Alex brought me here. I dont know if you are on the US, but it sounds like the connection to the grid is failing and/or you have a bad master ground for the entire system. Here, the connection to the grid is handled by a different company, mine is Oncore, but the actual billing is handled by TXU (Texas). Oncore is responsible for the actual connection to the grid.If this is the case, the landlord needs to call the one responsible for the connection to the grid.
Single phase residental power here is done by splitting 120v between two legs (two large wires) of a larger wire , with a common neutral and a master ground. If one of those legs is breaking down, it can cause low power/no power to one side of the house, While the other side is working fine. If the master ground or common neutral comes loose, it's going to find any way path it can, whether it be through your cooking stove, refrigerator, furnace blower, anywhere it can. If this is the case, and it really does sound that's what the problem is, this is a highly, highly dangerous situation that in the US, it would get the power turned off and "red tagged" meaning that the house could be disconnected from the grid until it's fixed.
Large commercial buildings often run 3 phase 440 volt, splitting the phases and voltage between all three legs of the main wire. It's then distributed to the smaller distribution panels within the building. However, the same basic issue still apply.
Not necessarily. In the US, there was a brand of electrical boxes called Federal Pacific, they were used in millions of homes from the 1940's to about 1990 when they were sued out of existence. The breakers in these boxes do not trip, and suffer from serious design flaws. Federal Pacific lied about the safety of their breakers, and there's been hundreds of anecdotes about house fires started by these boxes. Here's the kicker, in some states, they don't have to mention the safety issues with these boxes, even though some insurance companies have stopped covering houses with them. My own parents dodged two bullets with their 1950's Federal Pacific box when the breakers didn't trip after plugs flamed out. They finally had the electric box replaced.
