Called Allegheny Power and they are of no help.
I have UPS on my home CPU because when the Air Conditioning kicks on, the lights go dim and the CPU would shut off.
Now, the CPU is dead from having to back up that all the time.
Now, I’m finding that it wasn’t just the Air Conditioner.
It happens with no apparent draw from any large appliance.
The lights in the entire house go dim for a few seconds and then back to normal, and nothing else in the house is turning on drawing current while this occurs.
This can happen as much as every 15-20 minutes to maybe once a day.
Any ideas? And if so, anyone offer good rates to come and look?
TIA
how old is the house / panel / wiring / electrical service?
This could be plenty of things. I mean it almost sounds like since its getting worse you might have a loose wire somewhere between the pole and the panel since your whole house is experiencing the problem. Are any breakers tripping?
quik:bowrofl:
Thanks for responses.
House built and wiring/panel done in mid-70’s. Nothing new wiring-wise except for extending line for Air Conditioner around side of house. But that didn’t change anything as this occured with old Air Conditioner too.
Allegheny is sending someone to check the transformer load or whatever the hell that means.
Nothing is tripping in the fuse panel. It occurs whole house and is not isolated to any one room. When it occurs, I run around the house to see if any large appliance has kicked on and nothing has. It just “happens”.
Poltergeists? Lol
Could be the main service drop from the power company. Does it happen more often when it’s windy out?
Never noticed. I’ll have to pay attention to that. It’s done it twice just this afternoon and it’s not windy out, though.
Knestauts dad is an electrician(you should remember him), if you want I can get his number. Im sure he would come check it out for you. No clue if he would charge or not.
Do you have an electric water heater? there is def. some type of drain with your power. it may even be from your neighbor weed plan lights.
Cant you get a battery back up for your cpu? that would isolate the surges
There is current going somewhere, This would not just happin.
If your sure there is nothing in your house kicking on. its from someone around you. The power company has devices to track these fluctuations
Yeah, Dom, I was thinking about him. I’m sure I could find him at Pasternaks and see if he’ll come over, lol.
I swear there is nothing kicking on in this house when it happens. I have my wife running around on one floor and me on the other and nothing is coming on in my house.
And I do have a battery backup. That’s what a UPS is (from first post). It’s kicked in so much that the battery is dead in it.
I guess I’ll just wait to see what Allegheny Power says. They said it might be a transformer. Who knows. They’ll check the load, but with my luck, the problem won’t happen when they are here.
Just hoping to get a good lead on an electrician if I happen to end up needing one.
Thanks all.
Could be on either end, I’ve seen this many times and more times I have found a bad connection on the neutral either in the meter socket or at the top where the service joins the power company.
If the power company doesn’t find anything give me a yell I’d be glad to check it out for you.
I do some work at Elizabeth High School from time to time if your near there?
Yes , Registered Electrician for well over 20 years so I’ve pretty much seen it all.
Let me know if I can be of any help.
Hey thank man. I’ll wait and see what the electric company says and then maybe hit you up.
@0+ plus years dealing with the electrons, hated most of them.
But anyhow, if I were the guy troubleshooting this, I would go in this order:
- Determine if load is from within home or not. Seems like you have this one narrowed down to not being within your home.
- go outside and count the number of service drops pulled from the transformer feeding your home. IMO it should not be more than three, two if any one person has a garage that gets any kind of work done in. Read welding, air compressor, car repair, ect.
- Check line terminals, and line neutral in panel, for loose, bad, ect connections. Most need an electricain for this step.
- Check line and load terminals of meter base, along with neutral connections within meter base. Need power company and electricain for this one.
- Have power company do a transformer load eval. Sounds like they are already on this one. Quite often, what was good today for transformer loading, wont be good sat. when your neighbor buys a buzz box welder.
Go over on Wensdays, my moms works there as a side job lol. She could get you his number or at least get the number from my pops.
Update?
Electric water heaters don’t draw that much energy…
If you keep getting brownouts like you are an even blackouts its most likely going to be something going on between your house and the pole like some have already said, its odd for your house not being that old and having this problem(my house is over 100 years old and is still in better shape that a lot of newer homes). My guess would be its at the service drop…saw a few houses like that last year where the power would surge and sometimes go out completely for a period of time