Short answer
Power reaches your panel on two legs, and half the house goes dark when one leg dies. Every breaker looks fine because nothing tripped, the feed itself is gone. Lights that flicker, dim, surge bright or buzz while half the house is dead point at a loose neutral, and that is the version that damages appliances, so shut the main off and call an electrician the same day. Nothing here is a homeowner repair, because the incoming wires stay live with your main breaker off.
Tell a dead leg from a tripped circuit in five minutes
- Walk the whole house and write down what is dead. Note rooms, outlets and lights, and check whether the stove, dryer or AC still run.
- Open the panel door and look at every breaker. Push each handle firmly to off, then back to on. A tripped breaker often sits slightly out of line with its neighbours.
- Press the test and reset buttons on every GFCI outlet, including the ones in bathrooms, the garage and outside. One tripped GFCI can kill a string of outlets in other rooms.
- Count how much is dead. One room or one circuit is a branch-circuit fault. Half the house, in scattered rooms, is a feed fault.
- Watch the lights that still work. Dimming, flickering, brightening or buzzing means a loose neutral. Turn the main breaker off now and stop here.
- Look at the meter and the cable where it enters the house. Report any scorch marks, burning smell, buzzing at the panel or cable damage to the electrician when you call.
If one breaker or GFCI reset brought everything back, you are done. If half the house is still dead with every breaker on, the fault is in the panel, the main lugs, the meter or the utility drop, and it needs a licensed electrician.
Repair or replace
| Situation | What to do |
|---|---|
| One breaker was tripped and a reset fixed it | Nothing more, but note what was running when it tripped. A breaker that trips again is a fault, not a coincidence. |
| Half the house dead, every breaker on, no flickering | Hire an electrician. One incoming leg is open at the main lug, the meter or the utility drop, and the test takes minutes with a meter. |
| Lights flicker, dim or brighten while half the house is dead | Shut the main off and call an electrician the same day. A loose neutral pushes high voltage onto half your circuits and ruins electronics. |
| Started during or after a storm | Hire for this. Call your utility first, because a damaged drop or a lost leg on their side is their repair and their cost. |
| Burning smell, scorch marks or buzzing at the panel | Shut the main off, leave the house if the smell is strong, and call an electrician as an emergency. |
| Panel is a Federal Pacific, Zinsco or Sylvania, or uses fuses | Get the panel quoted for replacement while the electrician is there. Those panels fail to trip and cannot be repaired. |
Can I do it myself?
No. You can reset breakers and GFCI outlets, and you can list what is dead, and that is where it stops. Hire for this one. The service cable, the meter base and the main lugs stay live with your main breaker off, so there is no way to make the work area safe from inside the house.
A loose neutral also reads as normal voltage on a cheap tester right up until it swings to 240 volts on a 120-volt circuit. An electrician measures each leg at the main lugs, which tells you in minutes whether the fault is yours to pay for or the utility's.
What a contractor will ask you
Have these ready and you skip the back-and-forth.
- When the power went, as exactly as you can. "Earlier today" is enough if that is all you have.
- What is dead and what still works, room by room, including big appliances.
- Whether anything large was turned on just before it happened, like an EV charger, a space heater, a window AC or a new appliance.
- Whether any breaker looked tripped, and whether resetting it changed anything.
- Whether the working lights flicker, dim or buzz.
- Whether it started with a storm, a power cut or utility work on your street.
- A wide photo of the panel and the wall around it, door open, with the labels readable.
- The panel brand and the main breaker amp rating, printed inside the door.
Common questions
- Half my house doesn't have power and no breaker is tripped.
One of the two 120-volt legs feeding your panel is open. Nothing tripped because nothing faulted on your side of the breaker. An electrician measures both legs at the main lugs to find where the leg is lost.
- Why are half my lights and outlets dead in scattered rooms?
Circuits are not grouped by room. The breakers on one bus leg are spread across the house, so losing that leg takes out rooms that have nothing else in common.
- My lights flicker and buzz and half the house is dead.
That is the loose-neutral pattern, and it is the urgent one. Shut the main breaker off and call an electrician the same day, because the voltage on your remaining circuits is no longer stable.
- It happened after a storm, who do I call first?
Call the utility. If the drop, the weatherhead or their side of the meter is damaged, they repair it at no cost to you. If they find the fault past the meter, it is yours and an electrician takes it from there.
- Do I need a new panel?
Only if the electrician finds burnt lugs, a failed bus or an unsafe brand. A lost leg at the utility drop does not need a new panel.
- Could one tripped GFCI really kill half the house?
It can kill a surprising run of outlets, so reset every one before you pay for a visit. It will not take out ceiling lights and large appliances at the same time.