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Electricity- flickering, brief outage
Hello,
Since about December 2008, there has been intermittent flickering of lights and very brief electrical outages in this house. It occurs on several circuits at the same time. I had an electrician tighten up connections in the circuit breaker box, but he did not remove any and reinstall any breakers. A corroded and detached ground wire from the breaker box to a water pipe was discovered and has since been repaired. There was no sign of "arcing" in the box. All connections were tight. Could the problem be in a location in the box that is inaccessible unless the breakers are removed? I will have Con Edison (utility company) send a technician to inspect their electric meter. There have been problems reported by the utility company that I was told involves the melting salt used on the roads mixing with snow and leaking into the manholes, causing corrosion of electrical lines. Such disruption of the lines should affect many houses on the grid, not just my own, should it not? My biggest concern is that the problem will occur during heavy usage of electricity during this summer when the A/C units are running. |
Electricity- flickering, brief outage
Toasty wrote:
Hello, Since about December 2008, there has been intermittent flickering of lights and very brief electrical outages in this house. It occurs on several circuits at the same time. I had an electrician tighten up connections in the circuit breaker box, but he did not remove any and reinstall any breakers. A corroded and detached ground wire from the breaker box to a water pipe was discovered and has since been repaired. There was no sign of "arcing" in the box. All connections were tight. Could the problem be in a location in the box that is inaccessible unless the breakers are removed? Yes. Circuit breakers "plug" into a buss bar and poor contact will lead to excessive current flow in a small area. This excessive current flow, in turn, leads to melting and arcing. Some box manufacturers are more prone to this condition than others. Who made yours? Hope it wasn't Federal. |
Electricity- flickering, brief outage
On Mar 8, 4:16*pm, Toasty wrote:
Hello, Since about December 2008, there has been intermittent flickering of lights and very brief electrical outages in this house. *It occurs on several circuits at the same time. *I had an electrician tighten up connections in the circuit breaker box, but he did not remove any and reinstall any breakers. *A corroded and detached ground wire from the breaker box to a water pipe was discovered and has since been repaired. *There was no sign of "arcing" in the box. *All connections were tight. Could the problem be in a location in the box that is inaccessible unless the breakers are removed? I will have Con Edison (utility company) send a technician to inspect their electric meter. There have been problems reported by the utility company that I was told involves the melting salt used on the roads mixing with snow and leaking into the manholes, causing corrosion of electrical lines. Such disruption of the lines should affect many houses on the grid, not just my own, should it not? My biggest concern is that the problem will occur during heavy usage of electricity during this summer when the A/C units are running. I had a few mystery brownouts, the power compny set over a couple of techs, and they found a wire between the street and my meter that had worn through due to a tree branch. They spliced in a new wire and all is good now. I take it from your post that the wires in your neighborhood run underground, still they must have a method of load testing them. It really soulds like a problem on their side of the meter. Get them out before you fry appliances. |
Electricity- flickering, brief outage
"Toasty" wrote in message ... Hello, Since about December 2008, there has been intermittent flickering of lights and very brief electrical outages in this house. It occurs on several circuits at the same time. I had an electrician tighten up connections in the circuit breaker box, but he did not remove any and reinstall any breakers. A corroded and detached ground wire from the breaker box to a water pipe was discovered and has since been repaired. There was no sign of "arcing" in the box. All connections were tight. Could the problem be in a location in the box that is inaccessible unless the breakers are removed? I will have Con Edison (utility company) send a technician to inspect their electric meter. There have been problems reported by the utility company that I was told involves the melting salt used on the roads mixing with snow and leaking into the manholes, causing corrosion of electrical lines. Such disruption of the lines should affect many houses on the grid, not just my own, should it not? My biggest concern is that the problem will occur during heavy usage of electricity during this summer when the A/C units are running. If it involves several circuits at the same time, you are looking for the common denominator, not likely breakers or panel buss. If the connections were checked and tightened by the electrician, it probably is a loose connection outside the house, possibly in the meter box. Even if your service comes in underground, there are multiple connections at the transformer vault, and a good possibility is a bad connection there, and it would be more likely to show up with a greater load on it, like an AC. It does take an act of God to get ConEd to check this stuff out, and they won't come until you have your electrician come first, so be sure to get the electricians license number to give ConEd for verification |
Electricity- flickering, brief outage
A friend of mine had lights flicker, and occasionally go
out. The circuit box was a rather small box. The power came in through a double 100 amp breaker, and then out through the smaller breakers. The problem turned out to be corrosion where the 100 amp breaker met the buss bar. The answer turned out to be to turn off the double 100 breaker, and snap it out of the box. Sand paper the buss bar where the breaker connects on. Apply grey anti oxidant gook, and put the breaker back on. Turn on the breaker. Of course, this isn't a job for a home owner, unless you're really sure you know what you are doing. -- Christopher A. Young Learn more about Jesus www.lds.org .. "Toasty" wrote in message ... Hello, Since about December 2008, there has been intermittent flickering of lights and very brief electrical outages in this house. It occurs on several circuits at the same time. I had an electrician tighten up connections in the circuit breaker box, but he did not remove any and reinstall any breakers. A corroded and detached ground wire from the breaker box to a water pipe was discovered and has since been repaired. There was no sign of "arcing" in the box. All connections were tight. Could the problem be in a location in the box that is inaccessible unless the breakers are removed? I will have Con Edison (utility company) send a technician to inspect their electric meter. There have been problems reported by the utility company that I was told involves the melting salt used on the roads mixing with snow and leaking into the manholes, causing corrosion of electrical lines. Such disruption of the lines should affect many houses on the grid, not just my own, should it not? My biggest concern is that the problem will occur during heavy usage of electricity during this summer when the A/C units are running. |
Electricity- flickering, brief outage
Toasty wrote:
Hello, Since about December 2008, there has been intermittent flickering of lights and very brief electrical outages in this house. It occurs on several circuits at the same time. I had an electrician tighten up connections in the circuit breaker box, but he did not remove any and reinstall any breakers. A corroded and detached ground wire from the breaker box to a water pipe was discovered and has since been repaired. There was no sign of "arcing" in the box. All connections were tight. Could the problem be in a location in the box that is inaccessible unless the breakers are removed? I will have Con Edison (utility company) send a technician to inspect their electric meter. There have been problems reported by the utility company that I was told involves the melting salt used on the roads mixing with snow and leaking into the manholes, causing corrosion of electrical lines. Such disruption of the lines should affect many houses on the grid, not just my own, should it not? My biggest concern is that the problem will occur during heavy usage of electricity during this summer when the A/C units are running. Around here, your electrician can pull the meter and check the connections there as long as he/she/it calls the power company to let them know the seal was cut. With the meter out, everything can be safely checked out. Making sure they notify the power company keeps you out of trouble. TDD |
Electricity- flickering, brief outage
"The Daring Dufas" wrote in message ... Toasty wrote: Hello, Since about December 2008, there has been intermittent flickering of lights and very brief electrical outages in this house. It occurs on several circuits at the same time. I had an electrician tighten up connections in the circuit breaker box, but he did not remove any and reinstall any breakers. A corroded and detached ground wire from the breaker box to a water pipe was discovered and has since been repaired. There was no sign of "arcing" in the box. All connections were tight. Could the problem be in a location in the box that is inaccessible unless the breakers are removed? I will have Con Edison (utility company) send a technician to inspect their electric meter. There have been problems reported by the utility company that I was told involves the melting salt used on the roads mixing with snow and leaking into the manholes, causing corrosion of electrical lines. Such disruption of the lines should affect many houses on the grid, not just my own, should it not? My biggest concern is that the problem will occur during heavy usage of electricity during this summer when the A/C units are running. Around here, your electrician can pull the meter and check the connections there as long as he/she/it calls the power company to let them know the seal was cut. With the meter out, everything can be safely checked out. Making sure they notify the power company keeps you out of trouble. TDD It used to be that way in ConEd territory around 30 years ago, but I think the honor system didn't work out to well. These days a licensed electrician has to file papers to have them come out and remove the case hardened hydraulic lock from the customer's meter box |
