Hello,
Just went over to a house tonight to check out a problem. Owners were complaing that house lights were dimming and getting bright at certain times. Went to the main electrical distribution panel first thing. Panel cover was warm and buzzing, hissing sound was coming from inside. Opened up panel and could see feeder conduit was glowing red at the locknut! Panel is fed with a very old three wire service. Branch Ckt romex is two wire, no ground. As i was there, lights really started changing brightness, went to the main house and they had the microwave oven going. Asked them a few questions and it appears that the light problem is happening when a large load is on. Ok, so it looks like we have a loose nuetral problem. In the panel we have no ground in the feeder pipe. I did see a bare ground wire coming up into the main panel and landing on the nuetral buss. This is my opinion. We have lost the nuetral. The circuit is being complete by using the conduit as the ground/nuetral. At certain times, when there is a high load, the 120 volt circuits are running into series, but the total load running up the neutral side of the 120 volt branch is not a full 120 becuase some of the volage is bleeding out through the conduit. that is why the light are getting bright, but not burning out completely. I asked them about lightbulbs buring out, and even then they had a bunch that were burnt out. I did however find it strange that all the equipment that is run off of transformers were not destroyed. Seems like they would be very easy to damage. Anyhow, both the people are very old and on meds, at the time i could not tear everything apart for fear of finding something that would keep the power off for any time at all. They need power to run medical equipent. I did however call the electrical company and told them that we might need to pull the meter and check then connection there, or possibly at the transformer or at the overhead connection. Anyhow, first thing in the morning I will go and start tearing everything apart while its light and I have the whole day. Does it sound like I am on the right track? Anybody have any other suggestions? The only problem I am wondering about is the bare ground that is landed on the nuetral bar at the panel should be going to ground also, maybe its not connected anymore, not sure, but this is a real problem that needs to be fixed tomorrow. I am really upset that I cant work on it right now, but it just was not a option, and I also asked how long the lights had been flickering and they said years. So they just need to get through tonight and hopefully I can find the problem tomorrow.
Thanks!
Just went over to a house tonight to check out a problem. Owners were complaing that house lights were dimming and getting bright at certain times. Went to the main electrical distribution panel first thing. Panel cover was warm and buzzing, hissing sound was coming from inside. Opened up panel and could see feeder conduit was glowing red at the locknut! Panel is fed with a very old three wire service. Branch Ckt romex is two wire, no ground. As i was there, lights really started changing brightness, went to the main house and they had the microwave oven going. Asked them a few questions and it appears that the light problem is happening when a large load is on. Ok, so it looks like we have a loose nuetral problem. In the panel we have no ground in the feeder pipe. I did see a bare ground wire coming up into the main panel and landing on the nuetral buss. This is my opinion. We have lost the nuetral. The circuit is being complete by using the conduit as the ground/nuetral. At certain times, when there is a high load, the 120 volt circuits are running into series, but the total load running up the neutral side of the 120 volt branch is not a full 120 becuase some of the volage is bleeding out through the conduit. that is why the light are getting bright, but not burning out completely. I asked them about lightbulbs buring out, and even then they had a bunch that were burnt out. I did however find it strange that all the equipment that is run off of transformers were not destroyed. Seems like they would be very easy to damage. Anyhow, both the people are very old and on meds, at the time i could not tear everything apart for fear of finding something that would keep the power off for any time at all. They need power to run medical equipent. I did however call the electrical company and told them that we might need to pull the meter and check then connection there, or possibly at the transformer or at the overhead connection. Anyhow, first thing in the morning I will go and start tearing everything apart while its light and I have the whole day. Does it sound like I am on the right track? Anybody have any other suggestions? The only problem I am wondering about is the bare ground that is landed on the nuetral bar at the panel should be going to ground also, maybe its not connected anymore, not sure, but this is a real problem that needs to be fixed tomorrow. I am really upset that I cant work on it right now, but it just was not a option, and I also asked how long the lights had been flickering and they said years. So they just need to get through tonight and hopefully I can find the problem tomorrow.
Thanks!
