FLICKERING lights in different parts of my home

16 years ago

ANY HELP IS APPRECIATED!!!

I live in a smaller one story home (3 bd/2 ba) and the last few weeks I have noticed a problem with flickering lights in my living room. We have a combo fan/light mounted on the ceiling, and it has flickered on and off for about 2 weeks. Just today the light went out completely then went back on several times, along with the (1)hallway lights, (2) our computer, (3) the refrigerator, (4) the dishwasher, (5) the dryer and (6) light outside the front door. All of these areas either share a breaker switch or use their own (a total of 4 switches are involved). The flickering goes off and on unexpectedly and usually does not last that long. Other lights stay on and are unaffected by this flickering.

In addition, my kids have seen lights go off and on in one bathroom and another bedroom, though this has been seen only occasionally. I guess I am concerned that there is some type of growing problem.

One other point: my ceiling has a tiny crawl space, if that, between the roof and the ceiling. This is a flat roof house with a stucco wall all around roofline, and I have never been able to find a plate or panel to look into this space. I just hope that a rat or something didn't get in that small space and chew on a wire!!! I shudder to think that there could be a wire chewed on somewhere between the ceiling and roof, in a place somewhere I probably do not think I can reach.

Any advice is much appreciated. What can I reasonably do, with caution, on my own and what would need an electrician? Thank you in advance.

Featured Answer

kudzu9

3 years ago

Justin-

I think the poltergeists moved on 8 years ago....

Comments (6)

billhart
16 years ago
Flickering on about half of the circuits in the house with the other half unaffected probably means a bad connection in the path from the utility through the meter into the breaker panel. There are two legs with 120 volts each (240 between them) and one hot plus the neutral are solid while the other hot is not.

If the wiring coming to the house is overhead you could look to see if there is any sign of something coming loose or overheating. Don't play with this wiring or the main connections in the breaker panel yourself. This is not an area for amateurs to dig into because of the huge (really huge) currents that are available here with no way for you to shut them off.

I'd get an electrician to look over your part of the wiring and if he doesn't find anything then the utility needs to check their part.
joed
16 years ago
Call the POCO first. They usually don't charge for this service and the problem is very often on their side. Save the charge for an electrician.

Call them ASAP.
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jamkris99
12 years ago
This exact same thing is happening at my house, as i type! I am in the living room, this room's wiring is not affected but the kitchen is flickering and going off and on like crazy...wind is blowing outside and hubby has discovered it has something to do with electrical pole across the road. we called electric company and they came out and checked where the wiring is attached to the house, no flickering there...but when hubby goes out and shakes their pole...all hell breaks loose! When they came to check the pole, the guy didn't even go up there, and told my husband to stop shaking the pole...yet nothing has been done to fix this...guess he will be calling them today and stirring up a stink...i believe this on / off crap could damage our appliances and such. Funny, nothing flickered last night during storm with 50 plus mph winds...go figure....
Justin Case
3 years ago
Poltergeist...... move immediately and hope none follow

FLICKERING lights in different parts of my home

kudzu9

Comments (6)

billhart

joed

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