Electricity- flickering, brief outage
RBM wrote:
It used to be that way in ConEd territory around 30 years ago, but I think the honor system didn't work out to well. These days a licensed electrician has to file papers to have them come out and remove the case hardened hydraulic lock from the customer's meter box Similar in Houston without the paperwork or licensed electrician. One calls the power company and they come out within six hours, record the reading, and remove the seal. Homeowner or his agent removes the meter at his convenience. When the work is done, call the power company to reseal the meter (homeowner presumably has replaced it). They will respond within twelve hours to reinstall the seal. |
Electricity- flickering, brief outage
"RBM" wrote in message ... "The Daring Dufas" wrote in message ... Toasty wrote: Hello, Since about December 2008, there has been intermittent flickering of lights and very brief electrical outages in this house. It occurs on several circuits at the same time. I had an electrician tighten up connections in the circuit breaker box, but he did not remove any and reinstall any breakers. A corroded and detached ground wire from the breaker box to a water pipe was discovered and has since been repaired. There was no sign of "arcing" in the box. All connections were tight. Could the problem be in a location in the box that is inaccessible unless the breakers are removed? I will have Con Edison (utility company) send a technician to inspect their electric meter. There have been problems reported by the utility company that I was told involves the melting salt used on the roads mixing with snow and leaking into the manholes, causing corrosion of electrical lines. Such disruption of the lines should affect many houses on the grid, not just my own, should it not? My biggest concern is that the problem will occur during heavy usage of electricity during this summer when the A/C units are running. Around here, your electrician can pull the meter and check the connections there as long as he/she/it calls the power company to let them know the seal was cut. With the meter out, everything can be safely checked out. Making sure they notify the power company keeps you out of trouble. TDD It used to be that way in ConEd territory around 30 years ago, but I think the honor system didn't work out to well. These days a licensed electrician has to file papers to have them come out and remove the case hardened hydraulic lock from the customer's meter box *Quite a contrast to JCP&L who doesn't want to come out and do anything trivial like that. Fortunately they only have the little wire seals that are easily cut. If you want them to do something like tie in a service or pull a meter there is a service charge and a permit would need to be taken out. I think it is $218.00 minimum. |
Electricity- flickering, brief outage
"John Grabowski" wrote in message ... "RBM" wrote in message ... "The Daring Dufas" wrote in message ... Toasty wrote: Hello, Since about December 2008, there has been intermittent flickering of lights and very brief electrical outages in this house. It occurs on several circuits at the same time. I had an electrician tighten up connections in the circuit breaker box, but he did not remove any and reinstall any breakers. A corroded and detached ground wire from the breaker box to a water pipe was discovered and has since been repaired. There was no sign of "arcing" in the box. All connections were tight. Could the problem be in a location in the box that is inaccessible unless the breakers are removed? I will have Con Edison (utility company) send a technician to inspect their electric meter. There have been problems reported by the utility company that I was told involves the melting salt used on the roads mixing with snow and leaking into the manholes, causing corrosion of electrical lines. Such disruption of the lines should affect many houses on the grid, not just my own, should it not? My biggest concern is that the problem will occur during heavy usage of electricity during this summer when the A/C units are running. Around here, your electrician can pull the meter and check the connections there as long as he/she/it calls the power company to let them know the seal was cut. With the meter out, everything can be safely checked out. Making sure they notify the power company keeps you out of trouble. TDD It used to be that way in ConEd territory around 30 years ago, but I think the honor system didn't work out to well. These days a licensed electrician has to file papers to have them come out and remove the case hardened hydraulic lock from the customer's meter box *Quite a contrast to JCP&L who doesn't want to come out and do anything trivial like that. Fortunately they only have the little wire seals that are easily cut. If you want them to do something like tie in a service or pull a meter there is a service charge and a permit would need to be taken out. I think it is $218.00 minimum. ConEd is mostly concerned with theft of service, and from what I've seen over the years, they have pretty good reason. I kind of wonder, now that ConEd doesn't generate electricity anymore, if they'll still maintain such a ridged system |
Electricity- flickering, brief outage
"RBM" wrote in message ... "John Grabowski" wrote in message ... "RBM" wrote in message ... "The Daring Dufas" wrote in message ... Toasty wrote: Hello, Since about December 2008, there has been intermittent flickering of lights and very brief electrical outages in this house. It occurs on several circuits at the same time. I had an electrician tighten up connections in the circuit breaker box, but he did not remove any and reinstall any breakers. A corroded and detached ground wire from the breaker box to a water pipe was discovered and has since been repaired. There was no sign of "arcing" in the box. All connections were tight. Could the problem be in a location in the box that is inaccessible unless the breakers are removed? I will have Con Edison (utility company) send a technician to inspect their electric meter. There have been problems reported by the utility company that I was told involves the melting salt used on the roads mixing with snow and leaking into the manholes, causing corrosion of electrical lines. Such disruption of the lines should affect many houses on the grid, not just my own, should it not? My biggest concern is that the problem will occur during heavy usage of electricity during this summer when the A/C units are running. Around here, your electrician can pull the meter and check the connections there as long as he/she/it calls the power company to let them know the seal was cut. With the meter out, everything can be safely checked out. Making sure they notify the power company keeps you out of trouble. TDD It used to be that way in ConEd territory around 30 years ago, but I think the honor system didn't work out to well. These days a licensed electrician has to file papers to have them come out and remove the case hardened hydraulic lock from the customer's meter box *Quite a contrast to JCP&L who doesn't want to come out and do anything trivial like that. Fortunately they only have the little wire seals that are easily cut. If you want them to do something like tie in a service or pull a meter there is a service charge and a permit would need to be taken out. I think it is $218.00 minimum. ConEd is mostly concerned with theft of service, and from what I've seen over the years, they have pretty good reason. I kind of wonder, now that ConEd doesn't generate electricity anymore, if they'll still maintain such a ridged system *I knew someone who worked for ConEd and it was his job to find accounts that were stealing electricity. He told me some stories of the elaborate methods people would use to save a few bucks. One New York City customer had erected an entire wall with a fake service and meter in front of the real service. |
Electricity- flickering, brief outage
John Grabowski wrote:
*I knew someone who worked for ConEd and it was his job to find accounts that were stealing electricity. He told me some stories of the elaborate methods people would use to save a few bucks. One New York City customer had erected an entire wall with a fake service and meter in front of the real service. I once worked for a company that sent out crews to inventory (by serial number) all the meters, transformers, and connections in a rural electric cooperative. They found the usual stuff - meters plugged in upside-down so they would run backwards, and the like. The most amazing was one "customer" who had bought his own transformer somewhere and thrown connecting lines over the primaries! |
Electricity- flickering, brief outage
On Mar 8, 6:16*pm, Toasty wrote:
My biggest concern is that the problem will occur during heavy usage of electricity during this summer when the A/C units are running. Man up and swelter for a few hours. Jeez. If that's your most pressing concern, being a little uncomfortable for a little while, you lead a pretty darned blessed life. |
Electricity- flickering, brief outage
