In-window A/C Unit and Current Draw Featured

"Flickering lights" could be anything from a loose connection somewhere to a switching transient as they are bringing distribution back online.

Right, so no testing done at any of the "flickering houses" during one of the storm related power outage incidents would tell us much.

That's what I was trying to get to all along.

On Monday, July 19, 2021 at 12:49:20 PM UTC-4, Peter W. wrote in sci.electronics.repair:

A 20A circuit max rather than a a 15A circuit max on a 240AC residential hook up.

Things like that are easy to do on a new build, but for old circuits you take what is there if it even comes close and does not trip the breaker.

On Tue, 20 Jul 2021 10:05:25 -0700 (PDT), Marilyn Manson posted for all of us to digest...

That indicates it is a PoCo problem not specific to the dwelling you are referring to. I would only be concerned if the neighbors power is restored and hers is not.

I would not start investigating a problem she probably doesn't have. If you look for trouble you will find it.

IDK but the Po Co's in PA have "SmartMeters" and automatically report outages to the main brain. IDK if that is a Federal requirement.

On Tue, 20 Jul 2021 13:09:25 -0400, Ed Pawlowski posted for all of us to digest...

He's driving the point home.

That's exactly what I was trying to get across, but no one seemed to want to look at it that way.

My only thought was that it might be *interesting* to see if there was any correlation between the various vintages of wiring and/or the load on the different circuits that were flickering.

More of a curiousity or perhaps "Let's make sure the fridge is on a circuit that doesn't flicker" type of investigation. Thing is, I'm 200 miles away and not planning to run out there every time she has a storm related outage.

No smart meter for her electricity, but there is one for her water. Maybe I'll run that wire to the breaker box and the water authority can call the Po Co when the power goes out. ;-)

When they are repairing and re balancing the grid after a big outage, you can expect the power to be unstable. The PoCo is not going to take that call seriously until they get the whole system back up. You folks seem to have unrealistic expectations of what the PoCo is required to do and when. It was like when I talked to them about the current on the grounding systems. They just said "So"?

You responded to me but I'm not one of the "you" that you are speaking about. I know what to expect from the PoCo both during and after an outage. I never had any plans to call them during an outage about the flickering lights at my daughter's house.

I have used my Po Co's app to *report* and an outage and it seems like there have been a few times when I was the first. No outage listed on their website until a few minutes after I made the report. Could be coincidental, no way for me to know.

One time I had flickering lights at my house so I called to see if there was a problem. They said no, but that they would look into it. I didn't know that by "look into it" they meant were going to send a huge truck with bright flashing lights down my little street at 11PM. I'll bet the neighbors were surprised!

The guy came into my house, checked my panel and said everything was fine. "Let me check at the pole" . A few minutes later the flickering stopped. He knocked on the door and they that tightened up a connection at the pole and I should be all set. Never even lost power.

Real nice guy.

All those calls are what PUSHES the service to stay responsive. Imagine all the stuff a companies like Pepco or SMO could get away with if they didn't have everyone breathing down their necks.

Boris snipped-for-privacy@nospam.invalid wrote in news:XnsAD678D5C1154Bnospamnospaminvalid@144.76.35.252:

Wow. Thanks for all the replies.

My daughter decided that instead of window A/C units, she wanted something more permanent for her house, and also wanted abandon the weak propane powered wall heater, but still needed to supply heat, so she researched all of the alternatives. Installing vents and a standard A/C-heating system was just too expensive, due to many factors.

My daughter had four companies come out to estimate installing a split-system heat pump and decided on this setup:

EQUIPMENT: 18.0 SEER o 12.5 EER o 9.5 H.S.P.F.

The installer examined the electrical service and verifired there's room in the box to install another circuit to accommodate the additional power needed. He was very detailed in his calculations as to what capacity was needed to cool/heat all areas. The home is a small cabin (2 BR, 2 BA) in the western Sierra mountains, 30 minutes south of Lake Tahoe, California, at about 4,000 feet..

Thanks again.

Good move. More expensive up front but overall, a good long term investment in comfort.

Better yet, sell it to people in Texas for when their Right Wing, aka Crazy-as-s*it, electric grid dies.

Fujitsu is a pretty good unit but I had problems sourcing parts for one that was only about 5 years old. We ended up throwing it away and buying a Chinese unit that is basically a Bic lighter. When it stops you chuck it too but it is about one quarter the cost. .

On Fri, 6 Aug 2021 02:06:25 -0000 (UTC), Boris posted for all of us to digest...

I think she will do well with this setup.