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Electrical question

D

Doggiedog

Lifer
The lights in my house have started flicker over the last month. It gets so bad that it trips the UPSes I have set up around the house.

Anyone have any idea what might be causing this? It doesn't seem to be caused by any one thing (ie refrigerator, AC or heater). The lights don't just dim. They flicker on and off for seconds at a time.
 
I have alot of appliances but this happens even in the middle of the night when everything is turned off. I can hear the UPSes beeping when the power goes out.

I'll probably call an electrician over but wanted to get some opinions by you guys before doing it.
 
I had the exact same symptons with my house. The first thing I did was to call the local electric company(ComED), and they came out and tested the line outside for free. They said there was nothing wrong, and it was something internal.

Do you have fuses or breakers?

Knowing it was internal, the first place I went to check on things was in the fuse box. When I opened it, I noticed that one of the main cable coming into the house was shorting out and marking a visible electricty arc. It would make a snapping noise, I would see the electricity jump from one point to another, and the lights would DIM. What I did to fix this was get a piece of rubber, and shoved it in the space were the short was, and this solved my problems. I dunno if this will solve your issues, but it helped out mine.

If you are unsure of what is save to touch, or unsure was to do, call up a few electricians, tell them your problems, and ask for how much they will charge before they come out to even look at things. Some electricians will charge $150 for just taking a step inside your house, so be careful.

It also sounds like you may have a bad main breaker in your fuse box, if you have breakers.

BE VERY CAREFUL when dealing with electricity in your home. It's not worth your life to save $100 bucks having an electrician fix something for you.
 
loose connection
bad breaker
broken wire (doubtful)
tree hitting wires to house
aliens living in your basement drawing a lot of power for their equipment


Those are the most likely that I can think of.
 
Thanks for the tips.

I should add this problem started up when they opened a new housing development across the street from me. Supposedly some guys came by to tell my wife that they had to shut down the power to the block for an hour while they hooked up the power to the complex. Since that time, it hasn't been the same.

I had PSE&G come by and they told me nothing was wrong. I guess I'll have the electrician look at the breakers for me. I don't see anything wrong with them externally since I pass by the breakers everyday. Trees might be an issue too. I'll have to look.
 
Loose screws in the breaker box can do that. It doesn't take much to fix, but you need to cut all the power to do it right.
 
Could be that too.

When I did the house inspection when I bought the place, the breaker box was a mess and the inspector told me so straight up.
 
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