Key takeaways
- If half your house loses power but the rest works, it is usually not a utility outage. It points to something in your own panel or service.
- Check first for a tripped breaker or a tripped GFCI, which are the simple, safe fixes you can do yourself.
- A common cause of half-house power loss is a failed main lug or a lost leg of the incoming service, which is a job for a professional.
- Warm panels, burning smells, or sparking mean stop and call. Do not keep resetting.
It is a strange feeling. The kitchen works, the living room works, but the whole back half of the house is dark, and the neighbors clearly still have power. This partial power loss confuses people because it does not match either of the two things they expect: a full outage or a single tripped breaker. Here is what is usually going on, what you can safely check yourself, and when to pick up the phone.
What does it mean when half the house loses power?
Your home is fed by two main legs of power that come in from the utility and split across your panel. Roughly half your circuits ride on one leg and half on the other. When one leg loses power, everything on that leg goes dark while everything on the other leg keeps humming along. That is why you get this uneven, half-and-half pattern instead of a total blackout. It almost always means the problem is on your side, in the panel or the service, not a general outage.
What can I safely check myself?
Start with the simple, safe things. Open your panel and look for a breaker that has tripped, sitting in the middle or off position. Flip it fully off, then back on. Check any GFCI outlets in the dead areas and press reset, because a single tripped GFCI can kill a string of outlets downstream. If a breaker resets and holds, you may have found it. If it trips again immediately, stop there.
Do not go further than the breakers and reset buttons. Do not remove the panel cover, do not touch the main lugs, and do not start pulling wires. Past the breaker face, you are into live parts that can seriously hurt you.
What usually causes a lost leg of power?
When it is not a simple breaker or GFCI, the common causes are a failed connection at the main, a loose or burned lug where a service leg lands, or a problem in the meter or service entrance. These are exactly the connections that carry the most current and run hottest, so they are the ones that wear out and fail. A lost leg can also be an issue on the utility side of the meter, in which case it is the power company's repair, but figuring out which side it is on takes a professional.
Diagnosing and repairing a lost leg or a failed main connection is real electrical repair work, not a homeowner job. We test both legs, find where the power is being lost, and fix it safely.
When is this an emergency?
Treat it as urgent if the panel or a breaker is warm or hot, if you smell burning or hot plastic, if you hear buzzing or see sparking, or if you see any scorching. Those signs mean a connection is overheating right now, and that is a fire risk. Cut the main breaker if you can safely reach it, keep people away from the panel, and call immediately.
A hot panel or a burning smell with half your power gone is an electrical emergency. We keep room on the schedule for exactly this kind of call.
Why not just live with it until it comes back?
Because a lost leg rarely fixes itself, and the failing connection behind it tends to get worse and hotter, not better. What starts as an inconvenience in the back bedrooms can become the source of a panel fire if it is ignored. It is worth a same-day look to find out whether you are dealing with a simple reset or a connection that is quietly cooking.
We answer partial-power-loss calls across the metro, from Cibolo to Timberwood Park. If half your house is dark, call and we will get your power whole again.