Every few minutes the lights slightly dim, what does his mean?

[bobsmith1492]

Originally posted by: Ilikepiedoyou
Thanks for the serious replies. I live in a townhouse, with the whole complex (56 houses) on 4 transformers. The townhouses are a few years old and are of high quality, as are the appliances, so I am not sure about the aluminum. Could this, let's say spike in current, cause any damage to computers?

If they're dimming then it's a drop in voltage (which, coincidentally would cause a spike in current draw from switching supplies but that's an aside). Computer power supplies can typically run on 100-250 volts input and still regulate the output properly so it should be fine assuming it's not an extreme change in voltage. Stick a meter in the outlet (carefully) and watch the voltage during a dimming phase... anywhere 107-125 is fine temporarily. I would still say its probably from large appliances starting up in either your house or any of the thirteen houses with which you ostensibly share a transformer and not to worry about it - it happens at my place, too, though not that often, and there's never been any related problems.

EDIT: Oh, and I do like pie. Apple is the bomb, though pumpkin is close behind.

 

[mooglemania85]

Originally posted by: akshatp

Originally posted by: cjvon
It's the end of the world as we know it (repeat).

But I feel fine!

Six o'clock - TV hour. Don't get caught in foreign towers.
Slash and burn, return, listen to yourself churn.
Locking in, uniforming, book burning, blood letting.
Every motive escalate. Automotive incinerate.
Light a candle, light a votive. Step down, step down.
Watch your heel crush, crushed. Uh-oh, this means no fear cavalier.
Renegade steer clear! A tournament, a tournament, a tournament of lies.
Offer me solutions, offer me alternatives and I decline.

*phew*

 

[cjvon]

Originally posted by: mooglemania85

Originally posted by: akshatp

Originally posted by: cjvon
It's the end of the world as we know it (repeat).

But I feel fine!

Six o'clock - TV hour. Don't get caught in foreign towers.
Slash and burn, return, listen to yourself churn.
Locking in, uniforming, book burning, blood letting.
Every motive escalate. Automotive incinerate.
Light a candle, light a votive. Step down, step down.
Watch your heel crush, crushed. Uh-oh, this means no fear cavalier.
Renegade steer clear! A tournament, a tournament, a tournament of lies.
Offer me solutions, offer me alternatives and I decline.

*phew*

Well played (both of you).

My last home the lights would dim periodicly, I assumed because it was an old house. After getting to know many of my neighbors they all mentioned the same problem. The homes varied greatly in age so I blame the power company or Enron.

I worked in a factory in the Detroit area back in the mid 90s that mainly did CNC machining.
At around 3:30ish we would have all kinds of strange problems with our controllers on the CNC machines.
We figured out that the shift change at all the plants in the area at 3:30 caused a rather larger power flucuation due to so many machines shutting down.

I'm sure some EE will come on and refute our findings but we solved our "mid afternoon crisis" by being idle during the shift change.

 

[BUTCH1]

Is your water heater electric? I can tell when mine clicks on, a slight momentary dip as
the twin 4500 watt elements kick in.

 

[yhelothar]

my house does that whenever soneone opens the garage.

 

[shortylickens]

It means her209's parents are in the middle of a long, drawn out sex scene..............

 

[IGBT]

..a heavy current device cycling for some reason. start checking your loads.

 

[skyking]

if it is quiet any time this happens, turn off all the noise producing crap and listen. Anything that will cause a dip in voltage like that makes some noise.
If it is very regular, take a walk and listen. It may not be your townhouse.

 

[MikeyIs4Dcats]

Originally posted by: 0roo0roo

Originally posted by: MikeyIs4Dcats

Originally posted by: 0roo0roo

Originally posted by: Rubycon
Laser printer?