"John Grabowski" wrote in message ... "RBM" wrote in message ... "John Grabowski" wrote in message ... "RBM" wrote in message ... "The Daring Dufas" wrote in message ... Toasty wrote: Hello, Since about December 2008, there has been intermittent flickering of lights and very brief electrical outages in this house. It occurs on several circuits at the same time. I had an electrician tighten up connections in the circuit breaker box, but he did not remove any and reinstall any breakers. A corroded and detached ground wire from the breaker box to a water pipe was discovered and has since been repaired. There was no sign of "arcing" in the box. All connections were tight. Could the problem be in a location in the box that is inaccessible unless the breakers are removed? I will have Con Edison (utility company) send a technician to inspect their electric meter. There have been problems reported by the utility company that I was told involves the melting salt used on the roads mixing with snow and leaking into the manholes, causing corrosion of electrical lines. Such disruption of the lines should affect many houses on the grid, not just my own, should it not? My biggest concern is that the problem will occur during heavy usage of electricity during this summer when the A/C units are running. Around here, your electrician can pull the meter and check the connections there as long as he/she/it calls the power company to let them know the seal was cut. With the meter out, everything can be safely checked out. Making sure they notify the power company keeps you out of trouble. TDD It used to be that way in ConEd territory around 30 years ago, but I think the honor system didn't work out to well. These days a licensed electrician has to file papers to have them come out and remove the case hardened hydraulic lock from the customer's meter box *Quite a contrast to JCP&L who doesn't want to come out and do anything trivial like that. Fortunately they only have the little wire seals that are easily cut. If you want them to do something like tie in a service or pull a meter there is a service charge and a permit would need to be taken out. I think it is $218.00 minimum. ConEd is mostly concerned with theft of service, and from what I've seen over the years, they have pretty good reason. I kind of wonder, now that ConEd doesn't generate electricity anymore, if they'll still maintain such a ridged system *I knew someone who worked for ConEd and it was his job to find accounts that were stealing electricity. He told me some stories of the elaborate methods people would use to save a few bucks. One New York City customer had erected an entire wall with a fake service and meter in front of the real service. I can well imagine him having his hands full. Homeowners would drill holes into the back of the meter boxes and run a single circuit, unmetered to something that was used a lot. On many commercial services, the power would come into a main disconnect, then gutter trough, then nippled up to individual meters and main disconnects. It was just to easy to just tap the trough and run it to an unmetered panel. With all the pipes and cables and crap it was tough to pick up on it. |
Electricity- flickering, brief outage
On Mar 9, 1:22*pm, wrote:
On Mar 8, 6:16*pm, Toasty wrote: My biggest concern is that the problem will occur during heavy usage of electricity during this summer when the A/C units are running. Man up and swelter for a few hours. Jeez. If that's your most pressing concern, being a little uncomfortable for a little while, you lead a pretty darned blessed life. Thank you for adding your utterly useless comment, sir. |
Electricity- flickering, brief outage
RBM wrote:
"John Grabowski" wrote in message ... "RBM" wrote in message ... "John Grabowski" wrote in message ... "RBM" wrote in message ... "The Daring Dufas" wrote in message ... Toasty wrote: Hello, Since about December 2008, there has been intermittent flickering of lights and very brief electrical outages in this house. It occurs on several circuits at the same time. I had an electrician tighten up connections in the circuit breaker box, but he did not remove any and reinstall any breakers. A corroded and detached ground wire from the breaker box to a water pipe was discovered and has since been repaired. There was no sign of "arcing" in the box. All connections were tight. Could the problem be in a location in the box that is inaccessible unless the breakers are removed? I will have Con Edison (utility company) send a technician to inspect their electric meter. There have been problems reported by the utility company that I was told involves the melting salt used on the roads mixing with snow and leaking into the manholes, causing corrosion of electrical lines. Such disruption of the lines should affect many houses on the grid, not just my own, should it not? My biggest concern is that the problem will occur during heavy usage of electricity during this summer when the A/C units are running. Around here, your electrician can pull the meter and check the connections there as long as he/she/it calls the power company to let them know the seal was cut. With the meter out, everything can be safely checked out. Making sure they notify the power company keeps you out of trouble. TDD It used to be that way in ConEd territory around 30 years ago, but I think the honor system didn't work out to well. These days a licensed electrician has to file papers to have them come out and remove the case hardened hydraulic lock from the customer's meter box *Quite a contrast to JCP&L who doesn't want to come out and do anything trivial like that. Fortunately they only have the little wire seals that are easily cut. If you want them to do something like tie in a service or pull a meter there is a service charge and a permit would need to be taken out. I think it is $218.00 minimum. ConEd is mostly concerned with theft of service, and from what I've seen over the years, they have pretty good reason. I kind of wonder, now that ConEd doesn't generate electricity anymore, if they'll still maintain such a ridged system *I knew someone who worked for ConEd and it was his job to find accounts that were stealing electricity. He told me some stories of the elaborate methods people would use to save a few bucks. One New York City customer had erected an entire wall with a fake service and meter in front of the real service. I can well imagine him having his hands full. Homeowners would drill holes into the back of the meter boxes and run a single circuit, unmetered to something that was used a lot. On many commercial services, the power would come into a main disconnect, then gutter trough, then nippled up to individual meters and main disconnects. It was just to easy to just tap the trough and run it to an unmetered panel. With all the pipes and cables and crap it was tough to pick up on it. My favorite story was about a farmer who was forced to give right of way to a power company for a high voltage line through his property. The crafty old farmer buried coils of wire under the power lines and was picking up enough power through inductive coupling to run quite a bit of stuff. Could be an urban(rural)legend. TDD |
Electricity- flickering, brief outage
The Daring Dufas wrote:
RBM wrote: "John Grabowski" wrote in message ... "RBM" wrote in message ... "John Grabowski" wrote in message ... "RBM" wrote in message ... "The Daring Dufas" wrote in message ... Toasty wrote: Hello, Since about December 2008, there has been intermittent flickering of lights and very brief electrical outages in this house. It occurs on several circuits at the same time. I had an electrician tighten up connections in the circuit breaker box, but he did not remove any and reinstall any breakers. A corroded and detached ground wire from the breaker box to a water pipe was discovered and has since been repaired. There was no sign of "arcing" in the box. All connections were tight. Could the problem be in a location in the box that is inaccessible unless the breakers are removed? I will have Con Edison (utility company) send a technician to inspect their electric meter. There have been problems reported by the utility company that I was told involves the melting salt used on the roads mixing with snow and leaking into the manholes, causing corrosion of electrical lines. Such disruption of the lines should affect many houses on the grid, not just my own, should it not? My biggest concern is that the problem will occur during heavy usage of electricity during this summer when the A/C units are running. Around here, your electrician can pull the meter and check the connections there as long as he/she/it calls the power company to let them know the seal was cut. With the meter out, everything can be safely checked out. Making sure they notify the power company keeps you out of trouble. TDD It used to be that way in ConEd territory around 30 years ago, but I think the honor system didn't work out to well. These days a licensed electrician has to file papers to have them come out and remove the case hardened hydraulic lock from the customer's meter box *Quite a contrast to JCP&L who doesn't want to come out and do anything trivial like that. Fortunately they only have the little wire seals that are easily cut. If you want them to do something like tie in a service or pull a meter there is a service charge and a permit would need to be taken out. I think it is $218.00 minimum. ConEd is mostly concerned with theft of service, and from what I've seen over the years, they have pretty good reason. I kind of wonder, now that ConEd doesn't generate electricity anymore, if they'll still maintain such a ridged system *I knew someone who worked for ConEd and it was his job to find accounts that were stealing electricity. He told me some stories of the elaborate methods people would use to save a few bucks. One New York City customer had erected an entire wall with a fake service and meter in front of the real service. I can well imagine him having his hands full. Homeowners would drill holes into the back of the meter boxes and run a single circuit, unmetered to something that was used a lot. On many commercial services, the power would come into a main disconnect, then gutter trough, then nippled up to individual meters and main disconnects. It was just to easy to just tap the trough and run it to an unmetered panel. With all the pipes and cables and crap it was tough to pick up on it. My favorite story was about a farmer who was forced to give right of way to a power company for a high voltage line through his property. The crafty old farmer buried coils of wire under the power lines and was picking up enough power through inductive coupling to run quite a bit of stuff. Could be an urban(rural)legend. TDD Probably. I think Mythbusters tried this and it didn't work, or at least not well enough to be economically viable. nate -- replace "roosters" with "cox" to reply. http://members.cox.net/njnagel |
Electricity- flickering, brief outage
Nate Nagel wrote:
