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	Subject - power surges and blink offs brooks8 First off I am a electrical dummy. I can do only a minimum of wiring or just the basics. My problem is this; I have a power failure that occurs 2 or 3 times a week that causes me to reset the clocks. This is what I call blink offs and may not be a concern but just a information exchange as a prelude to what I consider a real concern. I have on 3 separate occasions heard and smelled a frying sound and smelled ozone in the past 6 months. The first time we noticed this was when there was a house being built across from mine that required a transformer upgrade. I came home from work and found out from my wife that the power had been surging several times and blink offs had occurred as well as sounds and smells. I noticed 3 of these myself. The last one was very frightening, the frying sound lasted 2 or 3 seconds and the smell was very noticable through our air returns. I ran out of the house to turn off the power at the fuse box fully expecting to see the house on fire. It was not thankfully, I then called the power company to have them check out the line into the house. While I waited on the lineman I went to investigate what was going on across the street at the homesite. I found them using several power tools and generators and they had a wire running down from the power pole that held the new transformer. I cannot say with certainty that they were using the power from the pole. When the lineman got there he checked out the line running into my house and stated he did not see any problems on his end. I told him about my concerns from the construction across the street but he dismissed any link. That was 6 months ago, since then I have had two electriciains check out the house for damage from the surges - they did not find any! 1 month ago I heard the frying sound again and smelled ozone. Today I noticed our heat pump start then stop then start up again like I was adjusting the thermostat. Then the refrigerator fan would start and stop 3 times before coming on for it's entire cycle. And of course the clocks needed adjusting.The house across from us is complete and occupied. Question- What do I need to do to stop these blink offs and surges from reoccurring? Are these blink offs and surges endangering my home and families' safety? Could the repair be as simple as replacing the weakened fuses that have probably been in the house since it was built in 1985. We just purchased the house in 2001. Do I need to call another electrician for another inspection? Thanks for reading all this and any advise you can give me will be greatly appreciated. Scott Vickrey You have a bad intermittent short somewhere, but why is the breaker not tripping? Something could be improperly wired and faulted. Or, maybe the wiring is correct and the breaker simply isn't working. I believe this is a serious threat to the safety of you and your family. The reason I think this is because you smell ozone(a sign of arcing), you hear arcing and it's enough to brown out your home. Ozone smells like an old electric drill or an electric train. Ozone is a product of electrical arcing and so is heat(alot of heat). Can you tell where the noise is coming from? Call another electrician and try to point him in the direction of the noise. There will be clear evidence of the fault when you see it. Don't let him leave until you have found something that looks and smells burnt! Have them start opening boxes and hunt this down. This is a serious fire hazard. In the mean time, check the batteries in your smoke detectors. With your family go over what to do and what not to do in the case of a fire. Be prepared! Try to use the information you have collected from your experiences as clues as to the faults location. Like, you smell ozone so the fault is obviously in the house. When it happens do you smell it in every room or, just one area of the house? Now think where would The fault have to be for that smell to get there? Was it louder when you heard it here or there? What direction did it sound like it was coming from? Your nose will tell you when your in the right place. Even if a long time has passed. When the electrician has found and repaired the damage be sure the electrician changes the breaker feeding that circuit. It takes alot of current to brown out your home. This is a bad short. Don't put this off. Let us know what you found. Good Luck. brooks8 Thanks for the advise. I am going to look for the fault now. Thanks also for the tip on the smoke detector and the escape plan. There is always the adage of I was going to get around to that next week. Well today is the day I am going to hunt this down. Thanks again I'll let you know what I find. Dennis Bussell Brooks 8 - Have you identified the source of your electrical problems? Is your house electrical panel fuse or circuit breaker type? Issue 1: You may be experiencing a high impedance fault. While this condition is being experienced, the fault may draw the voltage down on your panelboard, causing the lights to dim and digital clocks/microwave clock to drop out. Issue 2: With your electrical items operating for a bit, see if the cord is hot where it plugs into the wall. This may be a sign of arcing occuring at the receptacle due to loose connection - the heat of the arcing is radiated into the cord. Be sure to check receptacles where you may use intermittant loads like electric heaters. Hot cords can also be caused by damage to cord from unplugging by pulling on the cord and not on the plug. Issue 3: Look at the main lugs of your panelboard. Is there signs of arcing/discoloration? These could be signs of loose utility entrance wire connections. Call an electrican. Back to issues 1 and 2: If you can't find the soure of your issues - consider replacing your circuit breakers with arc-fault circuit breakers. If necessary to do so, replace your old panelboard. It's only money and an arc-fault circuit breaker should trip, helping you identify the specific branch circuit - should that be where your issues are occuring. Let us know if you need more ideas. YukonRay Although this post is old - here is one more set of ideas. It sounds to me like the problem stems from your heat pump. You will probable find that the branch circuit conductor to the heat pump are aluminum. And you may find that no deox coumpound was used in terminations. Also the same issue is probably happening with your service. There may be enough oxidation on the aluminum service entrance conductors to cause a temporary power brown-out, especially when the heat pump starts up. This may explain the clocks, sizle and smell.