Yes those pesky fuser heaters will cycle on and off rapidly to maintain temperature and they draw a lot of power. This is noticeable if you have lights on the end of a long run. The switching noise produces a hash which can be picked up by common consumer unbalanced high gain circuitry making pops or even zapping noises through the loudspeakers.

i dunno, houses tend to have many separate circuits, they shouldn't all be affected by laser printers. i've had some pretty old laser printers and they never affected lights. maybe some dodgy brands but the ones i've tried my killawatt on only cycle on when they are asked to print. regular power draw is sub 5 watts..

is it an old house?
dodgy wiring or receptacles?

lots of 70s houses had aluminum wiring. a botch job basically.

there is nothing wrong with aluminum wiring if done correctly. It is not a botch job. In fact, aluminum wiring is still used today.

not in houses that are worth a damn.
done correctly? treated like a hazard maybe you have to get special aluminum to copper connectors so you can pigtail to use with most normal receptacles or switches. otherwise they can corrode/work themselves loose because of the expansion/contraction bs.

Notice I said IF DONE CORRECTLY.

Aluminum wire has made a return with high copper prices, and is quite common for service entrances. Today's aluminum wire is different that it was years ago...

 

[Kelemvor]

Originally posted by: Rubycon
Laser printer?

Yes those pesky fuser heaters will cycle on and off rapidly to maintain temperature and they draw a lot of power. This is noticeable if you have lights on the end of a long run. The switching noise produces a hash which can be picked up by common consumer unbalanced high gain circuitry making pops or even zapping noises through the loudspeakers.

That's what I was thinking. My HP one takes a burst of power every few minutes until it goes to sleep so it can stay warmed up.

 

[hanoverphist]

Originally posted by: Cdubneeddeal
Honestly I think the breaker on the outside of the house is going back. Something like what you're experiencing happened to me not too long ago and the landlord couldn't figure it out. Turns out one of the breakers were going bad.

id tend to agree. the idiot that rewired the lighting in my house before i bought it put a used 50A breaker in instead of a 60A and i had the same thing. when my daughters hair dryer got old and was drawing too much juice the breaker would trip if i had the tv on. normal use, small fans would dim the lights a bit when they came on (like my printer, tv in the other room and stuff). the guy wired too many outlets on the circuit, then added the cieling fans/ overhead lights to it also. after i changed the breaker the dimming problems stopped as well as the tripping problem. i ended up splitting my outlets out more and separating the lighting/ fans off that circuit, as well as adding a dedicated computer power circuit for my office. i always have people asking why my outlets in there are orange lol.

 

[meltdown75]

i'm pretty sure it means you touch yourself at night.

 

[BigJ]

Originally posted by: hanoverphist

Originally posted by: Cdubneeddeal
Honestly I think the breaker on the outside of the house is going back. Something like what you're experiencing happened to me not too long ago and the landlord couldn't figure it out. Turns out one of the breakers were going bad.

id tend to agree. the idiot that rewired the lighting in my house before i bought it put a used 50A breaker in instead of a 60A and i had the same thing. when my daughters hair dryer got old and was drawing too much juice the breaker would trip if i had the tv on. normal use, small fans would dim the lights a bit when they came on (like my printer, tv in the other room and stuff). the guy wired too many outlets on the circuit, then added the cieling fans/ overhead lights to it also. after i changed the breaker the dimming problems stopped as well as the tripping problem. i ended up splitting my outlets out more and separating the lighting/ fans off that circuit, as well as adding a dedicated computer power circuit for my office. i always have people asking why my outlets in there are orange lol.

You installed hospital grade outlets with an IGC in your office?

 

[hanoverphist]

Originally posted by: MikeyIs4Dcats

Originally posted by: 0roo0roo

Originally posted by: MikeyIs4Dcats

Originally posted by: 0roo0roo

Originally posted by: Rubycon
Laser printer?

