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Nate Nagel

wrote:
Here in the last week and a half we have been having strange things
going on with our electricity. The lights dim and flicker. When we
try to turn on the microwave the lights will dim (& sometimes brighten
instead) and the microwave power drops low. When we use the vaccum
the lights will brighten. We usually have to turn off all the lights
in the house just to use the microwave. Other appliances don't seem
to be affected but I am guessing they are and we just can't tell like
we can with the microwave.

We have had the power company come out and he checked the voltage ?
coming into the house with the microwave off and with it on. They say
it is normal and probably something with the wiring inside. We called
an electrician and he came over and turned on the microwave and said
yes that something was wrong but he couldn't say what until he started
digging around. We're short on cash at the moment so we told him we'd
call him.

What is bugging us is this (which may mean nothing): we have made no
changes to the load or appliances etc., it has been working fine the
past two days but just started up again, and our neighbor who we share
the pole with started working on some wood projects in his garage
about the same time all this started. Could the neighbor somehow be
causing this? The only thing I am not sure of on that is that this
all also happens in the morning when he not working on anything.

Any insight or ideas would greatly help!

CHECK THE NEUTRAL...

I doubt it is your neighbor. I suspect that you have lost a neutral at
the pole and this actually is the power company's problem.

The only thing I could think that would cause this that wouldn't be the
power company's problem is if something inside your breaker panel has
fallen apart and the neutral is no longer connected to the outside
neutral/earth.

Don't sleep on this too long, if you manage to cause a really unbalanced
load while the neutral is disconnected, you can fry a whole mess of
stuff in your house.

nate

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