Ahhh HELP ME!!!

[dwellselectric]

:-? It happens only at night from what they say. Both husband and wife say that its very notiable. I have yet to see it happen. When Nstar came out they took readings out at the pole and at the meter and said everything was as it should be. I hate leaving a job without fixing the issue or at least knowing how to fix it....

 

[Dennis Alwon]

:-? It happens only at night

Do they drink at night?

 

[ptonsparky]

Time to be there at night. Have them call when it is happening, then go. Do they have their own water system? Is the pressure tank water logged? The neighbors tank?

 

[Brady Electric]

Ahhh help me

Ahhh help me

Okay I have a problem that I can't seem to find the answer to so perhaps someone would be able to help me. There is this house that I have worked on and the homeowner called me up because of a problem that they where having with lights pulsing. So I went there thinking it was a dimmer... Little did I know that it was all the lights in the house that where on dimmers. I checked the panel and made sure everything was tight and took readings everything seemed normal. I went out to the meter opened it up tighted up everything nothing was loose. Checked the over head connectors nothing seemed wrong with them. I had Nstar come down to double check and they said everything was normal nothing was wrong. The house has two ground rods so I know its not a bad ground. I can't figure out why the lights on dimmers are pulsing. Its not constant its just every once in awhile. Anyone have any ideas that might help me? Please I tried everything!!!

Sounds like those are recess lights with thermal protection that blinks when they get hot. After they are on for awhile and get hot they will blink. If that is so all you can do is drop the can from the center and take insulation away from them and it will be O.K. I have also had something like this happen if you use more than one dimmer on lights if you use the cheap dimmers that are not rated for more than one at a time. Good Luck. Semper Fi. Buddy

 

[Brady Electric]

Ahh need help

Ahh need help

Forgot to say you can check this by unhooking the thermal protection in the fixture and see if they will stop blinking. Then be sure to hook it back. Semper Fi.

 

[LawnGuyLandSparky]

My guess is a washing machine, either their's or a neighbors, is agitating.

 

[Brady Electric]

Ahh need help

Ahh need help

Okay I have a problem that I can't seem to find the answer to so perhaps someone would be able to help me. There is this house that I have worked on and the homeowner called me up because of a problem that they where having with lights pulsing. So I went there thinking it was a dimmer... Little did I know that it was all the lights in the house that where on dimmers. I checked the panel and made sure everything was tight and took readings everything seemed normal. I went out to the meter opened it up tighted up everything nothing was loose. Checked the over head connectors nothing seemed wrong with them. I had Nstar come down to double check and they said everything was normal nothing was wrong. The house has two ground rods so I know its not a bad ground. I can't figure out why the lights on dimmers are pulsing. Its not constant its just every once in awhile. Anyone have any ideas that might help me? Please I tried everything!!!

Did you ever find the problem? Semper Fi

 

[dwellselectric]

No idea havent gone back yet... This just doesn't make any sense to me. I mean nothing has changed in the five to six years that have past. They haven't bought any new appliences or changed anything. What I am thinking of doing is going there having them turn up the stoves open the ref. doors so they kick on and perhaps plugging in an iron to see if anything happens. Everything throughout the service has been traced back and everything looks great nothing is loose so I am still in a hole. But I will let you guys know if I find the answer. I am just going to feel like a wicked dumbass if I go back there and still can't fingure it out ya know?:-?

 

[George Stolz]

Keep it simple. If it is a whole house issue, then it's a problem common to the whole house: the main panel, the feeder to it, the service disconnect, the service drop, overhead, transformer.

If it's only limited to a circuit (or two), then it's on that level.

Don't get frustrated and anxious - stay cool, and reason it out.

 

[brian john]

Thank you George...My post suggests several test to try and isolate the issue. Follow these and if that aint it, move to next step (and there is always a next step) but you have to eliminate a few items.

All trouble shooting (for me) is trying to eliminate what it may not be that narrows the choices of what it is. I never give up, I sometimes do not charge for all my time (if I feel the time is excessive, tbhough I do prefer to get paid). I have had a few contractors balk at my rates when I quote them for locating problems, I then offer to work for free, BUT if I resolve the issue they pay the going rate, I have never not been paid.

