Did I read about a handheld device that could be used to interfer with a

[lonestarnot]

household's electricity? Does anyone know about this thing?

[anigbrowl]

1. I don't know, did you?

Interfere how? What are you talking about?

[lonestarnot]

5. Shut down electricity from outside a house w/o access to the circuit breaker.

[amerikat]

13. not sure about shutting down the circut breakers alone, But

any high power,high freqency device can cause problems with anything with a chip in it.

The military is said to be experimenting with small emp(electro magnetic pulse) weapons.

edit for spelling

[anigbrowl]

26. Well, duh. Cut the wires and that'll work just fine.

Really, I'm having trouble making sense of what you're saying. Are you talking about some device you can use like a remote control to shut down someone's juice without physically disrupting anything? In that case, the answer is no, electricity doesn't work that way.

Possibly you might disrupt it if you had a really huge electromagnet, but I think you'd have to worry about lampposts and cars getting dragged towards it. I don't think you should worry about it.

[Clovis Sangrail]

2. you mean a pair of wire cutters? /nt

[lonestarnot]

6. LOL, no, what I read about was an actual device of some kind, not a tool.

:evilgrin:

[MUAD_DIB]

8. Or an unpaid utility bill...

[lonestarnot]

10. Nope not that, not yet. :)

[Speck Tater]

3. As a retired engineer, I doubt it. Of course a pair of wire cutters is a handheld device. NT

[lonestarnot]

9. Nope, not wire cutters, because it's back on after flipping the switches on the breaker, but this is

the third time in about as many weeks.

[Speck Tater]

17. If the breaker is tripping then something is overloading your circuit.

find out which circuit the breaker controls, and check out everything plugged into that circuit.

[lonestarnot]

19. Ok. Thanks.

[OffWithTheirHeads]

4. Uhmm, I am not going to get into a discussion about "hand held"

devices over the internet tubes. Not prudent.

[lonestarnot]

7. Well my neighborhood has experienced 7 burglaries from a common alley and my

electricity has been doing some wierd things. Tonight it just shut off in part of the house. I went outside and flipped the breaker switches and it's back on and seems fine. :shrug:

[Joe the Liberal]

11. Hmmmmm I dont know of any device that can do that......

Maybe its the electric company? :shrug:

[lonestarnot]

15. I called them. They said no problem in the area.

[Joe the Liberal]

20. Thats really strange than....

Call them and have them send a guy to come and check it out maybe :shrug:

[lonestarnot]

22. calling an electrician tomorrow. Hated to do that tonight for tripple rates.

Hope the damn house doesn't burn down!

[busybl]

24. have the electric company come out

I had weird problems with lights and stuff and when they came out they found the wiring was so old it needed replacing (pole to house wiring)

[smiley_glad_hands]

12. If it did exist, I doubt it would be available to common thieves. eom

[lonestarnot]

14. Maybe they stole one.

:evilgrin:

[BlooInBloo]

16. Yah. It's called a Photonic Wavelength Particle Distruptor Blaster.

[clu]

18. herf gun

a herf gun can screw with electronics but i dunno about a household system

[lonestarnot]

21. That was it! Thanks! Herf gun!

[anigbrowl]

27. That would mess with your electronics, but likely not trip your breakers

The voltage changes it would induce would be too small to affect current flow. Circuit breakers react to amplitude rather than frequency changes - a herf gun might make your computer crash or your TV show static, but it wouldn't cause your light bulbs to stop working. More likely you have an appliance leaking to ground or shorting out.

[TheMadMonk]

23. Figure out what appliances are on that circuit.

ie. What stops working when the breaker trips.

Odds are the culprit will be a high current item such as a kettle, iron, heater or a clothes dryer. Probably something recently added to a circuit that was already being loaded close to capacity.

Another possibility would be a fridge or freezer with a jammed compressor.

Unplug everything on that circuit, and reset the breaker. Now plug them back in one by one. Listen for any strange noises in anything with a motor. Unplug anything that does make strange noises and leave it unplugged until you have it checked out by a qualified tradesman. A freezer full of food is a far better price to pay than a house full of memories.

[illuminaughty]

25. There is something like this.

I know our hideous DOD has it, but I'm talking about regular folk. I can't remember where I saw it but it was a little neighborhood war where somebody was pissed off at his neighbor and was using something to mess with his electricity. It's been a couple of years ago.

[mwooldri]

28. Well AFAIK in UK, the meters are read by radio,

and not even what they have here in the Duke area - meter vans driving past, no... none of that... they directly read the meter at the utility company. My parents are also on four different electric tariffs - 3 24/7 tariffs (off peak, peak, super-peak) and 1 8-hour tariff - a circuit controlled by the electric company for supplying 8 hours of electric for stored water and home heaters. They have the capability of shutting the whole place off remotely, no need to send a disconnection crew to do it.

Mark.