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?