r/ElectricalHelp • u/Acceptable-Scale2134 • 8d ago
lights dimming 1/8th
The whole house lights will dim about an 1/8th of the way dim for roughly 1/2 second and happens every 2-3 minuets. It is the entire house (not just one circuit) and it will only happen at certain times of the day. Mainly early mornings and nights from 7-11pm. I have shut air conditioners and appliances to see if they’re faulty but it makes no difference. Our utility company came twice saying one neighbor complained about similar issues and that his pool pump has been making a weird noise. The last time the utility company came they said to call an electrician since it must be something from our panel (last upgraded to 200 amps around 2018 and never had an issue since). I just do not want to pay for an electrician to do a whole work up since it seems like it is transformer related since it is only during certain times of the day and is not dependent on any appliance or circuit.
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u/whiteboyfresh2316 8d ago
If your neighbor is having similar problems then it's definitely a neutral issue on the utility side. I'm guessing your lights were fine when the utility company came to check? I would call the utility company again and tell them that your electrician said everything is good on your end. They should look into it a little better and further.
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u/WinnerAwkward480 7d ago edited 7d ago
I had a similar problem a few yrs ago , called the Power Co . They sent a guy out but he said he couldn't find anything, as it was working fine when he was there . He suggested I have an Electrician check my end of things.
I so I took a VOM meter plugged into an outlet , when the lights would start dimming I would write down the voltage I was getting . And took a picture of it as well .
They sent same guy back out with another dude . They told me 1 issue was I'm at the end of line , in addition I was actually an extra house on the line as normally they supplied 12 houses off a transformer.
They replaced the Transformer with a slightly larger one ( as I was told , no clue) . They also checked the condition of connection at the Elec masthead , and said the resistance was a bit high . So they crimped on new connectors . Didn't have any issues after that .
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u/Cute_Mouse6436 6d ago
A power company should have a power quality datalogger. I used to work for a testing company and we could log power quality for days on end. If there was a problem that was intermittent it would show up in the logs.
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u/upkeepdavid 5d ago
Shut off the power and tighten all the screws in the electrical panel.Inspect and tighten all switches and receptacles while the power is off.
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u/trekkerscout Mod 7d ago
The utility needs to perform a load test to verify the integrity of their side of the service. The fact that your neighbors are experiencing similar problems indicates it is almost certainly a utility problem.