|
| Ek's Home | Forum | Chat | Electrical Links | |
| Subject - Dimming lights | |
| bobbrad | I'm having a problem with dimming lights at a customers house. The homeowner claims that when using a hairdryer the lights dim in various parts of the house. I have checked all connections in electrical panel and in meter socket with no luck. Do you have any suggestions? |
| Energreen | A common thing that causes dimming lights is at the Service point of attachment of an overhead drop. My local utility company has switched to using all bolted bugs, because the crimped bugs are notoreous for loosening up. When I replaced the service in my own house this past Summer, there were 5 crimp splices at the service point of attachment, on both lines, and several of them were loose and cooked. And the insulation was melted off. Needless to say, our lights dimmed and flickered whenever we had wind. I've also seen main breakers arc out on the buss bar stabs. That can produce intermittant dimming or flickering until one day it will drop right out. ...then it might come back on again, etc, until it burns out for good. I found this one time by measuring the voltage from main breaker to ground, on both the line and load sides of the breaker. It had 120 Volts on one leg of the line side and 88 Volts on the load side (same leg) of the main breaker. When it finally dropped out, half the circuits in the house were dead, because one of the 120V buss bars was dead. In other words, half the panel was dead. Keep us posted. I'd like to know what you find. EG EG |
| bobbrad | Thanks EG for the help i will take some voltage readings.I called the power company and they told me if they cant find anything wrong they will chare me a hundred dollars per man plus the cost of travel. |
| veganfan | I have the same problem at my house. I had a post about good ground tests becouse I also get a lot of lightnig srikes. I too have checked all electrical connections in my home, and done all the voltage test reradings with no luck. I have and under ground sevice and I to have talked to electrical company with no help at all. The last place I have to check is the meter base. I hope you luck is better than mine has been. |
| Energreen | Bobbrad, I guess we're lucky here in Western NY. Rochester Gas and Electric actually cares if they have a loose connection. They come out, no charge, and look for problems on their end. It's not only good customer service, if they have a problem reported that causes a fire, they're liable. It's just common sense for the utility to take care of their end. I guess they want to make sure you're 100% sure the problem isn't with the customer's equipment before they come out. But it seems like they're taking needless risk by doing it that way. Good luck. Let us know what you find! EG |
| JimmyDee | quote: Customers service. What a unique idea. We get fairly good service from our power company here as well. Jim |
| lctrc789 | I would suggest that you check the neutral connection at the main panel and then turn a load on this panel, take a voltage reading from each leg to neutral at the time the load is turned on. If it drops by more then 5 volts I would check all the neutral connections in the panel and then call the power comapny if you need to it could be at the weather head the meter base or the main line connection. If the voltage does not drop at the main panel very much check a circuit or two you may find that you have some recpts, that are back stabbed and this in many cases causes very serious issues with the neutral on this circuit. |
| bobbrad | I checked the neutral connections in the main panel and at the meter socket.I walked around the house and plugged in a hair dryer that draws 1850w.The lights dim on the cicuit I plug into. |
| lctrc789 | Did you try another circuit and do this??? What does the other circuits do? If it is one circuit and it does get real dim, I say check the connections on that circuit, I would say you have a loose neutral connection on this 1 circuit or back stabbed wires. It isn't unusual to see some dimming but if it gets real dim and stays that way you have a loose connection. Good luck and keep us posted on what you find. |
| bobbrad | This happens on at least 3 cicuits in the house.The dimming is noticable.I checked circuits on each phase. |
| Energreen | How many houses on the same transformer? We had an incident this week with severely dimming lights all over the house. The problem was not in our house. It was in a neighbors house. If a neighboring load is arcing across burned buss stabs, or elsewhere, you'll see dimming lights in other houses. The power company came out and spent less than an hour 2 houses down. We haven't seen any problem since then. I've seen this before. I've actually replaced a neighbors main panel that was arcing behind the main breaker, and what we thought was a dimmimg problem in our house, magically disappeared. |
| bobbrad | I talked with the next door neighbor and he has no dimming problem.I'm think it must be the bugs at the weather head. |
| lctrc789 | Bobbrad, I would call the elctric company have them meet you there and see what they can find, possibly outside connections, or have then to install a meter that can check the neutral wire and all voltage present coming to the house. If you have checked all the neutral connections, and the mter base and the panel connections, it may be a power company connection. I have seen homes that were backstabbed in all of the recpts, that itself causes problems like this. If you have checked all you can try the utility company and see what they can find. Good luck |
| bobbrad | Thanks for the help.I will let you know what happens |