Lights flickering (Philippines)

[kurtisK]

Ok everyone here is what im dealing with. I reside in the Philippines during the winter months. Here in the Philippines we have 220volt over one leg, and it is 60 hertz. The house is fed with one neutral and one hot. With two ground rounds ten feet down. (Lots of sand here) My problem is i have two lighting circuits. One in the front of the house and one in the back of the house. The circuit in the back of the house flickers constantly when the welding shop one house away is operating. But the front of the house is stable. I have checked all neutral connections. I have replaced the home run to the panel. I have replaced the breakers, and swapped the locations. So the only thing i can think of is a frequency interference. Keep in mind the entire panel is fed off of one leg. What do you all think???

 

[kwired]

If on the same supply as the welding shop, voltage drop when welding equipment is operating can be an issue, but with your setup should effect everything.

Possible you have lighting types in one are that are more sensitive to minor fluctuations than in the other area?

I have some LED lamps in one room that are more sensitive to things happening on the lines than lights in the rest of the house.

 

[kurtisK]

I will get new lamps tomorrow. And try those out. There just standard LED lamps in standard fixtures. I do know that the ones i have now are all the same brand and model and not that old. But im willing to try anything.

 

[Hv&Lv]

It’s midnight there now... if your an all nighter try switching a light from the front to the back and see if it stops in the morning. Is it ALL the lights flickering in the back, or just one that is used the most?

 

[ptonsparky]

I thought from a previous Philippines poster that the systems were 120/240, two hots, but the neutral or grounded conductor was never brought to the residence. Must depend on where you live.

 

[synchro]

It may help if you can install an incandescent lamp temporarily to check if it also flickers when welding is occurring. If the incandescent flickers and the lamp circuit is controlled by a simple switch (not a dimmer), then variation of the 60Hz voltage waveform is likely to be causing the problem and not RF interference. LED drivers, dimmers, and other active circuitry can be susceptible to relatively low level RF interference, but not incandescent lamps.
Therefore if the incandescent does not have any noticable flicker during the welding, then RF interference is a more likely to be the root cause of the LED lamp flickering.
Trying different LED lamps including dimmable ones would be worthwhile.

 

[kwired]

I thought from a previous Philippines poster that the systems were 120/240, two hots, but the neutral or grounded conductor was never brought to the residence. Must depend on where you live.

Still makes it a 240 volt two wire system from usage perspective, but a dangerous setup if you ground the neutral but don't extend it beyond the source.

 

[ptonsparky]

Still makes it a 240 volt two wire system from usage perspective, but a dangerous setup if you ground the neutral but don't extend it beyond the source.

Just different than the one hot, one neutral he indicates he has.

 

[kurtisK]

It’s midnight there now... if your an all nighter try switching a light from the front to the back and see if it stops in the morning. Is it ALL the lights flickering in the back, or just one that is used the most?

It is all the lights flickering in the back.

 

[kurtisK]

I thought from a previous Philippines poster that the systems were 120/240, two hots, but the neutral or grounded conductor was never brought to the residence. Must depend on where you live.

All residential in the Philippines is 240volt. One neutral one hot. From the poco we recieve one hot one neutral. I can comfirm this because when i started coming here 5 years ago. I brought the main line into the village where i live. We ran 20 miles of line. And the customers bought the transformers. For there houses.

 

[Hv&Lv]

It is all the lights flickering in the back.

Then I would take a good look at the breaker stab or somewhere where the circuit originated for a loose connection

 

[mbrooke]

I thought from a previous Philippines poster that the systems were 120/240, two hots, but the neutral or grounded conductor was never brought to the residence. Must depend on where you live.

Depends on the area.

Philippine Electrical Wiring – Building our Philippine House – My Philippine Life

MANILA AND CITIES: Three wire 120/240V Systems. In Manila, Iloilo City and other large Philippine cities, residences are supplied with 240 volt, alternating current, 60 cycle power. Power from the utility transformer to the residence arrives through three wires, two 120 VAC load (“hot”) wires and a single neutral. Circuits in the residence are generally wired to supply 240 VAC to outlets using the two 120 VAC load wires, much the same as a heavy appliance (dryer, hot water heater etc.) would be supplied in the U.S. All small and large appliances sold in the Philippines are designed to use 240 VAC, 60C.


However, it is possible to wire in 120 VAC circuits and outlets by using only one of the load wires and a neutral. These 120 V outlets are seen in hotels, some condos and other places which expect American visitors. Visitors must keep in mind that the Philippines uses the same style of wall outlets as you see in America, but that the outlet is supplying 240 V, not 120 V. Plugging a 120 V appliance into a 240 V outlet will generally destroy the appliance.


It seems likely that the American-style 120 / 240 VAC 60 cycle used in Manila may have been the result of the fact that electrical systems in Philippine cities were expanded during the American occupation of the Philippines between 1899 and WWII. There may be areas around the big former U.S. military bases (Clark and Subic) which are wired for 120 VAC service.


OUTSIDE OF BIG CITIES: Two wire 230V Systems Areas outside of the old established cities were electrified later and use a different and more economical system using a two wire service drop to the residence. This consists of one 230 VAC load wire and one neutral wire. 120 VAC cannot be supplied by this type of system unless the property owner, at his own expense and with the cooperation of the utility company, installs his own transformer at the utility pole, a transformer having a secondary winding which can supply 120 VAC. This is not impossible as many utility transformers are recycled from the U.S., but it is expensive and in our view the 230 V systems are better unless the homeowner ships expensive appliances from the U.S. It will be difficult to find parts and service for these imported 120 V appliances.

Much of the rest of the world runs on 220-240 VAC but 50 cycle rather than 60 cycle found in the Philippines, creating a problem in importing some European appliances for use in the Philippines.

 

[kurtisK]

So i replaced all the lamps in the entire house with dimmable led. And the problem still exist. I also tried incandescent lamps throughout and still same result. Next step is to replace every single wire and junction. Yay...

 

[kurtisK]

I have not experienced any electrical outside of the area i reside. Which is the two wire system. But what you posted was a good bit of knowledge i didnt know about. Thank you. Been an electrician now for 27 years and still learning everyday.

 

[mbrooke]

Weclome. And learning from you as well

 

[synchro]

I suggest disconnecting the connections of the home run wires to the breaker and the neutral bar, and then measuring the resistance of these wires to the panel ground bar or other equipment ground. This is to make sure that there's not an additional connection of the neutral to ground somewhere that's causing parallel currents to flow.

 

[synchro]

So i replaced all the lamps in the entire house with dimmable led. And the problem still exist. I also tried incandescent lamps throughout and still same result. Next step is to replace every single wire and junction. Yay...

If you haven't already started replacing all the wires, you might try disconnecting all lights from the back room circuit except the first one in the chain that's fed by the home run to the panel. Then see if that first light is steady or if it flickers. If it still flickers then you need to focus on the wiring to the panel or somewhere in the panel itself, and not the wires later in the chain (at least at this stage of the diagnosis/repair). It sounds like you've covered this area quite well already, but maybe there's still a problem lurking in the panel, home run connections, etc. Normally I wouldn't expect the wiring later in the chain to effect the first light unless there was a short circuit, but perhaps a neutral-ground bond or something unexpected could be happening.

 

[kwired]

So i replaced all the lamps in the entire house with dimmable led. And the problem still exist. I also tried incandescent lamps throughout and still same result. Next step is to replace every single wire and junction. Yay...

Why not connect a lamp about as directly as possible to the main incoming line, if the problem still exists, the solution involves something ahead of your point of connection and is possibly an issue in POCO equipment.