In article .com,
mrchips wrote:
hi, i was at a friends for xmas dinner, he said he was having problems
with the stove. it wouldnt heat up.
and when you turned the oven dial up from 100 to 500 the kitchen
lighting would get brighter ??

This is a big warning sign! Draw more power/current and lights brighten
rather than dim? Big warning sign of a big "open neutral" problem!

The problem is big - it can result in 120V appliances getting a lot more
than 120V. Some 120V appliances have some significant chance of catching
fire before blowing a fuse at "just the wrong voltage" higher than 120 but
lower than 240.

The solution is to know where your main panel and any subpanels are,
open the doors and identify the neutral bus in each of these items, and
grab a plastic-handle screwdriver and take it to the screws on the
"neutral bus" and see if any of them are easy to screw in a tightening
direction (clockwise), and make any loose ones
"thumb-and-index-finger-tight" (or tighter than that if your fingers/hands
are on the weak side).

If that does not solve the problem or if you are not up to this, then
call in an electrician.

If the problem should end up being upstream of your electric meter,
then in most jurisdictions you should be able to get the electrician bill
sent to your electric utility company.

- Don Klipstein )