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Lights flicker irregularly since storm

41K views 10 replies 6 participants last post by  frenchelectrican  
#1 · (Edited)
We had a pretty major thunderstorm recently. Plenty of lightning and intense rain/wind, poles were knocked down, and we lost power for about 3 hours. When the power came back on, I noticed that my kitchen ceiling fan light would intermittently flicker. By flicker I mean go dim like the A/C or a major load was being turned on and then come back (but no major load was turning on). I thought this was an aftereffect of the storm and just forgot about it. I don't remember seeing it yesterday, but today I definitely noticed it. I then looked another ceiling fan light on the circuit and it was doing the same thing. I was about ready to check the switches (which were the only things I had even touched prior to the storm) when I turned on another light on a different circuit and noticed it there. All would flicker simultaneously. At the time I had a floor fan and dishwasher going, but I stopped the dishwasher and it flickered and I stopped the floor fan (d/w still on) and it flickered.

There appears to be no regularity or direct cause of it. The frequency has reduced tremendously since that first 45 minutes (I know have most lights in the house on to try and catch the flicker), but it was happening twice in a span of a minute before. As I've sat here with the light on, it hasn't happened once. I did manage to catch the twice in a minute on video though.

I will check the work that I was doing earlier that day to ensure all the connections are secure. However, both the circuit I was working on that day and the circuits where the lights are flickering are on AFCIs. Because of the virtually complete confidence I have that this did not happen before the storm, I am wondering if this is something I should contact my power company to check? and either way, what could be causing this?
 
#2 · (Edited)
The problem is likely between your electrical panel and the utility pole transformer inclusive.

Do incandescent lights flicker on all circuits connected to one side or (misnomer) "phase" of your 12-0/240 volt line and there is no flicker on all circuits connected to the other side of the line?

Do any incandescent lights get brighter than they should be?

Where the problem is requires troubleshooting with a voltmeter. It's your choice whether to call the power company first and let them check their side ("outside" from the meter to the pole transformer or whether you want to call an electrician and check your side "inside" first.
 
#3 ·
Do incandescent lights flicker on all circuits connected to one side of your 12-0/240 volt line and there is no flicker on all circuits connected to the other side of the line?
By one side or the other, I assume you mean the left and right side of my breaker box? Assuming that is correct, then no. The lights I observed simultaneously flickering were on different circuits on different sides of the box.

Do any incandescent lights get brighter than they should be?
I haven't noticed this.
 
#6 ·
I had the exact same problem when I first moved into my new (to me) house. I discovered that the neutral was corroded at my panel. This was caused by the protective jacket on the service entrance being old and leaking, which allowed moisture to get all the way down into the panel, and corroding the neutral connection. I ended up having to replacing everything from the service entrance down to the panel (Ouch$$)
 
#8 ·
I will advise ya to call the POCO to check out their side somecase it can get loosen up and cause the lights to fliker like you descibing so they can come out any time 24/7 useally without any charge to come out.

Once that sorted out then we will go from there.

Merci.
Marc
 
#10 ·
, but we lost power for about 5 seconds for no apparent reason (calm weather) which has never happened before.
If a not so dry branch or a squirrel or other object should short circuit some high tension or medium tension lines, this may drop the voltage almost to zero causing a momentary outage on those lines until the object burns completely through. Also there are arc fault circuit interrupters at substations that will kill the power, wait a few seconds for any suspected arc short circuits to die down, then reconnect the power. Sometimes what was the short circuit will not strike another arc. If the arc resumes then the AFCI trips again, and after so many tries the AFCI will not reset and the power company must send someone out to survey the lines, find the fault, manually remove it, and manually reset the AFCI.