Brand name plug-in protector are promoted like Listerene and
Geritol. There is no such thing as a quality plug-in
protector. Take a $3 retail power strip. Add some $0.10
components. Sell it for $15 or $50 because myth brokers now
call is 'quality'. Worse still, the adjacent protector can
even complete a surge destructive path through the appliance.
Just another little fact they forget to mention.

A 'whole house' protector connected 'less than 10 feet' to a
single point ground is essential for every home. Every phrase
in that sentence has critical importance. 'Whole house'
protector is not required for human safety. Therefore no
building code requires this effective protector. (Remember,
the protector is not protection. Earth ground is the
protection. But that discussion is irrelevant here).

Although a 'whole house' protector should be priority for
every homeowner (especially with summer T-storm season
approaching), still, that protector is not a solution to your
flickering problem. You (and neighbor) suffered a voltage
drop - a brownout or sag - so low that even electronic
appliances were affected. Many different electric problems
exist. A transient is a high voltage. A brownout is low
voltage. A surge protector is only for high voltage
transients that occur typically once every eight years.
Protector would do nothing - completely ignore - a brownout or
blackout.

Yes, the linemen properly informed you of something
essential for every transistorized building. Absolutely
essential. Something missing on most all buildings.
Something so important to transistor safety that every lurker
should be now planning trips to responsible stores such as
Home Depot and Lowes. But surge protectors - the effective
'whole house' type or the scam plug-in type - will provide
nothing for this brownout or blackout problem.


Among suspects should be inspection of the circuit box. For
example, some Federal Pacific breaker boxes have been known to
burn down the building. Flickering would be a symptom of
future serious failure. The flickering may be nothing. Or it
may be symptoms of a future and major problem. In previous
posts I mentioned, in passing, the inspection of many things
such as the earthing rod. Inspection of that circuit box
(including feeling for heat on non-conductive surfaces) is
another. Immediately cannot say if those inspections would or
would not explain the strange flicker. But then even the
military demands such inspections every five years or less.

Yes, even an intermittent neutral wire does not explain your
symptoms. However this assumes just one problem. It might be
a combination of intermittents that conspired to cause that
flicker. Best we can do is inspect the usual suspects, and
'keep your ears on' for future symptoms. That strange flicker
would bother me to no end - just like the near disaster of a
Space Shuttle one full year before Challenger exploded for the
same reason. The engineers never stopped asking why and
therefore could have saved Challenger; if their management had
minds of innovators instead of bean counter mentalities.

Best to do as you are doing and to inspect those various
suspects previously recommended for inspection. Sorry I
cannot offer up a likely suspect. Best I can do is add to the
list of suspects and encourage you to keep being suspicious.

Choreboy wrote:
I can ask if they've noticed bulb problems. I've been over there many
times in the evening and the lighting was steady.

I know a retired lineman who runs marathons. Today at the track I
managed to keep up with him long enough to inquire. He said,
"Whole-house surge protector."

He's right in that I have one and they don't. What I observed was rapid
dimming of bulbs in a fixture as if it were repeatedly being switched
off. I suppose spikes could have scrambled the TV, answering machine,
and microwave, but the computer was plugged into a brand-name surge
protector. Does his guess sound good?

I don't understand the benefits and limitations of the surge protector
in my breaker box. It's a semiconductor clamping device that I
installed about 1985. At New Years of 1999, ice brought down
high-voltage lines a few miles away. In spite of my surge protector, my
TV and stereo were damaged so badly that they weren't worth fixing. (A
plug-in protector prevented damage to my computer, which was on.)