Stepson South of Birmingham, AL just had a new heat pump system installed and the kitchen stove hasn't worked since the guys left. He called them and they basically brushed him off but I paid for the job and I'm just getting started. Even if it's the company's fault, if it's a simple fix I'd to it myself. In this case it's too far away for me to go look at it and his electrical experience is very limited.
It looks like a new breaker adjacent to the one for the range. I'm guessing they somehow killed the stove breaker or it died of old age, or a surge killed the range. It's a Whirlpool glass-top 5-8 years old. The light and clock work but no burners or oven. He tried to check for power at the outlet but might not have made contact inside the outlet.
What really stumps me is the breaker box. This box is outside the house a foot from the meter and there's another box inside. I believe the top breaker in this box feeds the inside panel, the next feeds the range and the bottom feeds the HVAC. Neither box has an obvious way to shut off the panel. That's new to me - I don't see how you can safely replace a breaker if you can't shut it off. I might be able to do it but wouldn't want to and I'm not about to try to tell him how to do it.
Questions: How do you shut the power off? Is that an Alabama thing or am I missing something obvious or what?
Anybody ever hear of a stove being killed by working on the HVAC?
An honest electrician, preferably South of Birmingham?
I'll appreciate any advice. They're hardworking underpaid people and I want this to work for them.