The outlets in my detached garage are not at full voltage. Also, the lights are acting strange. Some are dim and others are REALLY bright. When I plug in my drill and run it, two lights get bright and then the drill stops working. What is going on here? I turned off the main breaker for the garage so it wouldn’t burn down while I was at work!

As long as the welder outlet has the same requirements as the heater outlet (i.e. 20 amp, 4-condutor if neutral is required, etc.) then it would be OK. The circuit breaker would prevent you from overloading the circuit by trying to run both items at the same time.

The lights in my bedroom, bathroom, and my daughter’s room are not working but the plugs all seem to be OK. Any ideas as to what’s going on?

Well, the receptacles may be wired on a different circuit from the lights. This was a common practice years ago. Check the circuit breakers and see if one is tripped. If the power is leaving the breaker, then you may need to check for a loose connection at all the devices on the circuit in question.

I have a problem with a bedroom breaker tripping. A couple of times I plugged in an electric space heater and when I turned on my lamp it will dim and eventually trip the circuit breaker. This last time, I unplugged the heater, but the light still dims and goes out. Also, I now hear some crackling/popping noises from an outlet that I’ve never used. What is going on here?

You're dealing with two problems: overload of the circuit (especially when you plug in the heater) and loose connections on the devices.

When you draw a large load from the circuit, problems with loose connections will tend to get worse, to the point of causing parts of the circuit to go out, even with nothing connected.

You'll need to go through all devices on the circuit in question and tighten all the connections. This should take care of the crackling noises and partial outages. Overloading the circuit, however, will still trip the circuit breaker.