Electricity- flickering, brief outage

[Toasty]

Hello,

Since about December 2008, there has been intermittent flickering of lights and very brief electrical outages in this house. It occurs on several circuits at the same time. I had an electrician tighten up connections in the circuit breaker box, but he did not remove any and reinstall any breakers. A corroded and detached ground wire from the breaker box to a water pipe was discovered and has since been repaired. There was no sign of "arcing" in the box. All connections were tight.

Could the problem be in a location in the box that is inaccessible unless the breakers are removed?

I will have Con Edison (utility company) send a technician to inspect their electric meter.

There have been problems reported by the utility company that I was told involves the melting salt used on the roads mixing with snow and leaking into the manholes, causing corrosion of electrical lines. Such disruption of the lines should affect many houses on the grid, not just my own, should it not?

My biggest concern is that the problem will occur during heavy usage of electricity during this summer when the A/C units are running.

[HeyBub]

Yes. Circuit breakers "plug" into a buss bar and poor contact will lead to excessive current flow in a small area. This excessive current flow, in turn, leads to melting and arcing.

Some box manufacturers are more prone to this condition than others. Who made yours?

Hope it wasn't Federal.

[Eric in North TX]

I had a few mystery brownouts, the power compny set over a couple of techs, and they found a wire between the street and my meter that had worn through due to a tree branch. They spliced in a new wire and all is good now. I take it from your post that the wires in your neighborhood run underground, still they must have a method of load testing them. It really soulds like a problem on their side of the meter. Get them out before you fry appliances.

[RBM]

[The Daring Dufas]

Around here, your electrician can pull the meter and check the connections there as long as he/she/it calls the power company to let them know the seal was cut. With the meter out, everything can be safely checked out. Making sure they notify the power company keeps you out of trouble.

TDD

[HeyBub]

Similar in Houston without the paperwork or licensed electrician. One calls the power company and they come out within six hours, record the reading, and remove the seal. Homeowner or his agent removes the meter at his convenience.

When the work is done, call the power company to reseal the meter (homeowner presumably has replaced it). They will respond within twelve hours to reinstall the seal.

[HeyBub]

I once worked for a company that sent out crews to inventory (by serial number) all the meters, transformers, and connections in a rural electric cooperative. They found the usual stuff - meters plugged in upside-down so they would run backwards, and the like. The most amazing was one "customer" who had bought his own transformer somewhere and thrown connecting lines over the primaries!

[mkirsch1]

Man up and swelter for a few hours. Jeez.

If that's your most pressing concern, being a little uncomfortable for a little while, you lead a pretty darned blessed life.

[Toastyhead]

Thank you for adding your utterly useless comment, sir.

[netnews]

We had a similar problem here a couple of years ago. Turned out to be a problem with the transformer on the pole. The power company pulled the transformer, on a hot day in July and we did swelter from like noon till

3 pm but we survived, and replaced it and all has been well since. Suck it up.

[Toastyhead]

Were any other homes affected by this problem or was it isolated to yours?

[Toastyhead]

I don't have a problem dealing with some heat during the summer if necessary, but my property has tenants in it now and they aren't the type to "suck it up."

My concern regarding the A/C units is if these repeated outages will adversely affect them.

[mm]

Why just the meter? Why just connections in the breaker box.

Maybe you are omitting other things, but rather than direct your electrician and Con Edison so much, I would tell them your problem and ask them to solve it. Of course you shouldn't give the electrician a blank check, but 30 or 60 minutes to diagnose and tell you what he thinks is wrong and a price for the rest of the job would have been fair.

How do you know for sure it is only your house. I have flickering lights a couple times a month. I'm sure it's the electric company's failing, and not in my house.

[RBM]

I don't have a problem dealing with some heat during the summer if necessary, but my property has tenants in it now and they aren't the type to "suck it up."

My concern regarding the A/C units is if these repeated outages will adversely affect them.

