Don’t know much about electrical circuits!

I tinker a bit with electricity and in that domain, my knowledge is mostly limited to my school education. That was until a few weeks ago, when I was repainting a section of wall that I had just repaired and that surrounded an electrical outlet. 

That particular outlet didn’t have its decorative cover on and even though I knew that I wasn’t supposed to paint on that plug, I got too close and bam! I touched it and heard the breaker go as I lost my lights. I immediately ran tot he electric panel board to reset the breaker that I assumed had tripped. It apparently had not, so I assumed it was fried (never assume anything too fast!). 

I took the panel apart, removed the 15 amp modular breaker that I thought was bad and ran to Home Depot to get a replacement one. When I got home, I couldn’t get to fit into the space. I returned to the store, asked why it wouldn’t fit and the employee told me, “It should, it’s the exact same UPC code…” 

To get a second-opinion, I also went to an independent electric supply store that we’re lucky to also have in Park City. Its employees looked more professional than the one at Home Depot, but they reassured me by saying “...It’s the right one, go ahead and put it on, force it in, if you have to…” 

I went home, tried again and didn’t dare for “force” it as I was told. Tired as well as depressed, I called the electrician who had done the installation. He so much work that he said he’d send me a worker in 3 days. I patiently waited and when the guy came, we didn’t even look at the room where the problem was, but went directly to the control panel, and while he first couldn’t figure why the breaker wouldn’t fit in its slot, he looked at the back of the panel cover and saw that it was a “Square-D” brand instead of a “Siemens” as we at first assumed. 

He then showed me that one of the slit under the Square-D compatible breaker was deeper and therefore had to be the same to fit into the panel. I was told that all local stores were out of that item and I felt lucky to find one on Amazon that I ordered right away, but wouldn’t get for three more days. When I received it, after installing it, nothing would still work. 

I then spoke with a good friend of mine in France, who is a retired electrician, explained my quandary and he suggested that it might be the plug that had short-circuited. Then I assumed again (!!!) that this had to be the problem, so I went out to the store and got a new one. 

After replacing it, still no result, so as a last-ditch effort, I called my friendly local electrician Mark. He’s my age and also a devoted skier. He told me he was swamped with work and would try to stop by, and take a look at it when he’d get a chance. 

A couple of days passed, I texted him to remind him, and then, at the end of his workday he finally shows up, his GFCI outlet tester in hand. He listened politely to my summary and then started stabbing outlet after outlet with his tool, till he stopped at one of them, did something I couldn't quite see and… voilà! power was back. 

I was stunned, delighted and feelt a tiny bit stupid. I had failed to see that among the 6 electric plugs I had in that large room, one of them had a GFCI device that had popped when I painted the distant plug. 

So neither the plug nor the breaker in the panel were the culprits. Just the GFCI had to be reset. Stupid, simple, and a good lesson for a would-be electrician like me. 

“Never assume anything!”