So I turned on what lights I could in the house and started throwing each breaker off and checking which lights went out one at a time. I got a couple of them marked but still hadn't figured out which one may be bad ( or even if one was actually bad ). Since it was late and I wasn't going to be able to do anything until the hardware stores were open anyway... I ran a temp extension cord to my alarm clock and one for the fan in the bedroom... and called it good for the night.
At least Tony provided a little entertainment since he was setting up his iRacing account again so he could do some streaming from that again.
After going to work so I could receive a part I had for an upcoming computer build... I came back home and started with the tree branches first since I knew I could get that done. Next, I took off the breaker panel and began testing each breaker. They all tested ok, double checked that and they all were working. Since I suspected the ground fault breaker and since it's possible that some power could come back in on the ground wire depending on exactly how things were wired, I went ahead and disconnected it since it only takes a few moments. Went back inside and started the process of pulling off the switch and power receptacles for the areas affected. I didn't find anything wrong with any of the ones I'd opened up. So as a last resort, I thought I'd check a few outlets I'd missed the night before... I started with the socket in the hall, plugged in my hair dryer to test it ( because I didn't have a small lamp ) and the hall light blinked on/off real quick, check the upper socket and the light came on and stayed on. Checked the bedroom and bathroom lights... they worked also. So apparently, the connection had just gotten corroded. I'll replace it later with a new one but it's all working for now. While I was at it, I thought I'd test the breaker that I thought it was working through and sure enough... got another one marked on the panel.