The Daring Dufas wrote: RBM wrote: "John Grabowski" wrote in message ... "RBM" wrote in message ... "John Grabowski" wrote in message ... "RBM" wrote in message ... "The Daring Dufas" wrote in message ... Toasty wrote: Hello, Since about December 2008, there has been intermittent flickering of lights and very brief electrical outages in this house. It occurs on several circuits at the same time. I had an electrician tighten up connections in the circuit breaker box, but he did not remove any and reinstall any breakers. A corroded and detached ground wire from the breaker box to a water pipe was discovered and has since been repaired. There was no sign of "arcing" in the box. All connections were tight. Could the problem be in a location in the box that is inaccessible unless the breakers are removed? I will have Con Edison (utility company) send a technician to inspect their electric meter. There have been problems reported by the utility company that I was told involves the melting salt used on the roads mixing with snow and leaking into the manholes, causing corrosion of electrical lines. Such disruption of the lines should affect many houses on the grid, not just my own, should it not? My biggest concern is that the problem will occur during heavy usage of electricity during this summer when the A/C units are running. Around here, your electrician can pull the meter and check the connections there as long as he/she/it calls the power company to let them know the seal was cut. With the meter out, everything can be safely checked out. Making sure they notify the power company keeps you out of trouble. TDD It used to be that way in ConEd territory around 30 years ago, but I think the honor system didn't work out to well. These days a licensed electrician has to file papers to have them come out and remove the case hardened hydraulic lock from the customer's meter box *Quite a contrast to JCP&L who doesn't want to come out and do anything trivial like that. Fortunately they only have the little wire seals that are easily cut. If you want them to do something like tie in a service or pull a meter there is a service charge and a permit would need to be taken out. I think it is $218.00 minimum. ConEd is mostly concerned with theft of service, and from what I've seen over the years, they have pretty good reason. I kind of wonder, now that ConEd doesn't generate electricity anymore, if they'll still maintain such a ridged system *I knew someone who worked for ConEd and it was his job to find accounts that were stealing electricity. He told me some stories of the elaborate methods people would use to save a few bucks. One New York City customer had erected an entire wall with a fake service and meter in front of the real service. I can well imagine him having his hands full. Homeowners would drill holes into the back of the meter boxes and run a single circuit, unmetered to something that was used a lot. On many commercial services, the power would come into a main disconnect, then gutter trough, then nippled up to individual meters and main disconnects. It was just to easy to just tap the trough and run it to an unmetered panel. With all the pipes and cables and crap it was tough to pick up on it. My favorite story was about a farmer who was forced to give right of way to a power company for a high voltage line through his property. The crafty old farmer buried coils of wire under the power lines and was picking up enough power through inductive coupling to run quite a bit of stuff. Could be an urban(rural)legend. TDD Probably. I think Mythbusters tried this and it didn't work, or at least not well enough to be economically viable. nate I love Mythbusters but the guys don't always use the correct approach. My favorite was about the alleged giant slingshots that illegal immigrants were using to fling themselves over the border fence. It was a real hoot. TDD |
Electricity- flickering, brief outage
Toasty wrote:
Hello, Since about December 2008, there has been intermittent flickering of lights and very brief electrical outages in this house. It occurs on several circuits at the same time. I had an electrician tighten up connections in the circuit breaker box, but he did not remove any and reinstall any breakers. A corroded and detached ground wire from the breaker box to a water pipe was discovered and has since been repaired. There was no sign of "arcing" in the box. All connections were tight. Could the problem be in a location in the box that is inaccessible unless the breakers are removed? I will have Con Edison (utility company) send a technician to inspect their electric meter. There have been problems reported by the utility company that I was told involves the melting salt used on the roads mixing with snow and leaking into the manholes, causing corrosion of electrical lines. Such disruption of the lines should affect many houses on the grid, not just my own, should it not? My biggest concern is that the problem will occur during heavy usage of electricity during this summer when the A/C units are running. We had a similar problem here a couple of years ago. Turned out to be a problem with the transformer on the pole. The power company pulled the transformer, on a hot day in July and we did swelter from like noon till 3 pm but we survived, and replaced it and all has been well since. Suck it up. |
Electricity- flickering, brief outage
On Mar 9, 8:45*pm, netnews wrote:
Toasty wrote: Hello, Since about December 2008, there has been intermittent flickering of lights and very brief electrical outages in this house. *It occurs on several circuits at the same time. *I had an electrician tighten up connections in the circuit breaker box, but he did not remove any and reinstall any breakers. *A corroded and detached ground wire from the breaker box to a water pipe was discovered and has since been repaired. *There was no sign of "arcing" in the box. *All connections were tight. Could the problem be in a location in the box that is inaccessible unless the breakers are removed? I will have Con Edison (utility company) send a technician to inspect their electric meter. There have been problems reported by the utility company that I was told involves the melting salt used on the roads mixing with snow and leaking into the manholes, causing corrosion of electrical lines. Such disruption of the lines should affect many houses on the grid, not just my own, should it not? My biggest concern is that the problem will occur during heavy usage of electricity during this summer when the A/C units are running. We had a similar problem here a couple of years ago. Turned out to be a problem with the transformer on the pole. The power company pulled the transformer, on a hot day in July and we did swelter from like noon till 3 pm but we survived, and replaced it and all has been well since. Suck it up. Were any other homes affected by this problem or was it isolated to yours? |
Electricity- flickering, brief outage
On Mar 9, 8:45*pm, netnews wrote:
Toasty wrote: Hello, Since about December 2008, there has been intermittent flickering of lights and very brief electrical outages in this house. *It occurs on several circuits at the same time. *I had an electrician tighten up connections in the circuit breaker box, but he did not remove any and reinstall any breakers. *A corroded and detached ground wire from the breaker box to a water pipe was discovered and has since been repaired. *There was no sign of "arcing" in the box. *All connections were tight. Could the problem be in a location in the box that is inaccessible unless the breakers are removed? I will have Con Edison (utility company) send a technician to inspect their electric meter. There have been problems reported by the utility company that I was told involves the melting salt used on the roads mixing with snow and leaking into the manholes, causing corrosion of electrical lines. Such disruption of the lines should affect many houses on the grid, not just my own, should it not? My biggest concern is that the problem will occur during heavy usage of electricity during this summer when the A/C units are running. We had a similar problem here a couple of years ago. Turned out to be a problem with the transformer on the pole. The power company pulled the transformer, on a hot day in July and we did swelter from like noon till 3 pm but we survived, and replaced it and all has been well since. Suck it up. I don't have a problem dealing with some heat during the summer if necessary, but my property has tenants in it now and they aren't the type to "suck it up." My concern regarding the A/C units is if these repeated outages will adversely affect them. |
Electricity- flickering, brief outage
On Sun, 8 Mar 2009 15:16:35 -0700 (PDT), Toasty
wrote: . I had an electrician tighten up connections in the circuit breaker box, but he did not remove any and reinstall any breakers. Could the problem be in a location in the box that is inaccessible unless the breakers are removed? I will have Con Edison (utility company) send a technician to inspect their electric meter. Why just the meter? Why just connections in the breaker box. Maybe you are omitting other things, but rather than direct your electrician and Con Edison so much, I would tell them your problem and ask them to solve it. Of course you shouldn't give the electrician a blank check, but 30 or 60 minutes to diagnose and tell you what he thinks is wrong and a price for the rest of the job would have been fair. How do you know for sure it is only your house. I have flickering lights a couple times a month. I'm sure it's the electric company's failing, and not in my house. |
Electricity- flickering, brief outage
"Toastyhead" wrote in message ... On Mar 9, 8:45 pm, netnews wrote: Toasty wrote: Hello, Since about December 2008, there has been intermittent flickering of lights and very brief electrical outages in this house. It occurs on several circuits at the same time. I had an electrician tighten up connections in the circuit breaker box, but he did not remove any and reinstall any breakers. A corroded and detached ground wire from the breaker box to a water pipe was discovered and has since been repaired. There was no sign of "arcing" in the box. All connections were tight. Could the problem be in a location in the box that is inaccessible unless the breakers are removed? I will have Con Edison (utility company) send a technician to inspect their electric meter. There have been problems reported by the utility company that I was told involves the melting salt used on the roads mixing with snow and leaking into the manholes, causing corrosion of electrical lines. Such disruption of the lines should affect many houses on the grid, not just my own, should it not? My biggest concern is that the problem will occur during heavy usage of electricity during this summer when the A/C units are running. We had a similar problem here a couple of years ago. Turned out to be a problem with the transformer on the pole. The power company pulled the transformer, on a hot day in July and we did swelter from like noon till 3 pm but we survived, and replaced it and all has been well since. Suck it up. I don't have a problem dealing with some heat during the summer if necessary, but my property has tenants in it now and they aren't the type to "suck it up." My concern regarding the A/C units is if these repeated outages will adversely affect them. That is the important issue. Bad electrical connections invariably get worse, and voltage lowered by bad connections can damage equipment in the building |
