We have lived in our present 1964 built home for 5+ years and have
recently noticed the lights in several rooms "flickering". When I say
"flickering", I mean a quick succession of dimming and brightness that
is very/very slight, but noticeable. It's almost better to say it's
"pulsing", because the light never actually goe off, the instead "dim'
and "brighten". It's like a "surge" if I had to define it, where the
lights suddenly dim and brighten ever so slight in succession about 15
seconds, then returns to normal. This repeats again several minutes
later for another instance, again and again, I tried to recall and
from what I recollect this has been happening for years but I haven't
really considered it an issue until recently when I did some more
reading up on it.

I'm a computer networking techie and know alot about troubleshooting
and pinpointing things so I tried to isolate the issue. I noticed it
happening in rooms which I suspected were all on the same breaker. So
I went downstairs and turned off the breaker and it just so happens
that one of the rooms that flickers went off with the breaker off but
the other room that flickers stayed lit. However, I checked the room
still lit and that room did not flicker anymore. Could be
cooincidental.

What I did notice however is that my furnace is on the same breaker as
the lighting that flickers in my kitchen room, so I wonder if the load
of the furnace coul be culprit. I thought that it should be on it's
own breaker.

* Is the symptoms I describe a serious issue, or are surges that
pulsate the lights something normal?
* How would you approach this type of issue, with an electrician or
the electrical company providing my service?
* Is there any simple tools I can use at home to test the voltage,
will a voltage meter help me diagnose and how?

On Dec 21, 10:35*pm, Billy wrote:
What I did notice however is that my furnace is on the same breaker as
the lighting that flickers in my kitchen room, so I wonder if the load
of the furnace coul be culprit. I thought that it should be on it's
own breaker.

Your furnace should be on its own circuit which is probably the
problem. The service for your house may be undersized as well.

On Dec 22, 2:45*am, WDS wrote:
On Dec 21, 10:35*pm, Billy wrote:

What I did notice however is that my furnace is on the same breaker as
the lighting that flickers in my kitchen room, so I wonder if the load
of the furnace coul be culprit. I thought that it should be on it's
own breaker.

Your furnace should be on its own circuit which is probably the
problem. *The service for your house may be undersized as well.

And as for your other questions:

* Is the symptoms I describe a serious issue, or are surges that
pulsate the lights something normal?

It shouldn't do that.

* How would you approach this type of issue, with an electrician or
the electrical company providing my service?

An electrician will tell you what needs to be done.

* Is there any simple tools I can use at home to test the voltage,
will a voltage meter help me diagnose and how?

No.

Billy wrote:
We have lived in our present 1964 built home for 5+ years and have
recently noticed the lights in several rooms "flickering". When I say

OK, first things first. Do you have aluminum wiring? If you are
not sure, get an electrician in to check this *now*. What you are seeing
is classic indication of a high resistance connection, a common problem
with aluminum wiring (which was used a lot in the 1960s) and leads to
house fires.

* Is the symptoms I describe a serious issue, or are surges that
pulsate the lights something normal?

Something is not right. There is a loose or corroded connection
or connections somewhere. This could be a bad ground or neutral
return at the service entrance, or cold flowed aluminum wiring,
or a few other things.

* How would you approach this type of issue, with an electrician or
the electrical company providing my service?

Get an electrician to make an assesment. He'll know immediately if
you've got aluminum wiring by looking in the breaker box.
This could get expensive if you need to replace a lot of wires, but
the alternative is a good chance of a house fire.

Do this ASAP! Please.

Bill Ranck
Blacksburg, Va.

On Dec 22, 10:56*am, wrote:
Billy wrote:
We have lived in our present 1964 built home for 5+ years and have
recently noticed the lights in several rooms "flickering". When I say

OK, first things first. *Do you have aluminum wiring? *If you are
not sure, get an electrician in to check this *now*. *What you are seeing
is classic indication of a high resistance connection, a common problem
with aluminum wiring (which was used a lot in the 1960s) and leads to
house fires.

* Is the symptoms I describe a serious issue, or are surges that
pulsate the lights something normal?

Something is not right. *There is a loose or corroded connection
or connections somewhere. *This could be a bad ground or neutral
return at the service entrance, or cold flowed aluminum wiring,
or a few other things. *

* How would you approach this type of issue, with an electrician or
the electrical company providing my service?

Get an electrician to make an assesment. *He'll know immediately if
you've got aluminum wiring by looking in the breaker box.
This could get expensive if you need to replace a lot of wires, but
the alternative is a good chance of a house fire.

Do this ASAP! *Please.

Bill Ranck
Blacksburg, Va.

No aluminum - I'm familair with that issue and I stayed away from
houses that have it. I dont think that my home year falls under this
installation timeframe either......I think aluminum was installed
later than 1964.....

Thanks for all of your input.......

On Dec 22, 3:47*am, WDS wrote:
On Dec 22, 2:45*am, WDS wrote:

On Dec 21, 10:35*pm, Billy wrote:

What I did notice however is that my furnace is on the same breaker as
the lighting that flickers in my kitchen room, so I wonder if the load
of the furnace coul be culprit. I thought that it should be on it's
own breaker.