Something is causing this it is not magic and often it is something simple, then I slap my forehead and think "How to heck did I miss that". You do not have to be smart (I am proof of that) you just have to keep at it.

 

[Builder]

Could harmonics be being produced, by some of the dimmers causing others to flicker, are the flickers constant or do they change in frequency.

 

[DAWGS]

I had a similiar issue at a apartment I was renting years back. Lights kept dimming periodically for about 2-Weeks. I had checked panel and taken readings and found no issues. Fially one night at about midnight my land lord called and said upstairs tenent complained of loss of power. I checked panel and had found loss of phase on line side of meter. (Bad Transformer). Of course when I had contacted POCO earlier that week they said they had no issues on their side. Bottom line is one of these days your customer will finally lose that phase and POCO will fix the problem then.

 

[brian john]

I have had many similar issues with customers and one thing I have learned is never hang you hat on any one idea, if you take a step by step approach to isolating the issue, you will find the source of the problem.

I have found that if I work on guesses I may blind myself to the actual source of the anomile.

 

[benmin]

I have had many similar issues with customers and one thing I have learned is never hang you hat on any one idea, if you take a step by step approach to isolating the issue, you will find the source of the problem.

I have found that if I work on guesses I may blind myself to the actual source of the anomile.

I agree with that.

Often I've gone to those calls with the problem solved in my head only to find something totally differant. House next door on same transformer just installed HVAC with 100A electric heat, Nuetral connected to stab lock on back of receptacle that feed lighting circuit broke down over time, compact flourescent bulbs installed in recess cans on dimmers, water getting into panel causing breaker to cause flickering as it was failing from a corroded contact and my favorite: The lights only flicker when my wife is doing aerobics in the room above. :roll:

 

[brian john]

The lights only flicker when my wife is doing aerobics in the room above.

.

A good tell for this one is plaster on the living room floor.

 

[mdshunk]

The lights only flicker when my wife is doing aerobics in the room above. :roll:

I'd know if that happened, because the local university would be ringing my doorbell. They'd be explaining about something they measured on the Richter scale, centered on my house.

 

[ghostbuster]

We have had cases where the voltage flicker was traced back to the local amusement rides and arc furnaces in the area.The human eye responds to light changes in less then 1/10 seconds.Make sure the voltage monitoring equipment is fast enough to record these changes.

 

[robbietan]

Okay I have a problem that I can't seem to find the answer to so perhaps someone would be able to help me. There is this house that I have worked on and the homeowner called me up because of a problem that they where having with lights pulsing. So I went there thinking it was a dimmer... Little did I know that it was all the lights in the house that where on dimmers. I checked the panel and made sure everything was tight and took readings everything seemed normal. I went out to the meter opened it up tighted up everything nothing was loose. Checked the over head connectors nothing seemed wrong with them. I had Nstar come down to double check and they said everything was normal nothing was wrong. The house has two ground rods so I know its not a bad ground. I can't figure out why the lights on dimmers are pulsing. Its not constant its just every once in awhile. Anyone have any ideas that might help me? Please I tried everything!!!

if there is any load that uses an arc furnace at night, that could be it. during daytime, a lot of (reactive) loads may have mitigated the effects. during night, a lot less load, the arc furnace still going strong and people notice the flicker. being in daytime also helps as these flickers are not that noticeable

still a recurring problem in areas here that have a large arc furnace for a neighbor

 

[quogueelectric]

few questions first

few questions first

Did you check to see that all breaker connections were tight and breakers post was not cracked off due to overtightening. See which breakers are serving this lighting load and remove and inspect / replace these breakers whichever the traffic will bear. Physicaly tug all of the wires to determine that the connection is tight and breaker screw is not just crossed and driven in siezed. If none of these measures work then look to see if any of these lighting loads are on 3 wire cckts. I initially susspect a broken moulded breaker case then secondly a loose neutral on a 3 wire ltng ckt. Just wanted to add not to troubleshoot the dimmers in the on position if you are going to be troubleshooting hot. Make sure the dimmers are off or shut down power so you dont blow the base emitter junctions of the scrs in the dimmers.