Any electricians out there?

[Dan Carey]

Sparktrician turned electrical engineer here.

#1: Breaker Off:
The first thing I'd check is the Neutrals...screw connections tight...stab connections secure...wire nut connections tight.
Line connections tight at outlets, stab connections, wire nuts.
See if that fixes it

#2: Cycle breaker on and off a few times
See if that fixes it

#3: Are you confident tightening screws in your Breaker Panel? If not, do you know someone who is?
This one will upset the wife: Turn off the Main Breaker
Check the tightness of the Line feed wire from the breaker and the Neutral wires at the Neutral Buss

If none of these fix the problem, the issue is probably a bad wall outlet stab connection (they're called "Back-Stab"
Outlets for a reason), or a bad breaker.

 

[GypsmJim]

Replace the breaker. If the problem is solved, throw the old breaker away and buy another one. You should always have a spare breaker anyway.

If the problem is NOT solved, you can did deeper.

 

[rotor]

Have power company check power coming into house, just had a bad neutral and can cause your house to burn down.

 

[Jeepnik]

Did you already die in a house fire?

No, it was a hanger fire and as close as you can get. Internal stuff had started shutting down. A good friend used the "throw the idiot on the ground" method of resuscitation.

 

[Yaworski]

No, it was a hanger fire and as close as you can get. Internal stuff had started shutting down. A good friend used the "throw the idiot on the ground" method of resuscitation.

Damn!

 

[blume357]

I rewired our porch light after Helene and it started doing that... in fact I think it did it before she came by.... all very intermittent .... I'd be sitting out there and somewhere near the end of the 3 fingers of bourbon and half way through the cigar the light would start flickering .... I finally decided to change out the bulb and had it fixed for about two nights then on the third night just down to one finger and it starts flashing... so the next day I change out the fixture and put the bulb I replaced in it... then that evening the same thing... I finally decided it was the aliens sending signals and the metal roof on my house is a collection and amplifying antenna.... I ended up once again replacing the fixture and the bulb and so far they have not come back.

 

[Mike J]

Not real fast like 60 hz. Probably about as fast as a poltergeist could flip the switch. No fan or heater, separate switch.

So, how many poltergeists have you encountered?

 

[Yaworski]

So, how many poltergeists have you encountered?

One, maybe two. It would open windows that had been closed and locked. Also, he'd turn on faucets in the middle of the night.

 

[Mike J]

One, maybe two. It would open windows that had been closed and locked. Also, he'd turn on faucets in the middle of the night.

That would be time for an eviction.

 

[Yaworski]

That would be time for an eviction.

We moved. It's been fifty years but I'm always tempted to stop and ask the new owners if they had any strange things happen.

 

[blume357]

I spent one of my teenage summers working and living in an old house that a lady had died in years before... sometimes you would find lights on that you turned off or such.. the guy who had bought the house had a friend that did a drawing of the house and gave it to him framed and he hung it at the bottom of the stairs and every morning it would have fallen off the wall. We were in the dinning room just off the stairs one night and started making jokes about Annie the ghost and how she did not like the picture over by the stairs, all of a sudden it flew off the wall and into the room and smashed.... we did not joke about Annie ever again.

 

[Richard76]

We moved. It's been fifty years but I'm always tempted to stop and ask the new owners if they had any strange things happen.

you say it is intermittent and stops after a couple minutes. Is there a motor running at that particular time? my newer lights do that when the well pump is running. I have a shallow well pump in my basement and when it comes on the bathroom lights flicker

 

[Yaworski]

you say it is intermittent and stops after a couple minutes. Is there a motor running at that particular time?

Not that I know of. I'll have to start paying attention to see if the fridge is running when the light flicker. Only motors would be fridge, furnace blower, or washer & dryer.

 

[Richard76]

Not that I know of. I'll have to start paying attention to see if the fridge is running when the light flicker. Only motors would be fridge, furnace blower, or washer & dryer.

you can check most of them by turning on lights then starting washer, then dryer not at same time, then shut those off and turn up t-stat
good luck

 

[Johnnu2]

Yaworski, in an effort to keep this post-count down, why not just replace that timer and be done with all the research and get back to those naps.... (?)
I had a flickering table lamp light.... it was connected to a MECHANICAL timer; after about a year or two of ignoring it, I changed the timer. ALL BETTER........ KISS (keep it simple
J.

 

[Jeepnik]

Now here's a thing I had forgotten. Some years back my neighbor across the alley was a welder. At time the light in the house would dim. It coincided with his striking an arc. Other neighbors noticed it too, but it wasn't enough to be concerned about.

After some years an electrical company guy was out checking things and I mentioned it to him. He checked and our entire block was on one transformer. Fine for 1955 but not so much for 1993.

Turned out we now have three transformers on the block.

 

[blume357]

that's what I was kind of implying before... had a customer who's lights flickered when she ran the washing machine (120 volts) ... no problem when the dryer was running (240 volts) .... her electrical could not figure it out... I did, while up on the roof I walked over to where the power line ran to the house and down to the meter.... the squirrels had eaten almost all the way through the bare neutral wire.... for those that don't understand I'll try to explain.... three heavy thick wires come to the house... two are insulated... the potential between those two is 240 volts... the other wire is the neutral and it is usually not insulated.... you can touch it and won't get shocked (well usually, there is a way). the potential between it and either of the two insulated 'hot' wires is 120 volts... all your 120 volts runs through that bare wire... the squirrels ate through it so that it could not pull all the amps needed.

 

[Jeepnik]

that's what I was kind of implying before... had a customer who's lights flickered when she ran the washing machine (120 volts) ... no problem when the dryer was running (240 volts) .... her electrical could not figure it out... I did, while up on the roof I walked over to where the power line ran to the house and down to the meter.... the squirrels had eaten almost all the way through the bare neutral wire.... for those that don't understand I'll try to explain.... three heavy thick wires come to the house... two are insulated... the potential between those two is 240 volts... the other wire is the neutral and it is usually not insulated.... you can touch it and won't get shocked (well usually, there is a way). the potential between it and either of the two insulated 'hot' wires is 120 volts... all your 120 volts runs through that bare wire... the squirrels ate through it so that it could not pull all the amps needed.

Squirrels ate through a stranded metal wire? What they got diamond bit teeth?

 

[blume357]

the wire is aluminum.... Squrrels have no problem chewing through it..... Seen it more than once and they also like the old lead flashing around plumbing vents....
Contender probably knows better as to what a Squirrel can eat through....

 

[GasGuzzler]

Rodents eat a lot on cars you wouldn't expect as well. Squirrels are 10X more destructive than mice or rats.