Electricity- flickering, brief outage
"mm" wrote in message ... On Sun, 8 Mar 2009 15:16:35 -0700 (PDT), Toasty wrote: . I had an electrician tighten up connections in the circuit breaker box, but he did not remove any and reinstall any breakers. Could the problem be in a location in the box that is inaccessible unless the breakers are removed? I will have Con Edison (utility company) send a technician to inspect their electric meter. Why just the meter? Why just connections in the breaker box. Maybe you are omitting other things, but rather than direct your electrician and Con Edison so much, I would tell them your problem and ask them to solve it. Of course you shouldn't give the electrician a blank check, but 30 or 60 minutes to diagnose and tell you what he thinks is wrong and a price for the rest of the job would have been fair. How do you know for sure it is only your house. I have flickering lights a couple times a month. I'm sure it's the electric company's failing, and not in my house. The electrician can only check wiring and equipment he has access to. ConEdison will only check equipment that they have locks on, and will only do that after the customer has hired an electrician to check everything else. |
Electricity- flickering, brief outage
"Toasty" wrote in message ... Hello, Since about December 2008, there has been intermittent flickering of lights and very brief electrical outages in this house. It occurs on several circuits at the same time. I had an electrician tighten up connections in the circuit breaker box, but he did not remove any and reinstall any breakers. A corroded and detached ground wire from the breaker box to a water pipe was discovered and has since been repaired. There was no sign of "arcing" in the box. All connections were tight. Could the problem be in a location in the box that is inaccessible unless the breakers are removed? I will have Con Edison (utility company) send a technician to inspect their electric meter. There have been problems reported by the utility company that I was told involves the melting salt used on the roads mixing with snow and leaking into the manholes, causing corrosion of electrical lines. Such disruption of the lines should affect many houses on the grid, not just my own, should it not? My biggest concern is that the problem will occur during heavy usage of electricity during this summer when the A/C units are running. I had a very similar problem for a couple of years. Had the electric company out a few times and they said it was a problem inside. My house is 160 years old and I figured people probably did some funky stuff with the electric over those years so I rewired the house. Long story short that didn't work and I had First Energy out again. I did go to the neighbors on the same transformer and ask if their lights were flicking off none of them were (actually I was losing 1 leg of the 240). Turned out the loop was bad at the transformer. They remade the connections, put in a request to get it changed and forgot about me for another 6 months. The guy who came out in 20 degree weather at 10 pm to change the overhead was ****ed they didn't change it when it was warm. Anyway alls good now. |
Electricity- flickering, brief outage
On Tue, 10 Mar 2009 07:27:02 -0400, "RBM" wrote:
"mm" wrote in message .. . On Sun, 8 Mar 2009 15:16:35 -0700 (PDT), Toasty wrote: . I had an electrician tighten up connections in the circuit breaker box, but he did not remove any and reinstall any breakers. Could the problem be in a location in the box that is inaccessible unless the breakers are removed? I will have Con Edison (utility company) send a technician to inspect their electric meter. Why just the meter? Why just connections in the breaker box. Maybe you are omitting other things, but rather than direct your electrician and Con Edison so much, I would tell them your problem and ask them to solve it. Of course you shouldn't give the electrician a blank check, but 30 or 60 minutes to diagnose and tell you what he thinks is wrong and a price for the rest of the job would have been fair. How do you know for sure it is only your house. I have flickering lights a couple times a month. I'm sure it's the electric company's failing, and not in my house. The electrician can only check wiring and equipment he has access to. I know that. Read my post. Why *just* the connections in the breaker box? ConEdison will only check equipment that they have locks on, They have locks on more than the electric meter. and will only do that after the customer has hired an electrician to check everything else. Not if there has been complaints from more than one house run off, for example, the same transformer. The point was that, as phrased by the OP, he told both of them what to check. The electric company will probably ignore him and check everything that needs to be checked, but the electician may well do no more than he is told to do. |
Electricity- flickering, brief outage
"mm" wrote in message ... On Tue, 10 Mar 2009 07:27:02 -0400, "RBM" wrote: "mm" wrote in message . .. On Sun, 8 Mar 2009 15:16:35 -0700 (PDT), Toasty wrote: . I had an electrician tighten up connections in the circuit breaker box, but he did not remove any and reinstall any breakers. Could the problem be in a location in the box that is inaccessible unless the breakers are removed? I will have Con Edison (utility company) send a technician to inspect their electric meter. Why just the meter? Why just connections in the breaker box. Maybe you are omitting other things, but rather than direct your electrician and Con Edison so much, I would tell them your problem and ask them to solve it. Of course you shouldn't give the electrician a blank check, but 30 or 60 minutes to diagnose and tell you what he thinks is wrong and a price for the rest of the job would have been fair. How do you know for sure it is only your house. I have flickering lights a couple times a month. I'm sure it's the electric company's failing, and not in my house. The electrician can only check wiring and equipment he has access to. I know that. Read my post. Why *just* the connections in the breaker box? ConEdison will only check equipment that they have locks on, They have locks on more than the electric meter. and will only do that after the customer has hired an electrician to check everything else. Not if there has been complaints from more than one house run off, for example, the same transformer. The point was that, as phrased by the OP, he told both of them what to check. The electric company will probably ignore him and check everything that needs to be checked, but the electician may well do no more than he is told to do. I'd give the electrician a little more credit than that. Coned locks meter boxes and pad mounted transformers. If Coned gets multiple complaints, it becomes apparent that the problem is with their equipment, and they will check their common connections |
Electricity- flickering, brief outage
On Mar 8, 6:16*pm, Toasty wrote:
Hello, Since about December 2008, there has been intermittent flickering of lights and very brief electrical outages in this house. *It occurs on several circuits at the same time. *I had an electrician tighten up connections in the circuit breaker box, but he did not remove any and reinstall any breakers. *A corroded and detached ground wire from the breaker box to a water pipe was discovered and has since been repaired. *There was no sign of "arcing" in the box. *All connections were tight. Could the problem be in a location in the box that is inaccessible unless the breakers are removed? I will have Con Edison (utility company) send a technician to inspect their electric meter. There have been problems reported by the utility company that I was told involves the melting salt used on the roads mixing with snow and leaking into the manholes, causing corrosion of electrical lines. Such disruption of the lines should affect many houses on the grid, not just my own, should it not? My biggest concern is that the problem will occur during heavy usage of electricity during this summer when the A/C units are running. is it just one pole or is it both? if wires are tight buss bar not burned, i would be inspecting the connection of your service to electric companies connections,providing you have an arieal service and look for splices between your house and electric companies transformer. |
Electricity- flickering, brief outage
On Mar 10, 10:42*pm, mm wrote:
On Tue, 10 Mar 2009 07:27:02 -0400, "RBM" wrote: "mm" wrote in message .. . On Sun, 8 Mar 2009 15:16:35 -0700 (PDT), Toasty wrote: . *I had an electrician tighten up connections in the circuit breaker box, but he did not remove any and reinstall any breakers. Could the problem be in a location in the box that is inaccessible unless the breakers are removed? I will have Con Edison (utility company) send a technician to inspect their electric meter. Why just the meter? *Why just connections in the breaker box. Maybe you are omitting other things, but rather than direct your electrician and Con Edison so much, I would tell them your problem and ask them to solve it. * Of course you shouldn't give the electrician a blank check, but 30 or 60 minutes to diagnose and tell you what he thinks is wrong and a price for the rest of the job would have been fair. How do you know for sure it is only your house. *I have flickering lights a couple times a month. *I'm sure it's the electric company's failing, and not in my house. The electrician can only check wiring and equipment he has access to. I know that. *Read my post. *Why *just* the connections in the breaker box? ConEdison will only check equipment that they have locks on, They have locks on more than the electric meter. and will only do that after the customer has hired an electrician to check everything else. Not if there has been complaints from more than one house run off, for example, the same transformer. The point was that, as phrased by the OP, he told both of them what to check. *The electric company will probably ignore him and check everything that needs to be checked, but the electician may well do no more than he is told to do. I asked the electrician to do whatever he feels necessary to find out the source of the problem. I also urged him to check specific areas. He uses his own judgment while keeping an open ear to my suggestions. Anyway, he'll be back to make a more thorough inspection. Con Edison will unlock the box. I told Con Edison to find out what's causing the trouble. I did not direct them to only inspect their electric meter. |
