power spikes on second level of the house

Hi, I'm having power spikes on my second level of my house. the lights, fan, everything are spiking, going dim, bright, dim bright. however the first floor is ok. I would call an electrician to see the problem but I want to get feedbacks here on those who may know the problem.

Thanks.

Reply to
kelly
Loading thread data ...

how many breakers serve your home? have a friend with a older home its

1 fuse per floor.

do you have breakers or fuses?

is it a reproducable problem? does turning so and so on always cause the bump?

just what is flickering or changing briteness? sometimes cheap fluroscents do this and alarm people wen theres really no problem.

Reply to
hallerb

Most likely an open nuetral. If it's only affecting the second floor, then it's probably in a sub-panel, or all the afflicted devices are on the same edison circut.

Note that this is fairly high on the list of dangerous electrical problems in a house, because depending on where exactly the problem is, your house grounding system could be energized, which means that things like the metal shell of your washing machine, the little screw holding your light-switch-plate on, and the bathtub may be ready to electrocute you.

It's also a good way to destroy cheap electronics and anything with a motor in it.

Reply to
Goedjn

That sounds like a typical floating neutral. That means a neutral (white) wire is loose somewhere. Everything will work normally as long as the load on either side of that point is equal. However when the 120V heater in the bathroom kicks in then everything on the other side will go bright and everything on that side will go dim.

Note: This can be serious and can not only damage appliances but also may cause a fire. Many years ago I worked for a photo studio. The owner had moved because of a fire at his old location and sure enough he had a loose neutral in the new studio after he set up all the lines for the lights. He was finally convinced to have it checked out. I think the real reason he had it checked was because it was causing problems with the lights. He was supper cheap at everything except the product he delivered to the customer, if that suffered he fixed it.

In short call someone right away. It normally will not be too expensive. It all depends on how long it takes them to find it.

Reply to
Joseph Meehan

Does your home have aluminum wiring? I had a similar experience and found that the aluminum wiring at one wall outlet had a broken wire at the outlet plug screws and this was causing erratic surges (dimming, flickering, etc..) throughout all the other rooms as power was drawing. I found that many circuits in bedrooms are wired from one wall plug in one room to another room. As a suggestion...I would pull the outlet cover plates from each wall plug in every room and check that the wires are solid and tight to the plug screws at each wall outlet plug.

Reply to
bluelagoon

Reply to
kelly

HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.