I live in an old building on the 3rd floor. It is summer and I have the AC on in my dining room and living room. I came home and felt the apartment was unusually warm and realized the AC in the dining room was not on and the lights did not work in that area of my apartment. I looked outside in the backyard and my 1st floor neighbors were having a party and lights were strung up. I went outside and saw they had the lights plugged into an outlet to the building. I went into basement and saw my electric switch had been tripped. This same thing happened last year when they had an outdoor party. My landlord is very old and doesn't seem to care about this, but I would like to know why this is happening to my apartment when others are not affected. Thank you.
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If the lights outside were on and your breaker was tripped, they are on a different circuit.
Talk to the neighbors to see if they had plugged into a receptacle that did not work or stopped working. That receptacle, if it exists, is the culprit.
If talking does not reveal anything, inspect outdoors. If you were having a party, where would you plug in lights? Is there a receptacle outside your 3rd floor apartment that is accessible? Are you on the top floor with a receptacle on a flat roof?
Once the receptacle is found, the landlord could have it unwired so that it does not overload your circuit again.
Perhaps you have several things on the same circuit as the AC and the lights, and the outdoor party lights are a co-incidence. My kitchen breaker would flip if I was making coffee or toast, and micro-waved something, but not every time. Finally I realized that the TV and the fridge were also on the same circuit, and that if the TV was on, or the fridge running a cycle, the breaker was overloaded.
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