Electricity- flickering, brief outage
On Mar 10, 2:59*am, mm wrote:
On Sun, 8 Mar 2009 15:16:35 -0700 (PDT), Toasty wrote: . *I had an electrician tighten up connections in the circuit breaker box, but he did not remove any and reinstall any breakers. * Could the problem be in a location in the box that is inaccessible unless the breakers are removed? I will have Con Edison (utility company) send a technician to inspect their electric meter. Why just the meter? *Why just connections in the breaker box. Maybe you are omitting other things, but rather than direct your electrician and Con Edison so much, I would tell them your problem and ask them to solve it. * Of course you shouldn't give the electrician a blank check, but 30 or 60 minutes to diagnose and tell you what he thinks is wrong and a price for the rest of the job would have been fair. How do you know for sure it is only your house. *I have flickering lights a couple times a month. *I'm sure it's the electric company's failing, and not in my house. The outages here shut down my computer sometimes. This has been too disruptive too often. I ask my next door neighbor if they noticed any flickering after it occurs here, but they have reported no such thing. I'm not certain that the problem is with only my house, though. You're probably right about my directing the electrician too much. Someone more aggressive might have suggested shutting off the power and inspecting the main breakers, etc. I ASSUMED that if he felt this necessary to diagnose the problem, he'd suggest it. Eh, I'll shut my mouth next time and just ask him to do whatever is necessary to find the source of trouble. Con Edison reported that no other customers in the area filed any complaints regarding flickering, outages. They did mention something about a "smoking manhole" problem in different parts of the city. Sodium Chloride used to melt snow is corroding electrician lines, according to Con Edison and this MIGHT be related to my electrical problem. Anyway, Con Edison says they won't send a technician here to make any inspections until the "smoking manhole" problem is taken care of first. I'm going to stop acting as if I'm a licensed electrician and just LET THE EXPERTS DO THEIR JOB!!!! |
Electricity- flickering, brief outage
On Mar 10, 8:53*pm, "gore" wrote:
"Toasty" wrote in message ... Hello, Since about December 2008, there has been intermittent flickering of lights and very brief electrical outages in this house. *It occurs on several circuits at the same time. *I had an electrician tighten up connections in the circuit breaker box, but he did not remove any and reinstall any breakers. *A corroded and detached ground wire from the breaker box to a water pipe was discovered and has since been repaired. *There was no sign of "arcing" in the box. *All connections were tight. Could the problem be in a location in the box that is inaccessible unless the breakers are removed? I will have Con Edison (utility company) send a technician to inspect their electric meter. There have been problems reported by the utility company that I was told involves the melting salt used on the roads mixing with snow and leaking into the manholes, causing corrosion of electrical lines. Such disruption of the lines should affect many houses on the grid, not just my own, should it not? My biggest concern is that the problem will occur during heavy usage of electricity during this summer when the A/C units are running. I had a very similar problem for a couple of years. Had the electric company out a few times and they said it was a problem inside. My house is 160 years old and I figured people probably did some funky stuff with the electric over those years so I rewired the house. Long story short that didn't work and I had First Energy out again. I did go to the neighbors on the same transformer and ask if their lights were flicking off none of them were (actually I was losing 1 leg of the 240). Turned out the loop was bad at the transformer. They remade the connections, put in a request to get it changed and forgot about me for another 6 months. The guy who came out in 20 degree weather at 10 pm to change the overhead was ****ed they didn't change it when it was warm. Anyway alls good now. Glad to hear your problem has been solved. Is the transformer you mentioned attached to a telephone pole in your neighborhood? Does your electrical line come into your house from above or below ground? I don't know jack about transformers, but I've read it mentioned a few times on the net in regards to flickering/outage trouble. |
Electricity- flickering, brief outage
"Ray" wrote in message ... On Mar 10, 2:59 am, mm wrote: On Sun, 8 Mar 2009 15:16:35 -0700 (PDT), Toasty wrote: . I had an electrician tighten up connections in the circuit breaker box, but he did not remove any and reinstall any breakers. Could the problem be in a location in the box that is inaccessible unless the breakers are removed? I will have Con Edison (utility company) send a technician to inspect their electric meter. Why just the meter? Why just connections in the breaker box. Maybe you are omitting other things, but rather than direct your electrician and Con Edison so much, I would tell them your problem and ask them to solve it. Of course you shouldn't give the electrician a blank check, but 30 or 60 minutes to diagnose and tell you what he thinks is wrong and a price for the rest of the job would have been fair. How do you know for sure it is only your house. I have flickering lights a couple times a month. I'm sure it's the electric company's failing, and not in my house. The outages here shut down my computer sometimes. This has been too disruptive too often. I ask my next door neighbor if they noticed any flickering after it occurs here, but they have reported no such thing. I'm not certain that the problem is with only my house, though. You're probably right about my directing the electrician too much. Someone more aggressive might have suggested shutting off the power and inspecting the main breakers, etc. I ASSUMED that if he felt this necessary to diagnose the problem, he'd suggest it. Eh, I'll shut my mouth next time and just ask him to do whatever is necessary to find the source of trouble. Con Edison reported that no other customers in the area filed any complaints regarding flickering, outages. They did mention something about a "smoking manhole" problem in different parts of the city. Sodium Chloride used to melt snow is corroding electrician lines, according to Con Edison and this MIGHT be related to my electrical problem. Anyway, Con Edison says they won't send a technician here to make any inspections until the "smoking manhole" problem is taken care of first. I'm going to stop acting as if I'm a licensed electrician and just LET THE EXPERTS DO THEIR JOB!!!! FWIW, any professional is going to do that regardless of what you say, know, or think you know. Do you have a single main circuit breaker in this service, and if so, what make, size, and color is it? |
Electricity- flickering, brief outage
"Ray" wrote in message ... On Mar 10, 8:53 pm, "gore" wrote: "Toasty" wrote in message ... Hello, Since about December 2008, there has been intermittent flickering of lights and very brief electrical outages in this house. It occurs on several circuits at the same time. I had an electrician tighten up connections in the circuit breaker box, but he did not remove any and reinstall any breakers. A corroded and detached ground wire from the breaker box to a water pipe was discovered and has since been repaired. There was no sign of "arcing" in the box. All connections were tight. Could the problem be in a location in the box that is inaccessible unless the breakers are removed? I will have Con Edison (utility company) send a technician to inspect their electric meter. There have been problems reported by the utility company that I was told involves the melting salt used on the roads mixing with snow and leaking into the manholes, causing corrosion of electrical lines. Such disruption of the lines should affect many houses on the grid, not just my own, should it not? My biggest concern is that the problem will occur during heavy usage of electricity during this summer when the A/C units are running. I had a very similar problem for a couple of years. Had the electric company out a few times and they said it was a problem inside. My house is 160 years old and I figured people probably did some funky stuff with the electric over those years so I rewired the house. Long story short that didn't work and I had First Energy out again. I did go to the neighbors on the same transformer and ask if their lights were flicking off none of them were (actually I was losing 1 leg of the 240). Turned out the loop was bad at the transformer. They remade the connections, put in a request to get it changed and forgot about me for another 6 months. The guy who came out in 20 degree weather at 10 pm to change the overhead was ****ed they didn't change it when it was warm. Anyway alls good now. Glad to hear your problem has been solved. Is the transformer you mentioned attached to a telephone pole in your neighborhood? Does your electrical line come into your house from above or below ground? I don't know jack about transformers, but I've read it mentioned a few times on the net in regards to flickering/outage trouble. Yes the transformer is connected to a pole in the neighborhood. It's a big can looking thing and it has wires going to my house, the neighbors house and the people across the roads house. I asked both homeowners if they were experiencing any outages and they said no. The reason First Energy was able to finally find the problem was because I called when it was out for about an hour and they were able to send someone right away. Every other time I called them the power would come back on before they could make it out which was usually the next day. Like I said the neighbors weren't having any problems but with mine out when they showed up they were able to isolate it to the wires going from the pole to my house. Since they replaced it I have not had a problem. I did gain a lot of knowledge from this fiasco. When it first went out it scared me being a first time homeowner. I took a residential wiring course, got a job with an experienced electrician, rewired my house, and I am now a licensed electrician in my county. It was a very expensive piece of wire though. |
