Surge

[Ronnie Barham]

I have a customer with a total electric home 2200 sq ft, 150 amp service. When ever you turn on a large load like the dryer, oven, coffee maker, microwave, the lights go really bright for a second and the back to normal. No loose connections that I can find, it has a cold water ground but no ground rod. Does any one any suggestions of what is wrong, thanks in advance for the help.

Ronnie

 

[ron]

The lights getting brighter would first indicate to me, a loose neutral. If it effects all lights on all breakers, then it is upstream of the panelboard.

 

[Johnmcca]

I just had a similar problem with a friends house. Told him he had a loose neutral call the POCO. They came out and found a bad connection on the neutral on the pole. It was a 15 year old connection to AL triplex. So from here I'd say Ron is most likely correct.

 

[JohnJ0906]

Check all the neutral connections at the panel, as well. I have had a problem in the past where one of the screws (factory install) bonding the neutral bars together was loose, causing flicker.

 

[beanland]

Loose POCO Neutral

Loose POCO Neutral

I agree. POCO has loose neutral. Increased load on one side of service shifts neutral voltage. Voltage drops on one 120V side and rises on the other. Look for bad neutral at service drop. I have held outdoor neutral crimps that are mechanically solid but will not conduct electricity. The utility can jumper around a neutral to see if the problem goes away. If it does, bad connection is found.

 

[brian john]

Complete the recommendations ASAP, if he loses that neutral connection, good by appliances, lamps and possible fire.
If this happens regularly use a multi meter with recording (min, max, avg) function to capture the voltage, just to comfirm your concerns.