I've noticed since the day the tornados game through, our lights have been going crazy. I figured it was the wind causing the light wires to cause our lights to do what they are doing. No wind today, so that can't be it. Our lights will get dim and then bright. We can just be sitting there and they will get bright for a second and then go back to normal...... anybody know what would cause this ??
You could be getting a voltage spike. The lines coming into your house are aluminum and they have to been connected in a specific way. If they are not they will expand and contract as they heat causing the connection to be a bit more random. There is also a similar problem which may occur on the pole or more closer to the sub-station. If it is just a few lights it could be in the breaker box or a conncection common to them all doing the same expansion.contraction.
I second the bad ground. We've had that problem on several services. Make sure all the lugs are tight (don't check the hot ones). If you live near someone with big motors, it could be a brown out. Tobacco barns, irrigation pumps, welders, lathes, mills, stuff like that. That's probaly not likely, but I have a 75hp pump that will dim my lights.
http://en.allexperts.com/q/Electrical-Wiring-Home-1734/house-wiring-panel.htm What your describing is classic "open neutral" symptoms. When the connection to the neutral is lost and its usually on the utilties end, the voltage coming into your house becomes unstable and fluctuates depending upon what lights or appliance's happen to be going on or off at that time. The voltage can vary by as much as 50 volts or better. This is not a good situation because you can do damage to your appliances so contact your utility immeadiately and tell them whats going on, they should send some one out right away to check it out. Let me know how you make out
EXACTLY!!!!!!! do it yourself electricians are as bad as do it yourself plumbers, the two things that can destroy your home:twisted:
Had three CP&L trucks out at the house last night for a couple of hours. Actually they showed up just 20 minutes after calling....surprised.... But any way, they pulled out the meter, hooked something up and said one of the grounds was bad. They had told me they were going to do a temporary fix on the ground and just have the line laying across the ground until they come back the next day to bury it. Once the bucket truck got there, they go up the light pole and said the problem was there. They replaced something on the pole and the power was back on with no flickering/dimming lights........ YAAAA! They had asked if I had any appliance messed up. I told them no and they said good, they don't need to file a claim for me. SO I guess if an appliance would have gone bad they would have replaced it......... good to know Thanks for the input......just SO GLAD it was on their end and I didn't have to pay an electrician !!
For arguements sake, open neutrals TYPICALLY only show the described symtoms under heavy load such as a stove, or other heavy power draining item.