Electricity- flickering, brief outage
On Wed, 11 Mar 2009 16:34:33 -0400, against all advice, something
compelled "gore" , to say: The reason First Energy was able to finally find the problem was because I called when it was out for about an hour and they were able to send someone right away. Every other time I called them the power would come back on before they could make it out which was usually the next day. It's hard to fix something when it's working. -- Real men don't text. |
Electricity- flickering, brief outage
On Mar 11, 3:22*pm, "RBM" wrote:
"Ray" wrote in message ... On Mar 10, 2:59 am, mm wrote: On Sun, 8 Mar 2009 15:16:35 -0700 (PDT), Toasty wrote: . I had an electrician tighten up connections in the circuit breaker box, but he did not remove any and reinstall any breakers. Could the problem be in a location in the box that is inaccessible unless the breakers are removed? I will have Con Edison (utility company) send a technician to inspect their electric meter. Why just the meter? Why just connections in the breaker box. Maybe you are omitting other things, but rather than direct your electrician and Con Edison so much, I would tell them your problem and ask them to solve it. Of course you shouldn't give the electrician a blank check, but 30 or 60 minutes to diagnose and tell you what he thinks is wrong and a price for the rest of the job would have been fair. How do you know for sure it is only your house. I have flickering lights a couple times a month. I'm sure it's the electric company's failing, and not in my house. The outages here shut down my computer sometimes. *This has been too disruptive too often. I ask my next door neighbor if they noticed any flickering after it occurs here, but they have reported no such thing. *I'm not certain that the problem is with only my house, though. You're probably right about my directing the electrician too much. Someone more aggressive might have suggested shutting off the power and inspecting the main breakers, etc. *I ASSUMED that if he felt this necessary to diagnose the problem, he'd suggest it. *Eh, I'll shut my mouth next time and just ask him to do whatever is necessary to find the source of trouble. Con Edison reported that no other customers in the area filed any complaints regarding flickering, outages. *They did mention something about a "smoking manhole" problem in different parts of the city. Sodium Chloride used to melt snow is corroding electrician lines, according to Con Edison and this MIGHT be related to my electrical problem. *Anyway, Con Edison says they won't send a technician here to make any inspections until the "smoking manhole" problem is taken care of first. I'm going to stop acting as if I'm a licensed electrician and just LET THE EXPERTS DO THEIR JOB!!!! FWIW, any professional is going to do that regardless of what you say, know, or think you know. Do you have a single main circuit breaker in this service, and if so, what make, size, and color is it? I have a black-colored 100-AMP double pole main circuit breaker, manufactured by "Murray Mfg. Corp." It's about L:2.5" W:2" H: 3" |
Electricity- flickering, brief outage
"Ray" wrote in message ... On Mar 11, 3:22 pm, "RBM" wrote: "Ray" wrote in message ... On Mar 10, 2:59 am, mm wrote: On Sun, 8 Mar 2009 15:16:35 -0700 (PDT), Toasty wrote: . I had an electrician tighten up connections in the circuit breaker box, but he did not remove any and reinstall any breakers. Could the problem be in a location in the box that is inaccessible unless the breakers are removed? I will have Con Edison (utility company) send a technician to inspect their electric meter. Why just the meter? Why just connections in the breaker box. Maybe you are omitting other things, but rather than direct your electrician and Con Edison so much, I would tell them your problem and ask them to solve it. Of course you shouldn't give the electrician a blank check, but 30 or 60 minutes to diagnose and tell you what he thinks is wrong and a price for the rest of the job would have been fair. How do you know for sure it is only your house. I have flickering lights a couple times a month. I'm sure it's the electric company's failing, and not in my house. The outages here shut down my computer sometimes. This has been too disruptive too often. I ask my next door neighbor if they noticed any flickering after it occurs here, but they have reported no such thing. I'm not certain that the problem is with only my house, though. You're probably right about my directing the electrician too much. Someone more aggressive might have suggested shutting off the power and inspecting the main breakers, etc. I ASSUMED that if he felt this necessary to diagnose the problem, he'd suggest it. Eh, I'll shut my mouth next time and just ask him to do whatever is necessary to find the source of trouble. Con Edison reported that no other customers in the area filed any complaints regarding flickering, outages. They did mention something about a "smoking manhole" problem in different parts of the city. Sodium Chloride used to melt snow is corroding electrician lines, according to Con Edison and this MIGHT be related to my electrical problem. Anyway, Con Edison says they won't send a technician here to make any inspections until the "smoking manhole" problem is taken care of first. I'm going to stop acting as if I'm a licensed electrician and just LET THE EXPERTS DO THEIR JOB!!!! FWIW, any professional is going to do that regardless of what you say, know, or think you know. Do you have a single main circuit breaker in this service, and if so, what make, size, and color is it? I have a black-colored 100-AMP double pole main circuit breaker, manufactured by "Murray Mfg. Corp." It's about L:2.5" W:2" H: 3" I had an incident with a Murray 150 amp main breaker that went bad. It was a similar situation to yours, and I couldn't find the fault. I had the utility company come out (NYSEG) and check the transformer connections and everything was good. The only thing I hadn't inspected was the main breaker, and only because it was cool to the touch. I've seen plenty of breakers burn up internally, but when this happens, they're always hot. Once I pulled the breaker, it was obvious that a bad connection with the panel buss annealed the buss metal and caused the flickering. Your particular main breaker is much smaller, so I'm sure it would have heated up noticeably, if it was the problem |
Electricity- flickering, brief outage
On Mar 11, 5:57*pm, "RBM" wrote:
"Ray" wrote in message ... On Mar 11, 3:22 pm, "RBM" wrote: "Ray" wrote in message ... On Mar 10, 2:59 am, mm wrote: On Sun, 8 Mar 2009 15:16:35 -0700 (PDT), Toasty wrote: . I had an electrician tighten up connections in the circuit breaker box, but he did not remove any and reinstall any breakers. Could the problem be in a location in the box that is inaccessible unless the breakers are removed? I will have Con Edison (utility company) send a technician to inspect their electric meter. Why just the meter? Why just connections in the breaker box. Maybe you are omitting other things, but rather than direct your electrician and Con Edison so much, I would tell them your problem and ask them to solve it. Of course you shouldn't give the electrician a blank check, but 30 or 60 minutes to diagnose and tell you what he thinks is wrong and a price for the rest of the job would have been fair. How do you know for sure it is only your house. I have flickering lights a couple times a month. I'm sure it's the electric company's failing, and not in my house. The outages here shut down my computer sometimes. This has been too disruptive too often. I ask my next door neighbor if they noticed any flickering after it occurs here, but they have reported no such thing. I'm not certain that the problem is with only my house, though. You're probably right about my directing the electrician too much. Someone more aggressive might have suggested shutting off the power and inspecting the main breakers, etc. I ASSUMED that if he felt this necessary to diagnose the problem, he'd suggest it. Eh, I'll shut my mouth next time and just ask him to do whatever is necessary to find the source of trouble. Con Edison reported that no other customers in the area filed any complaints regarding flickering, outages. They did mention something about a "smoking manhole" problem in different parts of the city. Sodium Chloride used to melt snow is corroding electrician lines, according to Con Edison and this MIGHT be related to my electrical problem. Anyway, Con Edison says they won't send a technician here to make any inspections until the "smoking manhole" problem is taken care of first. I'm going to stop acting as if I'm a licensed electrician and just LET THE EXPERTS DO THEIR JOB!!!! FWIW, any professional is going to do that regardless of what you say, know, or think you know. Do you have a single main circuit breaker in this service, and if so, what make, size, and color is it? I have a black-colored 100-AMP double pole main circuit breaker, manufactured by "Murray Mfg. Corp." It's about L:2.5" *W:2" *H: 3" I had an incident with a Murray 150 amp main breaker that went bad. It was a similar situation to yours, and I couldn't find the fault. I had the utility company come out (NYSEG) and check the transformer connections and everything was good. The only thing I hadn't inspected was the main breaker, and only because it was cool to the touch. I've seen plenty of breakers burn up internally, but when this happens, they're always hot. Once I pulled the breaker, it was obvious that a bad connection with the panel buss annealed the buss metal and caused the flickering. Your particular main breaker is much smaller, so I'm sure it would have heated up noticeably, if it was the problem Thank you for the information. How did you treat the annealed buss metal? One time when I noticed flickering, I went to the circuit breaker box and touched all the breakers, but did not notice any heat. |
