House Lights Flickering

[StudioTwo]

Hello,

The past few weeks I have become aware of the house lights flickering very slightly. I'm pretty certain it is not my eyes / imagination as it is not something I have ever noticed in other buildings.

The effect is VERY slight but regular (approx 40 times per minute). It is something I am aware of from time to time (so who is to say whether it is intermitted or I just don't notice it). As i said, the effect is very slight and it applies to lightling plugged into the mains sockets as well as ceiling lights.

I have checked with my neighbours, but they have not noticed any problem. Is this something that can be easily detected with the proper equipment?

TIA Stephen

[Peter Lynch]

When I worked in Wells we sometimes noticed this phenomenon. I was told that the premises were near the end of a national grid line and shared the line (we're talking high-power here) with a factory that made supermarket trolleys. They spot-welded all the joints on each trolley in one go and the instantaneous load dipped the mains voltage just enough to cause a very short but noticable brown-out.

Possibly this is more/less noticable with incandescent lights as opposed to fluorescent ones. Maybe your neighbours are on a different phase, or just not as attuned to it as you are.

Pete

[Terry]

Pete's comments sound very logical; many years ago we had an major industrial plant using electric arc furnaces connected to our main electrical grid on its way to our (provincial capital) main city. When the furnaces were operating the flicker was very noticeable; welding or other similar momentary loads could easily cause similar effect. Terry