Film "electrician" with Ghost in the House problem electricians

Hey guys! I'm a film set lighting "electrician" (and I put that in quotes because we aren't certified in the same topics as you guys). We're working in an architect's custom-built house in New York suburbs for the month, and I have a bunch of weird electrical problems. It's all modern wiring, two breaker panels next to eachother in the basement from a main ConEd power line.

House wiring: The weirdest pairs of outlets are tripping breakers with each other. One outlet upstairs is tied to one downstairs... Total load over 1800w 110v across both causes both separate breakers to trip in different parts of the panel. This happens in multiple odd points around the house (one in the kitchen paired with one in the living room, etc)

Metering: so I said "let me get a breaker sniffer to sort this out" and got a two-part unit (the transmitter plug and the breaker sniffer) from a respected industrial electric supply house in Brooklyn. Not a cheap one, a digital transmitter unit made by "Ideal". I then have my younger guys running around mapping the house, and they quickly come back to me telling me that if we plug the transmitter into certain outlets, the sniffer starts beeping on 6-8 breakers at once. some are high-load circuits (AC 60A breaker always beeps) but others are just labeled "lights and outlets" and go off when I'm not transmitting from that part of the house. It's not always the same breakers beeping every time.

Refrigerator: Sound guy on set needs the AC and refrigerator off. So I go down and pop the circuits off for both. The AC goes off, refrigerator won't. It's a in-wall 4-door industrial Fresco refrigerator that I can't access electrically. Won't go off. Start turning off "kitchen lights" breakers and all related breakers one by one, nothing. Still running. Then I killed everything (whole house) breaker by breaker, no luck. Threw the main 150a breakers for the whole panel, ITS STILL ON. Home owner is adamant that the panel I'm standing at is the only one in the house, and he's never turned the fridge off before. There's no evidence of a Trico tie in, or branched lines before the box. One straight line from ground to meter, and then meter to breaker box.

Am I crazy? Any advice?

Submitted June 13, 2015 at 03:36AM by quietlight http://ift.tt/1B8MdgG electricians