Originally Posted By: Dennis Bozek This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.
Here is a good one for you guys to think about and figure out. It was a actual problem that took me a while to find.
House was built in the 1950's has no k&t but some cloth romex and some of the more modern romex.
Has a recently upgraded 200 amp main breaker panel and service done by others.
Had a recent basement rewire done by others as well.
When standing by any operating light, and turning something...anything else on....the light will either flicker or dim to a lower intensity and then after the load seems to stabilize, the light will return to full brightness.
Homeowner states that the problem was not present until after all the previously mentioned work was accomplished. The prior contractor tried to determine the problem but it seemed that when they could not find out what was causing this, they kind of disappeared off this job.
So here comes your favorite resident sparky....to the rescue I hope
Voltage reads normal at the meter socket and main panel. Everything is grounded as it should be per NEC. Nothing real major going on electrically in the house. The biggest circuit is the range and then the AC. Everything else is gas.
I found the problem....might be a good one for you HI's though so have fun
-- This information has been edited and reviewed for errors by your favorite resident sparky.
Originally Posted By: lfranklin This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.
What. No comments
So I will show that I am stupid
First thing the light could be on a circuit that is almost to full
Or it could have lose or bad connection ,most likely in the common
Not even close so I will start thinking of something else
Originally Posted By: Dennis Bozek This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.
Larry…
All lights flicker or lose intensity...you are close though...they answered it correctly over at that other BB....  gonna let this one go for a bit....cmon guys....22 looksies and only one reply.....
-- This information has been edited and reviewed for errors by your favorite resident sparky.
Originally Posted By: jremas This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.
Not enough info here for a true guess and plenty of questions to ask. First of all, did it only affect the lighting? If so, ALL lighting? Were all the loads equally split up on the phases? Was the panel bus loose & they had all of the lighting off of the same phase? Was there a voltage drop at all fixtures? I would have asked about the neutral only being loose buy that would have created multiple other problems. Did any of the circuits have a shared neutral? The last time I had a funky weird problem in the home (the tv would turn ON when one of the light switches was turned off) we had a problem at the meter base with a loose connection with one of the phases coming in.
–
Jeff Remas
REMAS Inspections, Inc.
Northeastern PA & the Poconos
www.NEPAinspector.com
Originally Posted By: jmcginnis This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.
Dennis…
Has something similiar 30 years ago in the City of Reading, PA… I was sent out on a job where all the lights “flickered” at various times and apparently with no logic… my boss at the time made me start taking apart several different light switches… I kept insisting that the problem couldn’t be in an individual switch because “all” the lights were flickering when the problem occurred… so I went down to the basement and turned off the basement lights and sat in front of the main panel in the dark… suddenly a truck drove by on the street outside and I saw sparks flying from near the panel… it turns out that the water company had changed the main water feed to the building and brought in a new copper line right over top of the old galvanized line… the galvanized line had the grounding electrode conductor still attached and the copper one did not, but they were touching against each other… when the trucks would drive by, the vibration would make the pipes bounce and vibrate causing them to lose touch with each other and lose the ground in a vibrating fashion, hence the flickering… it also turns out that the neutral from the transformer was bad and so the service was relying on the ground for the completion of the 120volt circuits…I moved the ground clamp from the galvanized pipe to the copper pipe and ended the problem… this was in the days before the ground rod was required as a supplemental ground…I also informed the power company about their problem neutral… it was my rookie year in the business and my boss thought I was pretty smart…but in reality … I was just lucky…
Originally Posted By: jmyers This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.
Dennis,
Yeh, the idiot went to lunch before he tightened the lugs on the main and when he returned he forgot about it! 
Originally Posted By: Dennis Bozek This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.
Ok I shall give you all a kewpie doll mostly because you are all on the right track or have made your best estimated guess 
In the above mentioned problem what I found was that the bug at the weatherhead for the neutral was defective. It was barely making contact and that is why when additional load was applied it would either flicker or lose intensity on the lighting circuit. However, this problem affected everything but there was no way to truly monitor everything. The lighting circuit gave me a visible indicator of what was happening. After the lights either flickered or got dimmer, this connection would stabilize as much as it could and the lights would then return to normal intensity. I basically resplice the neutral connection at the weatherhead to repair this problem.
Good call though...
-- This information has been edited and reviewed for errors by your favorite resident sparky.
Originally Posted By: jmyers This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.
Dennis,
Was it actually defective or improperly crimped?
How long did it take you to find the bad bug? What made you decide the check the service entrance? I mean did you just decide to start at the beginning of the service? It was the only thing left?
Originally Posted By: Dennis Bozek This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.
Joe…
It was improperly crimped. I suspected a neutral problem from the beginning but had checked all the recent work done by others first because of Murphy's law....(what's the last thing ya messed with) 
When nothing showed up as being defective the last thing left to check were the bugs. So I got my extension ladder down (another reason why I left that for last cuz I carry a 32 footer) and climbed up the ole house to inspect them bugs and sure enough the neutral was barely crimped and I could move the wire within the crimp. They did a real good job of taping it though 
-- This information has been edited and reviewed for errors by your favorite resident sparky.
Originally Posted By: roconnor This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.
. Not only because everything grounded could be energized, but any fault would usually not have enough current flow to trip a breaker (due to the higher resistance of the grounding system around 25 ohms … 120V/25 ohm = 4.8A … NO breaker trip … OUCH) …
That is why the NEC (250.4) does not allow earth grounding to be relied on to clear a short/fault ... and why you can not install an appliance with just hot/neutral feeders and a ground rod for grounding. A grounding conductor must be run back to the service panel, where it is tied into the neutral (for a low resistance return path to trip the breaker if there is a equipment short/fault) ...
-- Robert O'Connor, PE
Eagle Engineering ?
Eagle Eye Inspections ?
NACHI Education Committee
I am absolutely amazed sometimes by how much thought goes into doing things wrong
Originally Posted By: Ron Hollingshead This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.
Howdy Gents,
I was cruising the board as a newbie and couldn’t resist. Got the answer to this one right off because I had a similar problem with a rent house years ago. But I’ll add a twist The power company came out and replaced the connectors at the weatherhead, which fixed the problem for almost a month. Eventually replaced or tightened connectors 4 times before finding the real problem. Any ready answers for the “real” problem?
Originally Posted By: psabados This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.
Hey Ron
Everything else being equal to the old posts, I would have to go back an look at the pole. Problem at the transformer. Fried lead possibly or a squirrel or bird problem.
Originally Posted By: Ron Hollingshead This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.
Paul,
You’re on the right track with the birds and squirrels. Except that it was a mass of trumpet vines that had pulled wires loose at the pole/transformer. We figured it out when we tested the voltage from the meter during a windy day and noticed the correlation.
Here is a good one for you guys to think about and figure out. It was a actual problem that took me a while to find.
The power company came out and replaced the connectors at the weatherhead, which fixed the problem for almost a month. Eventually replaced or tightened connectors 4 times before finding the real problem. Any ready answers for the “real” problem?