[Bluesguitarist]

Hi from texas , Brady here Im a new member here , I need some answere if possible . My electric dims and then gets brighter , I had a man check today to make shure the box was ok he tightened all the screws , but were still getting dimming and brightness , does anyone know the answer to this , its worse in the night and not the day .

 

[J. V.]

Do they dim when a high draw appliance like an AC comes on? If so, it's normal. If it happens without help from a large power draw you need to have someone check all the service entrance conductor connections. Just tightening the lugs is not enough. They need to be pulled out cleaned and possibly re-cut and stripped if the connection is real bad. This must be done in the meter enclosure as well. This is dangerous for the uninformed. If all your equipment is found to be solid, then call the power company. It very well could be on their side. I would put my money on the service neutral.

 

[jimmy21]

You need to be more specific as to what is happening. Its hard enough troubleshooting. Overthe net as it is. If its when you turn on one lite another one gets brighter or dimmer then that's a loose neutral in aabox

 

[ScottR]

Like the other guys said, more info would be great.

I just wanted to note that I had a similar problem at my house, but it was the neighbor's central A/C compressor that was causing my lights to dim. The problem was completely outside my control, but the power co. just happened to come out and replace all the lines on their poles (+ the transformer) last week and now the problem has stopped. (Now that's service! :wink

So even if you rule out everything of yours, it may still not be a problem with your service specifically.

 

[Bluesguitarist]

Thanks so much !

Thanks scott this helps .

 

[220/221]

Dimming may be normal. Brightness suggests a more serious problem with the neutral and could damage equipment.

Call power company first. It's free.

If it's not their side, call a real electrician that will perform a load test of some sort.

 

[Bluesguitarist]

Hi

I had new wires replaced by the company , but we are still having some dimming , a man told me that one of the breakers may be worn where it connects , he is a master electrician I have not looked into it yet , I will pull each breaker till i find the bad one he said you will know when you see it .

 

[220/221]

I will pull each breaker till i find the bad one he said you will know when you see it .

It could be the main breaker. To pull the main you will likely have the meter pulled.

 

[Yoyizit]

Hi from texas , Brady here Im a new member here , I need some answere if possible . My electric dims and then gets brighter , I had a man check today to make shure the box was ok he tightened all the screws , but were still getting dimming and brightness , does anyone know the answer to this , its worse in the night and not the day .

A 10A load switched on should give you a ~3v drop, depending on your wire gauge, length to panel, and whether it's copper or aluminum.

 

[rick208]

Is it in just one room or the entire house? If it is a worn out breaker then the problems you are experiencing should be isolated to what that breaker feeds.
If you take the breaker box panel off and watch all of the breakers, sometimes you can see the one that is worn out arcing where it connects. When it has a good connection the lights are bright, then as it loses its connection the lights will dim. you may have to turn out the light in the room the breaker box is in to see it better.

Good luck.

 

[Bluesguitarist]

Thanks

Thank you , I will try this , the odd part about this is this gets worse around 8:30 at night in the day it seems to be ok , and we live in the country , there is really no one close by , thats sthe odd part about whats happening , also its better since they replaced the line from the pole to our service connection . What do you think about it getting worse at night ???

 

[money-pit]

Hmm the street lights come on around 8:30pm
Have a licensed electrician and the power co. go over ALL the
connections especially the nuetral
Be VERY CAREFUL on the line side of your main breaker
But I would have a licensed sparky(If you can drag one out of a local ice house) check the voltage around 8:30pm on the line side of the main breaker with the breaker OPEN! check line to line ...... line to nuetral ......and nuetral to ground)
That way you'll know which direction the problem is