Your furnace should be on its own circuit which is probably the
problem. *The service for your house may be undersized as well.

And as for your other questions:

* Is the symptoms I describe a serious issue, or are surges that
pulsate the lights something normal?

It shouldn't do that.

* How would you approach this type of issue, with an electrician or
the electrical company providing my service?

An electrician will tell you what needs to be done.

* Is there any simple tools I can use at home to test the voltage,
will a voltage meter help me diagnose and how?

No.

Yes, the house is 2500 sq ft and is on I think 100 or 150amp breaker
box. I was told in the past that for one the breaker box is too small
and second that the wires are not correctly segmented - there's been
alot of add-ons throughout the years of the previous owner and myself
as well. We also have an issue where one of the upstairs bathrooms
blows a fuse everytime the hairdryer is used. Odd thing is I go
downstairs and the fuse doesnt look completely tripped, but a switch
off/on does the trick. We have since stayed away from using the
hairdryer in that room - i know not the solution though.

On Dec 22, 10:56*am, wrote:
Billy wrote:
We have lived in our present 1964 built home for 5+ years and have
recently noticed the lights in several rooms "flickering". When I say

OK, first things first. *Do you have aluminum wiring? *If you are
not sure, get an electrician in to check this *now*. *What you are seeing
is classic indication of a high resistance connection, a common problem
with aluminum wiring (which was used a lot in the 1960s) and leads to
house fires.

* Is the symptoms I describe a serious issue, or are surges that
pulsate the lights something normal?

Something is not right. *There is a loose or corroded connection
or connections somewhere. *This could be a bad ground or neutral
return at the service entrance, or cold flowed aluminum wiring,
or a few other things. *

* How would you approach this type of issue, with an electrician or
the electrical company providing my service?

Get an electrician to make an assesment. *He'll know immediately if
you've got aluminum wiring by looking in the breaker box.
This could get expensive if you need to replace a lot of wires, but
the alternative is a good chance of a house fire.

Do this ASAP! *Please.

Bill Ranck
Blacksburg, Va.

how will the electrician identify where a loose or corroded wire is
without taking the whole house apart? This could be any plug, light,
appliance, etc..... Sounds like he may be there for hours/days with a
high bill.....

In article , Billy wrote:
On Dec 22, 3:47=A0am, WDS wrote:
On Dec 22, 2:45=A0am, WDS wrote:

On Dec 21, 10:35=A0pm, Billy wrote:

What I did notice however is that my furnace is on the same breaker a=
s
the lighting that flickers in my kitchen room, so I wonder if the loa=
d
of the furnace coul be culprit. I thought that it should be on it's
own breaker.

Your furnace should be on its own circuit which is probably the
problem. =A0The service for your house may be undersized as well.

And as for your other questions:

* Is the symptoms I describe a serious issue, or are surges that
pulsate the lights something normal?

It shouldn't do that.

* How would you approach this type of issue, with an electrician or
the electrical company providing my service?

An electrician will tell you what needs to be done.

* Is there any simple tools I can use at home to test the voltage,
will a voltage meter help me diagnose and how?

No.

Yes, the house is 2500 sq ft and is on I think 100 or 150amp breaker
box. I was told in the past that for one the breaker box is too small
and second that the wires are not correctly segmented - there's been
alot of add-ons throughout the years of the previous owner and myself
as well. We also have an issue where one of the upstairs bathrooms
blows a fuse everytime the hairdryer is used. Odd thing is I go
downstairs and the fuse doesnt look completely tripped, but a switch
off/on does the trick. We have since stayed away from using the
hairdryer in that room - i know not the solution though.


It sounds like you want to stay cheap no matter what.
First thing is to identify all circuits and breakers. Might
take a while, but its cheap your doing it. You can
buy a breaker identifier for around $50. Once you do that
you would be better at making conclusions. If you find a
goofy circuit separate from the others, then you can concentrate
your efforts.

Whats your breaker ratings?

greg

Billy wrote:

Get an electrician to make an assesment. ??He'll know immediately if
you've got aluminum wiring by looking in the breaker box.
This could get expensive if you need to replace a lot of wires, but
the alternative is a good chance of a house fire.

how will the electrician identify where a loose or corroded wire is
without taking the whole house apart? This could be any plug, light,
appliance, etc..... Sounds like he may be there for hours/days with a
high bill.....

An electrician will identify each circuit and try to find which outlets
and swtiches and lights are on each one. Then, inspect each of those
to determine where the bad connection is. It will probably be obvious.
There will be signs of heat damage on the wire insulation and/or
outlet/switch/fixture. It is unlikely to require tearing the house
apart. The problem will 99.999% of the time be at a junction box, and
those are supposed to be accessible. Unless you or the previous
owner buried a junction box behind a wall or ceiling there should
not be any reason to tear them out.

Following and figuring out the wiring is tedious, but not too hard.
With a circuit tracer it's even easier, but yes, to some extent it's
a case of following each circuit, or at least the circuits that are
having problems and checking and tightening each and every connection
along the way. Expensive, maybe, how expensive is a house fire?

