Re: Electricity- flickering, brief outage


"Ray" <ray_moch_email@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:f73382b2-42ec-4b9a-9548-548f18c58bbc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
On Mar 10, 8:53 pm, "gore" <gorehoundrem...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
"Toasty" <ray_moch_em...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message

news:0e1ad942-d664-44d0-abdc-9cf70eb95b6b@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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 pissed 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.


.

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