Yes those pesky fuser heaters will cycle on and off rapidly to maintain temperature and they draw a lot of power. This is noticeable if you have lights on the end of a long run. The switching noise produces a hash which can be picked up by common consumer unbalanced high gain circuitry making pops or even zapping noises through the loudspeakers.

i dunno, houses tend to have many separate circuits, they shouldn't all be affected by laser printers. i've had some pretty old laser printers and they never affected lights. maybe some dodgy brands but the ones i've tried my killawatt on only cycle on when they are asked to print. regular power draw is sub 5 watts..

is it an old house?
dodgy wiring or receptacles?

lots of 70s houses had aluminum wiring. a botch job basically.

there is nothing wrong with aluminum wiring if done correctly. It is not a botch job. In fact, aluminum wiring is still used today.

not in houses that are worth a damn.
done correctly? treated like a hazard maybe you have to get special aluminum to copper connectors so you can pigtail to use with most normal receptacles or switches. otherwise they can corrode/work themselves loose because of the expansion/contraction bs.

Notice I said IF DONE CORRECTLY.

Aluminum wire has made a return with high copper prices, and is quite common for service entrances. Today's aluminum wire is different that it was years ago...

not really. the only time we (industrial electrician) use aluminum is when its a state of emergency and copper isnt readily available. ive only used it once in 10 years, and have never had a customer (or engineer) request it. the one time we used it was on a well site, both the generator and ses leads were copper and stolen twice. we went in to install some intrusion and security after the thefts, and they had put aluminum in the third time. instead of 750mcm copper, they had 3 runs each leg of aluminum. the thieves showed up again, snipped the first one and left when they saw it wasnt copper. as soon as security was in place, we pulled the aluminum and replaced it with copper, at the customers request. copper is still the standard in industrial, aluminum is the back up if you really have to.

 

[hanoverphist]

Originally posted by: BigJ

Originally posted by: hanoverphist

Originally posted by: Cdubneeddeal
Honestly I think the breaker on the outside of the house is going back. Something like what you're experiencing happened to me not too long ago and the landlord couldn't figure it out. Turns out one of the breakers were going bad.

id tend to agree. the idiot that rewired the lighting in my house before i bought it put a used 50A breaker in instead of a 60A and i had the same thing. when my daughters hair dryer got old and was drawing too much juice the breaker would trip if i had the tv on. normal use, small fans would dim the lights a bit when they came on (like my printer, tv in the other room and stuff). the guy wired too many outlets on the circuit, then added the cieling fans/ overhead lights to it also. after i changed the breaker the dimming problems stopped as well as the tripping problem. i ended up splitting my outlets out more and separating the lighting/ fans off that circuit, as well as adding a dedicated computer power circuit for my office. i always have people asking why my outlets in there are orange lol.

You installed hospital grade outlets with an IGC in your office?

these ones.
http://www.leviton.com/OA_HTML...tV5hhc1d_mdaGykh3wlDAA..

lol ya. since i work for an elec contractor, i have access to stuff laying around the shop. i also have 12ga thhn all over my house, since we had a ton that they were going to scrap. i also have really cool light fixtures from a plant that we upgraded, need to hang them still.

 

[AlienCraft]

Originally posted by: Rubycon
Laser printer?

Yes those pesky fuser heaters will cycle on and off rapidly to maintain temperature and they draw a lot of power. This is noticeable if you have lights on the end of a long run. The switching noise produces a hash which can be picked up by common consumer unbalanced high gain circuitry making pops or even zapping noises through the loudspeakers.

This is good advice...

Originally posted by: MikeyIs4Dcats
It means bctbct hooked up his generator wrong and is stealing your power.


Seriously though, it's probably a motor drawing start up current. Could be the blower on your HVAC system, a washer or dryer, or even a refrigferator or freezer. Even more likely if your house is old and has a small electrical service that is being taxed by modern life.

Could be, although the regular, cyclic nature of that tends away from this scenario.

If it were a more intermittant dimming, I would look for a bad connection, either at the switch, or at the fixtures.
ALSO, a bad neutral connection anywhere along the system may cause this symptom as well.

Look first to the places where changes have been made first, then the oldest connections, when troubleshooting.

 

[Agentbolt]

Haven't you ever watched Star Trek? You're clearly under attack.