That is the important issue. Bad electrical connections invariably get worse, and voltage lowered by bad connections can damage equipment in the building

[gore]

I had a very similar problem for a couple of years. Had the electric company out a few times and they said it was a problem inside. My house is 160 years old and I figured people probably did some funky stuff with the electric over those years so I rewired the house. Long story short that didn't work and I had First Energy out again. I did go to the neighbors on the same transformer and ask if their lights were flicking off none of them were (actually I was losing 1 leg of the 240). Turned out the loop was bad at the transformer. They remade the connections, put in a request to get it changed and forgot about me for another 6 months. The guy who came out in 20 degree weather at 10 pm to change the overhead was pissed they didn't change it when it was warm. Anyway alls good now.

[sym]

is it just one pole or is it both? if wires are tight buss bar not burned, i would be inspecting the connection of your service to electric companies connections,providing you have an arieal service and look for splices between your house and electric companies transformer.

[Ray]

The outages here shut down my computer sometimes. This has been too disruptive too often. I ask my next door neighbor if they noticed any flickering after it occurs here, but they have reported no such thing. I'm not certain that the problem is with only my house, though.

You're probably right about my directing the electrician too much. Someone more aggressive might have suggested shutting off the power and inspecting the main breakers, etc. I ASSUMED that if he felt this necessary to diagnose the problem, he'd suggest it. Eh, I'll shut my mouth next time and just ask him to do whatever is necessary to find the source of trouble.

Con Edison reported that no other customers in the area filed any complaints regarding flickering, outages. They did mention something about a "smoking manhole" problem in different parts of the city. Sodium Chloride used to melt snow is corroding electrician lines, according to Con Edison and this MIGHT be related to my electrical problem. Anyway, Con Edison says they won't send a technician here to make any inspections until the "smoking manhole" problem is taken care of first.

I'm going to stop acting as if I'm a licensed electrician and just LET THE EXPERTS DO THEIR JOB!!!!

[Ray]

Glad to hear your problem has been solved.

Is the transformer you mentioned attached to a telephone pole in your neighborhood? Does your electrical line come into your house from above or below ground?

I don't know jack about transformers, but I've read it mentioned a few times on the net in regards to flickering/outage trouble.

[RBM]

The outages here shut down my computer sometimes. This has been too disruptive too often. I ask my next door neighbor if they noticed any flickering after it occurs here, but they have reported no such thing. I'm not certain that the problem is with only my house, though.

You're probably right about my directing the electrician too much. Someone more aggressive might have suggested shutting off the power and inspecting the main breakers, etc. I ASSUMED that if he felt this necessary to diagnose the problem, he'd suggest it. Eh, I'll shut my mouth next time and just ask him to do whatever is necessary to find the source of trouble.

Con Edison reported that no other customers in the area filed any complaints regarding flickering, outages. They did mention something about a "smoking manhole" problem in different parts of the city. Sodium Chloride used to melt snow is corroding electrician lines, according to Con Edison and this MIGHT be related to my electrical problem. Anyway, Con Edison says they won't send a technician here to make any inspections until the "smoking manhole" problem is taken care of first.

I'm going to stop acting as if I'm a licensed electrician and just LET THE EXPERTS DO THEIR JOB!!!!

FWIW, any professional is going to do that regardless of what you say, know, or think you know. Do you have a single main circuit breaker in this service, and if so, what make, size, and color is it?

[gore]

Glad to hear your problem has been solved.

Is the transformer you mentioned attached to a telephone pole in your neighborhood? Does your electrical line come into your house from above or below ground?

I don't know jack about transformers, but I've read it mentioned a few times on the net in regards to flickering/outage trouble.

Yes the transformer is connected to a pole in the neighborhood. It's a big can looking thing and it has wires going to my house, the neighbors house and the people across the roads house. I asked both homeowners if they were experiencing any outages and they said no. The reason First Energy was able to finally find the problem was because I called when it was out for about an hour and they were able to send someone right away. Every other time I called them the power would come back on before they could make it out which was usually the next day. Like I said the neighbors weren't having any problems but with mine out when they showed up they were able to isolate it to the wires going from the pole to my house. Since they replaced it I have not had a problem. I did gain a lot of knowledge from this fiasco. When it first went out it scared me being a first time homeowner. I took a residential wiring course, got a job with an experienced electrician, rewired my house, and I am now a licensed electrician in my county. It was a very expensive piece of wire though.