i think i plugged in too much into one outlet...

**scramble** · 03-10-2011 11:54 AM

The other day, I was blow drying my hair with a space heater turned on in the bathroom, both appliances plugged into the same outlet... and 5 minutes into it, the plug stopped working. Two days later, it's still out

Is this something I need to call a professional electricity guy in to fix??

**WildChild** · 03-10-2011 12:09 PM

Find your service box. If you are in apartment it's probably in the kitchen or lvgrm, if you have a garage it may be in there. On houses it may be outside. It should be a grey metal door that you can pull open. You will see 2 rows of switches. Typically at the top will be a main the shuts the power off to your entire place. Under that will be a series of switches, one of these has tripped to prevent a fire from overloading the wiring. Just like a light switch, you need to switch it back to the open posisition. If you cannot readily see which switch has been thrown, try starting at the bottom and clicking each switch off and then on. You should turn off your computer first.

**WildChild** · 03-10-2011 12:11 PM

This is what you are looking for

**CHANDLERS WISH** · 03-10-2011 12:11 PM

You should have a powerbox, you can check if one switch is down, the rest up, bring that switch up and go and check first..

Often that's the case but not always

**LanaBear** · 03-10-2011 12:12 PM

Do you have one of those breaker button thingies (lol, sorry I have no idea what it is called) with the outlet. In my bathroom, between the two plugs, there are two little buttons, one says TEST and one says RESET. If I push the RESET button, the outlets work again.

If not, yeah, start flipping breakers in your breaker box like WC says. She's MIZ FIX-IT!!!

**scramble** · 03-10-2011 12:14 PM

Ooh I see. Awesome, thanks for the help!!

I will recheck out my outlet to see if I can find what LanaBear is referring to, but if not, look for the breaker box. I live in an apt building, but if I can't find the box myself, the building manager is always around!

**Beautiful Disaster** · 03-10-2011 01:11 PM

Mine has the same thing Lana has. It happens to me now and then too. I just hit reset and I'm good to go.

**WildChild** · 03-10-2011 01:37 PM

That would be a GFCI

**Seeker_Advice** · 03-10-2011 04:49 PM

You live in an apartment with a building manager, call them, that's their job.

**jns** · 03-15-2011 05:31 AM

Originally Posted by scramble

The other day, I was blow drying my hair with a space heater turned on in the bathroom, both appliances plugged into the same outlet... and 5 minutes into it, the plug stopped working. Two days later, it's still out

Is this something I need to call a professional electricity guy in to fix??

Modern hair blow dryers at 1800 or 1875 watts use all of the available current on a 15 amp circuit (standard wall circuit using 14 gauge wire - American Wire Gauge, 20 amp circuits are rarer and the larger slot is T shaped), so nothing else should be using electricity on that circuit at the same time. The 1875 number is a cheat as they are rating the voltage at 125 volts where the nominal is 120 volts in the USA. 120 x 15 = 1800 and 125 x 15 = 1875.

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