On Nov 16, 7:18*am, "John Grabowski" wrote:
It started the other night. Several lights that are on the same
breaker started blinking on and off. After a while the blinking got
more frequent and then they started staying off longer. Then they just
would not come back on.

Next day, they came back on but still blink occasionally.

All I've done so far is to switch the breaker off and back on.

The circuit is the overhead kitchen light, the light over the stairs
to the upstairs, the ceiling light in the downstairs bedroom and a
fluorescent ceiling light in an upstairs room. All lights have their
own on/off switches with the light over the stairs having a switch at
the bottom and at the top of the stairs.

I'm wondering if it could be the breaker or if I have a short
somewhere. Seems like it would have to be somewhere between the first
light switch on the circuit and the breaker.

Anybody got any tips before I start taking things apart?

Thanks, David

First trip and reset the breaker a few times then;
My money is on one of the big "cludge" wire nuts full of white wires
in a ceiling box.
Backstabbed receptacles are #2 on the list.,

I have tripped the breaker a number of times. Today I opened up all
the switches for the 4 lights on the circuit to check if there is a
problem. I didn't find anything there and there were no backstabbed
units in any of them. Now I need to double check to see if any outlets
are also on that circuit. I haven't noticed any yet.

If I don't find anything there I might as well open up the breaker box
and start with the breaker and trace things forward from there. I hate
getting into the breaker box but I do have a switch outside that
transfers whole house power from the grid to a generator hook-up when
power goes out.

*Just because an outlet is working does not mean the problem is not there..
The line side can be okay and the load side could have the loose connection.

OK, today I turned on the kitchen light and it went dead after only a
few seconds. So I checked the outlets to see if they were all working
and they were so I turned off the breaker and checked to see if any of
the outlets were dead. All the outlets had power.

So I opened up the breaker box, turned the breaker back on and checked
to see if any power was coming from the breaker. It seemed OK so I
went back upstairs and turned the kitchen light back on and it came on
fine and did not go back off. I wanted the problem to develop again so
I could test if power was coming from the breaker again. I turned on
the rest of the lights to put more of a load on the circuit and still
had no problems and it has been fine all afternoon.

Looks like the problem is solved for now. Maybe is was just turning
the breaker off for a longer time before turning it back on. We'll
see.

Thanks, David