We all hate it when we go to plug in the Christmas lights on an already frozen day, or the speaker on a good summer day; and nothing turns on.
You go to the breaker box and none of the switches are off, but still no power.
What the heck is wrong? Before you call an electrician and write a check to have them come take a look at it; I want you to check your reset button outlets, or GFCI’s.
What Are GFCIs and Why Look at Them?
GFCIs are a special type of outlet that’s designed to protect you from being shocked when water could be near. GFCI stands for Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter; and you usually find them in bathrooms, kitchens, unfinished basements, garages, and along the outside of your home.
GFCIs protect a who line of outlets on a circuit, so you will usually only find one for a whole group of outlets; and they act sort of like a little breaker when water gets into an electrical connection; shutting down power to the outlets before a shock can happen.
The most common cause of having no power at outlets, and no breaker in the box tripped, is actually just a tripped GFCI; and fixing it is as simple as finding it and pressing in the RESET button.
“I found the GFCI and it won’t reset”
A quick test to make sure it’s your GFCI that won’t reset, and not something else, is to unplug everything you can find on the circuit and try resetting it again. If it resets and stays on, then there is water or a damaged wire somewhere along the line, and you need to reconnect each device until you find what pops the GFCI again.
However, if you unplug everything and the GFCI still wont reset; then this is the point in the process where I would recommend calling a professional out for a troubleshoot.
There are many reasons why a GFCI might not reset from it simply going bad and needing to be replaced, to having damaged wiring buried underground. Any of these require testing equipment and a thorough understanding of the entire electrical system in order to diagnose, though; and in the interest of not fixing the wrong thing and saving time I would recommend having an electrician out to do a full troubleshoot.