Bill Ranck
Blacksburg, Va.

Yes, the house is 2500 sq ft and is on I think 100 or 150amp breaker
box. I was told in the past that for one the breaker box is too small
and second that the wires are not correctly segmented - there's been
alot of add-ons throughout the years of the previous owner and myself
as well. We also have an issue where one of the upstairs bathrooms
blows a fuse everytime the hairdryer is used. Odd thing is I go
downstairs and the fuse doesnt look completely tripped, but a switch
off/on does the trick. We have since stayed away from using the
hairdryer in that room - i know not the solution though.

Breakers go bad too. The cheapest thing to do is buy a breaker for $6 or so at Home Depot. I had one
that was acting weird lately and I changed it. All is fine now.

Tony

On Dec 22, 11:26*am, Billy wrote:
as well. We also have an issue where one of the upstairs bathrooms
blows a fuse everytime the hairdryer is used. Odd thing is I go
downstairs and the fuse doesnt look completely tripped, but a switch
off/on does the trick. We have since stayed away from using the
hairdryer in that room - i know not the solution though.

At this point I highly suggest you get an electrician to look at it.
using a hair dryer should trip a breaker, either.

On Dec 22, 12:29*pm, Billy wrote:
how will the electrician identify where a loose or corroded wire is
without taking the whole house apart? This could be any plug, light,
appliance, etc..... Sounds like he may be there for hours/days with a
high bill.

With basic electrical knowledge, did you do the first inspections?
For example, every receptacle in that circuit is wired to side screws;
not connected in the backstab holes. Easy. Take off the cover. Look
for wires attached to side screws. If not, that should be fixed.

Meanwhile, your symptoms are typical of another well understood
electrical concept called open neutral. Loading on one circuit can
cause voltage on other circuits to increase or decrease.

Also well understood by anyone with basic electrical knowledge is
that a tripped circuit breaker typically trips half way. Therefore
you know which breakers were manually turned off and which breakers
opened due to excessive load. Since you did not know that, then I am
very leery that you also did some electrical wiring.

Hairdryer trips a circuit. Good diagnostic procedure dictates that
you immediately collected important numbers such as the amperes for
that hairdryer, amperes for the circuit breaker, and list everything
else attached to that circuit breaker. As also done in computer
repair, one first collects facts (and especially numbers) long before
even trying to fix anything. That procedure also applies to your
household wiring problem.

I will not explain what is and dangers created by an open neutral.
It has been described routinely elsewhere. But I will add that one
house literally exploded when an open neutral and no earth ground
caused the gas meter to explode. Got your attention?

Of course, since doing electrical and electronics work, then you
have a multimeter. How much (the numbers) does that AC voltage vary?
And which circuits see increases or decreases?

Furnace should be on its own breaker. But that shared circuit does
not cause your symptoms.

Some techniques to use that multimeter. Connect a long three wire
extension cord from a receptacle on the breaker box. Measure at
receptacles on the suspect circuit. Measure voltages between each
breaker box receptacle wire and suspect circuit wires as major
appliances (or furnace) are powered on and off. Voltages should not
vary by more than 2 volts. Variation even near zero on the safety
grounds. Same can be accomplished by measuring voltages between
receptacle safety ground to hot (black) and neutral (white) wires.
Again, voltages should never vary by more than 2 volts as major loads
are connected and then unpowered.

Or you can spend maybe $70 per hour to have an electrician do it.
But again, long before fixing or changing anything, first identify a
problem with numbers.

In article , wrote:
Yes, the house is 2500 sq ft and is on I think 100 or 150amp breaker
box. I was told in the past that for one the breaker box is too small
and second that the wires are not correctly segmented - there's been
alot of add-ons throughout the years of the previous owner and myself
as well. We also have an issue where one of the upstairs bathrooms
blows a fuse everytime the hairdryer is used. Odd thing is I go
downstairs and the fuse doesnt look completely tripped, but a switch
off/on does the trick. We have since stayed away from using the
hairdryer in that room - i know not the solution though.

Breakers go bad too. The cheapest thing to do is buy a breaker for $6 or so at
Home Depot. I had one
that was acting weird lately and I changed it. All is fine now.

Tony

I bought 3 circuit breakers for about $100. Arc fault types. I have not installed these
yet, but they are going on the remaining bedroom and older metal sheithed wiring
in the house. I don't know if they will be problematic for me. All new buildings should have
them in the bedrooms. This does not have to do with the flickering of lights
problem, but may be associated with possible dangers.

greg

On Dec 23, 9:40*am, (GregS) wrote:
I bought 3 circuit breakers for about $100. Arc fault types. I have not installed these
yet, but they are going on the remaining bedroom and older metal sheithed wiring
in the house. I don't know if they will be problematic for me. All new buildings should
have them in the bedrooms.

If using a live Christmas tree, first (even temporarily) install
them on the circuit that lights a Christmas tree. An arc fault
breaker would quash arcs that otherwise enflame the tree and take out
the house in only five minutes. Yes, a friend learned this the hard
way. She connected the tree. House and all pets gone in only five
minutes.