House Lights Flickering?

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

Reply to
StudioTwo
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sure. Now can you think of something better to spend your time on?

NT

Reply to
meow2222

If it was a Philips energy saving 18w light bulb like the ones being sold by Morrisons a few months ago then I would understand. Philips have admitted there is an electrical problem with the bulbs but have NOT recalled them, but will send replacements to anyone who bought them - providing you complain! They wouldn't tell people there is a safety problem concerning the electrical starter circuitry. It causes the light to be activated by tiny currents flowing between neutral and earth. So if you bought a Philips

18w energy saving bulb, contact them via the website and provide details of what is on the box such as a barcode.

It's a shame Philips sold them all off cheap via supermarkets rather than recalling lights which in my opinion are a fire hazard. If they were not and there was no problem, they wouldn't have sent me new ones.

Reply to
sheba

i havnt an answer, but thats interesting as mine have been doing that since ive lived in my house, a few years now, they can go days/weeks/months without flickering, then all of a sudden they start flickering more noticeable in the winter months as the lights are on earlier, only the lights though no other electrical problems. now we have across the road from us a rail way line and power cables running from pylons, I say across the road more like a few thousand meters, so ive always put it down to interference from these ?

Reply to
reg

sheba wrote: > If it was a Philips energy saving 18w light bulb like the ones being sold by

B*(locks

It causes the light to be activated by

Sigh... This paranoia appeared in another newsgroup posting. Been debunked quite successfully by many posters.

  1. When has a lamp ever had an earth connection?
  2. When has capacitive coupling ever been a source of potential combustion?

So if you bought a Philips

No, they replaced it because they didn't want to be bothered trying to convince you otherwise.....

-- Adrian C

Reply to
Adrian C

Have you checked with your neighbours (or anybody else, for that matter) whether they can detect the problem in YOUR house, or whether YOU can detect in THEIR houses?

David

Reply to
Lobster

I thought that the frequency fluctuated but I wouldn't have thought that this was detectable, even on fluorescent tubes.

Kevin

Reply to
Kev

If I am correct the two houses next to you will be on different phases so check with the house three doors down has they will be on the same phase as you.

Reply to
Trevor Smith

Get the electricity board in to check. When I saw this last, the main incomer to the house was loose in the company fuse, and it was arcing.

Fair made a mess of the insuation, as it was quite melted.

Cheers

Paul.

Reply to
zymurgy

No, AIUI the phases tend to go R-Y-B-B-Y-R-R-Y-B-etc., so next door might be on the same phase, and 3 doors away won't necessarily be on the same phase as you.

I don't know why they do it that way, but they do, apparently.

Reply to
Andy Wade

When it is a table (or floor standing) lamp with a metal bayonet bulb holder.

(I recently replace the flex in one of mine. The bulb holder had an earth terminal but the original flex was only two wire which I found surprising.)l

Reply to
Michael Chare

Our side of the road (4 houses) is on one phase. the concentric cable loops from one to the next via the cutout termination. The volt drop is horrendous when the other house loads are high.

Reply to
<me9

Yikes, I meant bulb....

-- Adrian C

Reply to
Adrian C

Try taking a portable radio and tune it OFF station so you get a lot of hiss then take it near to your mains inlet to the house. If it gets worse the closer you get then call the Lekky Board.

Chris.

Reply to
mcbrien410

On a housing estate, yes - in theory. Unfortunately what the planners put on the service plans weren't always how the cable jointers connected them. On older overhead systems, there are more houses connected to B phase, coz it's at the bottom just above the neutral, so the linesman doesn't have to reach up quite so far......

Reply to
The Wanderer

Do you have anybody around into repairing old bangers, possibly using a plug-in welder. They can be notorious culprits for causing flicker, especially if the distribution system is in a rather strung-out rural location.

Another possibility, are there any water extraction boreholes around?

Others have already told you to contact the local electricity company. Do so, and don't be fobbed off. The first reaction you'll get is probably 'Oh that's within limits' or similar. Tell tham it's a very perceptible flicker.

The electricity company have a duty to provide you with a relatively clean supply, and if it turns out to be some process in nearby workshop units, they'll follow it up, but any help you can give them will speed things up. Keep a log over a few days detailing the *exact* times the lights start and stop flickering. Times can help in tracking down any intermittent processes elsewhere that may be causing the problem. Also do a little detective work yourself. If you're in a wholly residential area there's unlikely to be anything obvious, but if you live near workshops, industrial units, it's worth doing a little discrete snooping, see if you can find out what they do.

Having said all of that, if the problem turns out to be with your installation, they'll charge you for determing that. You have checked your own electrical installation?

Reply to
The Wanderer
[R-Y-B-B-Y-R phase order]

What's the logic in doing it that way, rather than R-Y-B-R-Y-B?

No surprise there.

... and doesn't have to reach across the other live phases, I guess. Sounds to me like a healthy self-preservation instinct on their part. Sod the balance...

Now, is the supply industry going to start calling its phases BRN, BLK & GRY in line with the new wiring colours, or will they stick resolutely to R, Y & B?

Reply to
Andy Wade

It's a long time ago that I did any serious studying on the issue, but I seem to recollect that it could be proven mathematically that the RYBBYR sequence gave a better load balance along the length of the circuits than a RYBRYB distribution. It's also like the mathematical proof that using 3 phases was about (I'm guessing at the actual figure) 98.5% as efficient as n phases, where n tends to infinity. (I'm surprised no one has ever thought to ask why we don't adopt polyphase systems more widely in uk.d-i-y)[1] :-)

Unfortunately they are all the sorts of things that you have to absorb during the learning process, but you never actually used in real life.

If there's anyone out there who's more up to date with the theory, I'd welcome a refresher. :-)

In a way, it's a bit like studying differential calculus. I understood it at the time as a callow youth, but never found anything in real life that it related to, and now, I can't remember a thing about it, whereas trig I put into use one way or another all of my life......

[1] I did admit I was guessing at the figure, but the cost implications of using more than three phases far outweigh any improvements in energy transmission.
Reply to
The Wanderer

The Wanderer wrote: Also do a little detective work

If there is a bank nearby, it's obvious someone is trying to tunnel into the safe. Check for small earth tremors...

I seem to remember back in the late seventies when we had electrical workers out on strike, that they would make the lights briefly flicker before cutting the power completely. Thought that was courteous....

-- Adrian C

Reply to
Adrian C

It's more a question of being out of date rather than up to date. Here are the numbers from my 1957 seventh edition of "Electrical Technology" by H.Cotton.

The proof can be applied to many electrical systems, even distribution systems. Cotton just takes an AC generator for his example.

In a particular frame size a single-phase generator can be made that produces a power output of P.

In that same frame size a 2-phase generator would produce 1.414P..... A 3-phase 1.5P and an m=phase, (where m is a large number), would produce 1.57P.

1.57P is the maximum AC power from that frame size, only about 4.5% more than the 1.5P from 3-phases.
Reply to
Tony Williams

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