 

[BigJ]

Originally posted by: hanoverphist

Originally posted by: BigJ

Originally posted by: hanoverphist

Originally posted by: Cdubneeddeal
Honestly I think the breaker on the outside of the house is going back. Something like what you're experiencing happened to me not too long ago and the landlord couldn't figure it out. Turns out one of the breakers were going bad.

id tend to agree. the idiot that rewired the lighting in my house before i bought it put a used 50A breaker in instead of a 60A and i had the same thing. when my daughters hair dryer got old and was drawing too much juice the breaker would trip if i had the tv on. normal use, small fans would dim the lights a bit when they came on (like my printer, tv in the other room and stuff). the guy wired too many outlets on the circuit, then added the cieling fans/ overhead lights to it also. after i changed the breaker the dimming problems stopped as well as the tripping problem. i ended up splitting my outlets out more and separating the lighting/ fans off that circuit, as well as adding a dedicated computer power circuit for my office. i always have people asking why my outlets in there are orange lol.

You installed hospital grade outlets with an IGC in your office?

these ones.
http://www.leviton.com/OA_HTML...tV5hhc1d_mdaGykh3wlDAA..

lol ya. since i work for an elec contractor, i have access to stuff laying around the shop. i also have 12ga thhn all over my house, since we had a ton that they were going to scrap. i also have really cool light fixtures from a plant that we upgraded, need to hang them still.

:thumbsup:

Certainly cuts down on costs working for the right people

 

[lokiju]

I'm gonna guess it's caused by your A/C unit kicking in.

 

[AlienCraft]

Originally posted by: BigJ

Originally posted by: hanoverphist

Originally posted by: BigJ

Originally posted by: hanoverphist

Originally posted by: Cdubneeddeal
Honestly I think the breaker on the outside of the house is going back. Something like what you're experiencing happened to me not too long ago and the landlord couldn't figure it out. Turns out one of the breakers were going bad.

id tend to agree. the idiot that rewired the lighting in my house before i bought it put a used 50A breaker in instead of a 60A and i had the same thing. when my daughters hair dryer got old and was drawing too much juice the breaker would trip if i had the tv on. normal use, small fans would dim the lights a bit when they came on (like my printer, tv in the other room and stuff). the guy wired too many outlets on the circuit, then added the cieling fans/ overhead lights to it also. after i changed the breaker the dimming problems stopped as well as the tripping problem. i ended up splitting my outlets out more and separating the lighting/ fans off that circuit, as well as adding a dedicated computer power circuit for my office. i always have people asking why my outlets in there are orange lol.

You installed hospital grade outlets with an IGC in your office?

these ones.
http://www.leviton.com/OA_HTML...tV5hhc1d_mdaGykh3wlDAA..

lol ya. since i work for an elec contractor, i have access to stuff laying around the shop. i also have 12ga thhn all over my house, since we had a ton that they were going to scrap. i also have really cool light fixtures from a plant that we upgraded, need to hang them still.

:thumbsup:

Certainly cuts down on costs working for the right people

There's a difference between stuff laying around the shops SHELVES that is stock for projects and stuff that's scrapped. BTW, in residential with non metallic sheathing, it makes no difference , AC line noise wise, if you use an Orange IGC outlet or not, since NEU = GRn at the outlet and any marginal benefit of "telescoping ground theory" as it relates to 60HZ 220v single phase, is moot, due in large part to the extremely high impeadance of set screw connections in EMT.
You've derived far more benefit by isolating that circuit on it's own Circuit Breaker protected Hot, with a dedicated Neutral and Ground lead, than by adding that Orange Outlet.
The reason hospitals use them is due to today's sensitive electronics need for solid GRn reference for stability and the overriding need for safety, It was determined that due in part to the nature of the code and the grounding regs at the time ( conduit derived GRn potential was OK), although many GRn Fault failures were causing injury and fire, it was determined that due to that set screw failure to connect properly, a different wiring method was needed. Thus the dedicated GRn Conductor, connected to an ouput device that allowed it to float away from any conduit reference, which may infact have stray leakage current from faulty motors, compressors, etc.

And unless that THHN is in conduit of some sort, even raceway would do, it ain't right.
I'm sot saying you're wrong, but that ain't right.