Electricity- flickering, brief outage
"Ray" wrote in message ... On Mar 11, 5:57 pm, "RBM" wrote: "Ray" wrote in message ... On Mar 11, 3:22 pm, "RBM" wrote: "Ray" wrote in message ... On Mar 10, 2:59 am, mm wrote: On Sun, 8 Mar 2009 15:16:35 -0700 (PDT), Toasty wrote: . I had an electrician tighten up connections in the circuit breaker box, but he did not remove any and reinstall any breakers. Could the problem be in a location in the box that is inaccessible unless the breakers are removed? I will have Con Edison (utility company) send a technician to inspect their electric meter. Why just the meter? Why just connections in the breaker box. Maybe you are omitting other things, but rather than direct your electrician and Con Edison so much, I would tell them your problem and ask them to solve it. Of course you shouldn't give the electrician a blank check, but 30 or 60 minutes to diagnose and tell you what he thinks is wrong and a price for the rest of the job would have been fair. How do you know for sure it is only your house. I have flickering lights a couple times a month. I'm sure it's the electric company's failing, and not in my house. The outages here shut down my computer sometimes. This has been too disruptive too often. I ask my next door neighbor if they noticed any flickering after it occurs here, but they have reported no such thing. I'm not certain that the problem is with only my house, though. You're probably right about my directing the electrician too much. Someone more aggressive might have suggested shutting off the power and inspecting the main breakers, etc. I ASSUMED that if he felt this necessary to diagnose the problem, he'd suggest it. Eh, I'll shut my mouth next time and just ask him to do whatever is necessary to find the source of trouble. Con Edison reported that no other customers in the area filed any complaints regarding flickering, outages. They did mention something about a "smoking manhole" problem in different parts of the city. Sodium Chloride used to melt snow is corroding electrician lines, according to Con Edison and this MIGHT be related to my electrical problem. Anyway, Con Edison says they won't send a technician here to make any inspections until the "smoking manhole" problem is taken care of first. I'm going to stop acting as if I'm a licensed electrician and just LET THE EXPERTS DO THEIR JOB!!!! FWIW, any professional is going to do that regardless of what you say, know, or think you know. Do you have a single main circuit breaker in this service, and if so, what make, size, and color is it? I have a black-colored 100-AMP double pole main circuit breaker, manufactured by "Murray Mfg. Corp." It's about L:2.5" W:2" H: 3" I had an incident with a Murray 150 amp main breaker that went bad. It was a similar situation to yours, and I couldn't find the fault. I had the utility company come out (NYSEG) and check the transformer connections and everything was good. The only thing I hadn't inspected was the main breaker, and only because it was cool to the touch. I've seen plenty of breakers burn up internally, but when this happens, they're always hot. Once I pulled the breaker, it was obvious that a bad connection with the panel buss annealed the buss metal and caused the flickering. Your particular main breaker is much smaller, so I'm sure it would have heated up noticeably, if it was the problem Thank you for the information. How did you treat the annealed buss metal? One time when I noticed flickering, I went to the circuit breaker box and touched all the breakers, but did not notice any heat. The time to check for this is when the flickering is occurring. If the bad connection is in the main breaker, touching your palm to the breaker should reveal the heat. You may also smell an acrid aroma, and hear hissing or sizzling. Of course none of this will show up until the breaker is really toast. If you remove the panel cover and expose the breaker, a visual check of the sides of the breaker may reveal discoloration or charring of the plastic. Most often when I've seen the style of breaker you have, go bad, it'll burn a hole through the side of the breaker. The buss was destroyed in the panel I described. I replaced the entire panel and breakers. I'll link pictures of the front of the breaker, which looks fine, the back of the breaker, where you can see one connection is copper colored, and the other is gray from overheating, and a picture of the section of annealed buss in the panel http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b9...ldamage006.jpg http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b9...ldamage008.jpg http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b9...ldamage005.jpg |
Electricity- flickering, brief outage
On Wed, 11 Mar 2009 10:12:26 -0700 (PDT), Ray
wrote: On Mar 10, 10:42*pm, mm wrote: On Tue, 10 Mar 2009 07:27:02 -0400, "RBM" wrote: "mm" wrote in message .. . On Sun, 8 Mar 2009 15:16:35 -0700 (PDT), Toasty wrote: . *I had an electrician tighten up connections in the circuit breaker box, but he did not remove any and reinstall any breakers. Could the problem be in a location in the box that is inaccessible unless the breakers are removed? I will have Con Edison (utility company) send a technician to inspect their electric meter. Why just the meter? *Why just connections in the breaker box. Maybe you are omitting other things, but rather than direct your electrician and Con Edison so much, I would tell them your problem and ask them to solve it. * Of course you shouldn't give the electrician a blank check, but 30 or 60 minutes to diagnose and tell you what he thinks is wrong and a price for the rest of the job would have been fair. How do you know for sure it is only your house. *I have flickering lights a couple times a month. *I'm sure it's the electric company's failing, and not in my house. The electrician can only check wiring and equipment he has access to. I know that. *Read my post. *Why *just* the connections in the breaker box? ConEdison will only check equipment that they have locks on, They have locks on more than the electric meter. and will only do that after the customer has hired an electrician to check everything else. Not if there has been complaints from more than one house run off, for example, the same transformer. The point was that, as phrased by the OP, he told both of them what to check. *The electric company will probably ignore him and check everything that needs to be checked, but the electician may well do no more than he is told to do. I asked the electrician to do whatever he feels necessary to find out the source of the problem. I also urged him to check specific areas. He uses his own judgment while keeping an open ear to my suggestions. Anyway, he'll be back to make a more thorough inspection. Con Edison will unlock the box. I told Con Edison to find out what's causing the trouble. I did not direct them to only inspect their electric meter. Oh, good. That's all I'm saying. I said you might have left out some of the details.. |
Electricity- flickering, brief outage
On Mar 11, 1:43*pm, Ray wrote:
On Mar 10, 2:59*am, mm wrote: On Sun, 8 Mar 2009 15:16:35 -0700 (PDT), Toasty wrote: . *I had an electrician tighten up connections in the circuit breaker box, but he did not remove any and reinstall any breakers. * Could the problem be in a location in the box that is inaccessible unless the breakers are removed? I will have Con Edison (utility company) send a technician to inspect their electric meter. Why just the meter? *Why just connections in the breaker box. Maybe you are omitting other things, but rather than direct your electrician and Con Edison so much, I would tell them your problem and ask them to solve it. * Of course you shouldn't give the electrician a blank check, but 30 or 60 minutes to diagnose and tell you what he thinks is wrong and a price for the rest of the job would have been fair. How do you know for sure it is only your house. *I have flickering lights a couple times a month. *I'm sure it's the electric company's failing, and not in my house. The outages here shut down my computer sometimes. *This has been too disruptive too often. I ask my next door neighbor if they noticed any flickering after it occurs here, but they have reported no such thing. *I'm not certain that the problem is with only my house, though. You're probably right about my directing the electrician too much. Someone more aggressive might have suggested shutting off the power and inspecting the main breakers, etc. *I ASSUMED that if he felt this necessary to diagnose the problem, he'd suggest it. *Eh, I'll shut my mouth next time and just ask him to do whatever is necessary to find the source of trouble. Con Edison reported that no other customers in the area filed any complaints regarding flickering, outages. *They did mention something about a "smoking manhole" problem in different parts of the city. Sodium Chloride used to melt snow is corroding electrician lines, according to Con Edison and this MIGHT be related to my electrical problem. *Anyway, Con Edison says they won't send a technician here to make any inspections until the "smoking manhole" problem is taken care of first. I'm going to stop acting as if I'm a licensed electrician and just LET THE EXPERTS DO THEIR JOB!!!!- Hide quoted text - - Show quoted text - i as an electrician appreciate any info i might get from my customer,cant tell you how many times something they say can lead you right to the problem. after my previous post i went on a service call, found a bad connection at the service,i replaced all 3 connections although only 1 was bad seems to of taken care of it. but it was all the same symptoms you described. |
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